The leap to the pros: These top talents will be competing in the Women’s WorldTour from 2027

On 20 September 2020, in Koksijde on the Belgian coast, a 15-year-old girl lined up at the start of a cycle race for the first time in her life. It was, of all things, the Belgian Championship. Just a few days earlier, Emma Siegers had asked for a licence for the very first time. After the first lap, she lost contact with the peloton and did not finish the race. Six years later, she signed a WorldTour contract.

Siegers’ journey is unusual, but she is by no means an exception in this year’s cohort. Among the young female riders who will move up from Development and Continental teams to the top flight in 2027, there are two former musicians, the daughter of a Paris–Roubaix winner, a teenager who is simply skipping the U23 category, a Norwegian who rode her first road race two years ago, and a Slovakian who took a detour via Poland. They have only one thing in common: their teams are buying potential, not a finished product.

Anja Grossmann: A quick entry into the Women’s WorldTour

For Anja Grossmann, it was never a question of whether she would turn professional, but when and where. Her future employer was one of the hot topics of conversation in women’s cycling throughout the summer. Many saw her as the greatest talent on the market and a future Grand Tour contender. FDJ United-Suez secured her signature. The 17-year-old Swiss rider is skipping the U23 category and will ride as a professional from 2027.

The Lucerne native is hard to pin down to just one discipline. In cyclo-cross, she became European champion in her first year as a junior; on a mountain bike, she is the reigning European and world champion in cross-country. On the road, she won a World Championship bronze medal in Kigali three weeks before her 17th birthday, whilst still in the middle of a business apprenticeship. Her second bronze medal followed in Montréal in 2026, behind Alejandra Neira and Matilde Rossignoli.

There is a tragic story behind Kigali’s medal. A year earlier, her team-mate Muriel Furrer had been killed in a crash in the same World Championships race in Zurich. Grossmann hadn’t competed in that race, but she and Furrer had both come through Swiss Cycling’s youth programme. She said afterwards that just standing on the starting line and getting her head in the right place had taken a lot of effort. She said she’d been racing for her friend.

The 2025 Cyclo-cross World Championships showed that Grossmann is hard on herself even when she loses. Finishing fourth, she was in tears during her interview, having dreamt of winning the title. At FDJ, she will now be joining her role model: she describes Demi Vollering as her greatest idol. As well as competing in the Women’s WorldTour, she is set to continue racing in cyclo-cross there, with the new Specialized TMRW team.

A name that leads the way: Fee Knaven

Whilst Grossmann epitomises the ‘wunderkind’ path, Fee Knaven is the antithesis of that, even though she is competing as the best-known name in this age group. Her father, Servais, won Paris–Roubaix; her mother was a four-time Dutch cyclo-cross champion; and her three sisters have also competed in races. She herself has been cycling since the age of six.

Nevertheless, the 19-year-old doesn’t sound like someone who has already found her niche. She is still searching, says Knaven; at the moment, she prefers to ride stage races featuring a time trial and shorter climbs. She is determined to improve her time trial performance. She’s already made a start: In the opening time trial of the Vuelta a Extremadura, she finished eighth against WorldTour competition, 44 seconds behind Zoe Bäckstedt. From 2027, she will ride for Human Powered Health. Team manager Ro De Jonckere emphasises that they want to provide her with the right environment without putting unnecessary pressure on her.

Guitar instead of a gruppetto: Emma Siegers

Back to Emma Siegers. The Belgian grew up in Jupille, near Rendeux, in the Ardennes. Her parents had moved there from Brussels; cycling had long been a family tradition, but only for pleasure. After a climb up Mont Ventoux, she decided to test herself in competition. At school, she’d chosen to specialise in guitar. Nevertheless, she remained firm with her music teacher: she wanted to become a professional cyclist. At 16, she was training six days a week and, after just over half a year, had already clocked up over 7,000 kilometres.

She completed the rest of her development with AG Insurance-Soudal, her junior team. She made her breakthrough in 2026 in Portugal: on the second stage of the Volta a Portugal Feminina, she secured her first professional victory with a solo breakaway, after which she took the Yellow Jersey. A crash on stage four cost her the overall lead. She eventually finished sixth, missing out on the young rider classification by three seconds. We are likely to be hearing a great deal more about this talented climber in the Women’s WorldTour in the coming years.

