Italian Martina Fidanza was seen as “an ideal match” for Visma-Lease a Bike and signed the younger sprinter to a two-year contract. Fidanza has spent the previous three seasons with Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling and can transfer to the Dutch Women’s WorldTour squad to start out 2025.
The 24-year-old gained back-to-back levels at Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour this season, holding off seasoned veterans like Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) and Tiffany Cromwell (Cayon-SRAM) in bunch sprints. She additionally had three podiums in one-day races in late spring, together with a win on the GP Mazda Schelkens.
Fidanza is a confirmed winner on the monitor, having gained junior World titles for Italy in Team Pursuit and Scratch races, and has two elite ladies’s World titles in Scratch and one in Team Pursuit.
“Martina has already achieved some good outcomes. We imagine that we are able to develop her right into a sprinter able to competing with the very best within the WorldTour. We rigorously analyzed the place we wanted reinforcements throughout the staff within the quick time period, and Martina was the right match,” stated Rutger Tijssen, staff supervisor, in a press launch. “The plan is for her to type our sprinting duo with Nienke (Veenhoven) subsequent season.”
Veenhoven is a 20-year-old Dutch sprinter who joined the Visma staff in 2023 and showcased her pace on the Women’s Down Under Criterium with a victory plus a number of top-5s at one-day races together with Egmont Cycling Race and Konvert Koerse.
Fidanza stated she needed to develop with the powerhouse staff for extra frequent journeys to the rostrum, but in addition study from skilled, multi-discipline teammates, particularly Marianne Vos, who will journey a fifth yr with Visma in 2025, and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who transitions from a mountain bike focus again to a full highway programme subsequent yr.
“This is a dream come true. I’m tremendous proud to be a part of Team Visma-Lease a Bike subsequent season as a result of I think about it among the best groups on the earth. In addition, I significantly admire the staff’s strategy,” Fidanza stated in a Visma-Lease a Bike assertion.
“With Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, I can be racing with two nice champions. I anticipate to study rather a lot from them and I need to give them the absolute best assist in races. Furthermore, I need to present over the subsequent two seasons that I should be a part of this staff.
“I hope I get to have a good time many extra wins within the coming seasons, however my final purpose is to win a WorldTour race.”
In her first season at Ceratizit-WNT in 2022, the younger Italian was a part of three Women’s WorldTour occasions, finishing her first Giro d’Italia Donne after two different appearances, and had a robust end with ninth on the ultimate stage in Padova. In 2023 she got here near that WorldTour victory, ending second on stage 2 and third on stage 3 at Tour of Chongming Island.
Her older sister, Arianna Fidanza, at the moment rides for the Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling staff, however doesn’t have a contract for 2025.
