SD Worx-Protime Confirm The 2026 Vuelta Femenina Roster — Anna Van Der Breggen Leads For The Podium, Wiebes And Kopecky Both Skip In Favour Of The Tour De Suisse Women Build
Wednesday afternoon Schiedam. SD Worx-Protime closed the women's WorldTour-leader bracket of pre-Vuelta Femenina rosters on Wednesday afternoon with a deliberately climber-heavy seven built entirely around Anna van der Breggen. Sports director Christian Kos to the team's news service: "the Spanish leg is an intermediate stage for us, building towards the big goals this summer. With Anna, we have a good card for the GC. The overall victory will probably be too high — but we will fight for the podium." The seven: van der Breggen, Mikayla Harvey, Femke Gerritse, Mischa Bredewold, Femke Markus, Elena Cecchini, and Belgian neo-pro Lisa Van Belle.
Van der Breggen anchors the GC. The 2025 Vuelta Femenina podium finisher (third overall to Vollering and Ferrand-Prévot, 1'48'' down) has had the cleanest spring of her second professional career: 5th at Strade Bianche, 4th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, and 6th overall at the Volta a Catalunya Féminas. The team's internal Stage 7 model returns van der Breggen at +0:54 on Vollering on the 12.4km Angliru summit at the team's pre-camp Sierra Nevada power data — closer than the 1'48'' margin from 2025 but still well outside the yellow jersey window. The podium is the realistic ceiling.
The Wiebes and Kopecky absences are the calendar headlines. Both will skip the Vuelta Femenina entirely. Wiebes is preparing for the Tour de Suisse Women (12-15 June) and the post-Suisse Giro Donne sprint stages; Kopecky races RideLondon Classique on the same weekend before her national-championship build. Kos: "Lorena and Lotte have very different schedules this summer — both are riding the Tour de France Femmes and the Tour of Suisse, and that is the priority. Anna leads in Spain. The seven we have selected are all 100% in service of the GC card." The decision pushes the SD Worx-Protime team line out to 5/1 for stage-or-better — the longest the team have been priced going into a Grand Tour since 2021.
Harvey is the explicit climbing lieutenant. The New Zealand national champion was the team's third climber on the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, finishing 11th overall, and she has spent the last three weeks at the team's Calpe altitude block alongside van der Breggen. Kos has the New Zealander explicitly tasked with the Stage 6 Les Praeres ramp (4km/13.5%, summit 24 hours before the Angliru) — the team's expectation is that Harvey shells the chase pack at 4km to go and delivers van der Breggen to the final 1.5km solo. Gerritse is the Stage 5 (Cangas de Onís) and Stage 6 (Les Praeres) puncheur option for the team's secondary stage hunt.
Bredewold is the breakaway specialist on Stages 2 and 4. The Dutch national champion finished second overall at the Itzulia Women earlier this month and has the third-best 30-minute power score in the team after van der Breggen and Harvey. Markus and Cecchini are the rouleurs for the Stage 1 lead-out (with Sara Vanlerberghe as the late-stage echelon driver) and Stage 3 (the Sigüenza puncheur day). Van Belle, on her Grand Tour debut, has been integrated as a fetcher-and-carrier for the first four flat-to-rolling stages.
The bookmakers reacted to the announcement on a thirty-minute lag. Van der Breggen shortened from 9/1 to 8/1 outright on the news that Harvey was confirmed alongside her — the third-shortest GC card behind Vollering (4/9) and Ferrand-Prévot (7/2). The team line for stage-or-better drifted on confirmation that Wiebes and Kopecky were absent, settling at 5/1 by the close of trading. The team line for the Stage 6 win is 4/1 with Harvey-or-Gerritse named riders — second-favourite behind Vollering's 5/2 over the same ramp.
The seven leave Schiedam by team bus on Friday morning, transferring to the Marín hotel hub on Saturday afternoon ahead of Sunday's 13:30 CEST flag drop. Van der Breggen is scheduled for the team's pre-race Saturday-evening press conference alongside Kos. The 819.5km Vuelta Femenina 2026 finishes on top of the Alto de l'Angliru on Saturday 9 May; the 12.4km, 10% average climb to the Cueña les Cabres ramps is the explicit defining test. Vollering remains 4/9 outright. SD Worx-Protime's stated objective: the third step of the podium for van der Breggen and a stage win for the seven on either Stage 5 or Stage 6.