From the drums to time trials: Silje Weitze Antvorskov

Siegers isn’t the only musician in this age group. Before her cycling career, Silje Weitze Antvorskov spent a lot of time playing music, including the drums. Four years ago, she took up cycling because she wanted to find out how far she could go in an endurance sport.

The answer is clearer than she probably expected herself. In 2026, the Danish rider finished second in the national road championship and third in the time trial – both against the elite field – as well as 13th in the U23 time trial at the World Championships. She also won the U23 road title in Denmark. At the Rás na mBan in Ireland, wearing the jersey of her club team FRIIS, she won a stage and took the overall lead. And she’s not afraid to take risks: at the Copenhagen Sprint, riding for the national team, she attacked from the peloton around 25 kilometres from the finish and held the lead on her own for about ten kilometres.

From 2027, she will be riding for Uno-X Mobility in the Women’s WorldTour. At the moment, she is primarily a time-trialist, says Antvorskov, but she is still fairly new to cycling and could develop in many different directions. Anna Badegruber, Head of Sports, also sees her competing in the classics, in the sprint train and as a domestique who gets the team leaders into position in the medium term.

A logical path to the Women’s WorldTour: Oda Aune Gissinger

Joining the same team is a rider whose rise to prominence has been even more meteoric. Oda Aune Gissinger competed in her first road race in 2024. A year later, as a junior, she won the Tour de l’Abitibi, including two stages, triumphed at the GP Plouay and claimed bronze in the time trial at the World Championships in Kigali. She herself describes the World Championship medal and her contract with Uno-X as the two biggest surprises of her young career.

Things continued in much the same vein in 2026 with the Continental team Hitec Products-Fluid Control. She won stages in Vietnam and at the Tour de Feminin; on her WorldTour debut in Burgos, she rode for almost 110 kilometres in the breakaway group and claimed the mountains jersey. She finished eighth in the U23 time trial at the World Championships in Montréal. Almost as an afterthought, she won the inaugural L’Étape Trondheim, finishing more than 13 minutes ahead of the runner-up.

The 19-year-old isn’t ready to settle on a specific role just yet. She says she wants to make a name for herself as a rider who takes risks. She rarely turns down the chance to join a breakaway group, but she also wants to test her sprinting and climbing abilities. Uno-X is giving her plenty of time to do just that: her contract runs until the end of 2030. Gissinger says she has been following the team since before she even started cycling. Uno-X is thus signing two riders who, between them, have only around six years’ racing experience, both with a knack for time trials.

The Detour via Wrocław: Sofia Ungerová

Sofia Ungerová has taken the most traditional route, though even that was far from straightforward. The Slovakian has been competing intensively in cyclo-cross since her junior days, including World Cups and European Championships. Last winter, she finished as Slovakian runner-up. On the road, she spent a long time in the shadow of her compatriot Viktória Chladoňová. At the 2026 U23 European Championships in Slovenia, Chladoňová took bronze, whilst Ungerová finished 14th.

She earned her place in the Women’s WorldTour from 2027 onwards away from the limelight, riding for the Polish Continental team MAT Atom Deweloper Wrocław. In 2026, that paid off. At the Gracia in the Czech Republic, she won the final stage and finished third overall. Two weeks later, she achieved the same overall position at the Tour de Feminin. It was there, of all places – in Northern Bohemia – that three of the six future WorldTour newcomers were racing in the same field: Antvorskov was also on the start line, whilst Gissinger claimed a stage victory. Ungerová showed in Thuringia that she can hold her own even against stronger competition. In her first Pro race featuring WorldTour teams, she finished eighth and was the best young rider.

A season without time pressure on the Women’s WorldTour?

Contracts running until 2028, 2029 and 2030, and team managers who speak in almost identical terms about years of development and patience: that is perhaps the real story behind these six transfers. The Women’s WorldTour teams are no longer relying on fully-fledged riders coming through from the U23 ranks. They’re recruiting them earlier – from cyclo-cross, from small club teams and, as in the case of Siegers and Antvorskov, from music rooms.

It is safe to assume that all six will be left behind more often in their first year as professionals than they have been so far. Let’s hope that the young riders are given enough time to develop, even at professional level.