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Vuelta Femenina

Visma-Lease a Bike Confirm Vuelta Femenina 2026 Roster — Pauline Ferrand-Prévot Returns To Grand Tour Racing For The First Time Since The 2025 Tour De France Femmes

CYCLING LOOKOUT • 29 APRIL 2026

Wednesday lunchtime Amsterdam. Visma-Lease a Bike have confirmed their seven-rider line-up for the 2026 Vuelta Femenina, the team's first stage-race start with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot as a Grand Tour leader and the Frenchwoman's first Grand Tour start since she won the 2025 Tour de France Femmes back in August. Marianne Vos heads the support cast alongside Anna Henderson, Riejanne Markus, Imogen Wolff, Puck Pieterse on her women's WorldTour Grand Tour debut, and South African climber Carla Oberholzer who joined from AG Insurance-Soudal in October. Sports director Lars Boom takes the team car for the first time at a women's Grand Tour after his March promotion from junior development.

The hierarchy is the most clearly defined the team has set out at any women's Grand Tour. Boom told the Amsterdam media call that the seven riders are "in absolute service of Pauline" through the seven-stage Galicia-to-Asturias route, with the only on-the-road autonomy reserved for Vos on the punchier transitional stages where a sprint finish is on the cards. "We are not chasing stages off the back of opportunism — Pauline is here for the GC and the team is built for that one job."

For Ferrand-Prévot, the Vuelta marks the on-ramp back into Grand Tour racing after a deliberate eight-month off-Grand-Tour block. The 2025 Tour de France Femmes winner has raced selectively across the spring — fourth at Strade Bianche, second at Amstel Gold behind Demi Vollering, third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Sunday's race that Vollering won for a record third time — and the Spanish race is the first GC objective of her 2026 calendar. The bookmakers price her at 7/2 outright to Vollering's 4/9, the second-shortest price in the field.

The team's tactical intent is clear from the make-up of the line-up. Pieterse and Wolff carry the mountain-domestique workload through Stage 4's Cerler mid-mountain finish and Stage 6's Les Praeres summit on Saturday 8 May, with Henderson and Markus the rouleur support across the flatter early stages and the Stage 1 Marín-Salvaterra de Miño punchy finish in Galicia on Sunday 3 May. Oberholzer is the climbing co-pilot for the Stage 7 Angliru showdown — the women's debut on the 12.4km, 9.7 per cent climb with the Cueña les Cabres ramps at 23.5 per cent.

The route's opening stage is unusual for a Grand Tour and has informed the line-up. For the first time since 2023 the Vuelta Femenina opens with a regular road stage rather than a team time trial — the 113.9km Marín-Salvaterra de Miño has two mid-race climbs and an uphill kicker to the line at 1.6km at 4.8 per cent — meaning Visma have not had to commit any TT specialists to the opening day. Henderson, the team's strongest TTT rider, is freed up for general support across the week instead.

Vos's role is the most interesting on the sheet. The 38-year-old has been pencilled in for opportunism on Stages 2, 3 and 5 — the rolling transitional days that suit her finishing kick — and team management have made it clear that any sprint card she plays will be on the proviso that the GC is not exposed. "Marianne knows the rules better than anyone in the peloton," Boom said. "If she sees a stage win on offer and the GC is not at risk, we take it."

The wider context for Visma is that the Vuelta is the first stage-race rehearsal for the Tour de France Femmes title defence in August, where Ferrand-Prévot will look to become the first rider since Annemiek van Vleuten in 2023 to repeat at the women's Tour. The team have built the spring around protecting her one-day form and easing her into Grand Tour rhythm, and the Spanish race is the moment that approach gets its first real test against Vollering.

Visma travel to Spain on Friday for two days of pre-race reconnaissance in Galicia and the Asturian double-header. The opening road-stage format means a Stage 1 schedule that opens with a 30-minute neutralised roll-out from Marín harbour at 13:30 CEST on Sunday — Vollering and Ferrand-Prévot the two riders to watch up the Salvaterra de Miño kicker, with Reusser and Labous the most credible spoilers from outside the top two outright prices.

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