Outwardly, the benefits of winning a race like the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift are clear. When Kasia Niewiadoma took the yellow jersey earlier this year, the Polish rider’s face on the top step of the podium was plastered over all major news outlets. The logos of her key sponsors, Canyon, Zwift and SRAM, were front and centre as cameras flashed and interviews were given – these brands were getting what they paid for in plenty of exposure. Behind closed doors, from a financial and sponsorship perspective, the impact of a Tour win is perhaps even greater.
As long-time Canyon//SRAM team manager Ronny Lauke explains, the interest in Neiwiadoma’s Tour win has been transformational for his team in terms of acquiring new sponsors and securing the future of the German squad.
“It was a new level of interest and curiosity of what we are doing, which was definitely a challenge for us to be on all those calls and answer media requests. But in the end it’s a feeling of overwhelming pride and it gives our team a lot of public credibility,” Lauke says. “The Tour de France is the strongest global brand in our sport and people can relate to the event at the highest level possible, which has made a huge difference on how the team is seen.”
Canyon//SRAM recently announced that they will have a new title sponsor for 2025 in Zondacrypto, one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest regulated cryptocurrency exchange marketplaces. This is the first time that a cryptocurrency company has been involved in women’s cycling, though not the first time the sport has seen a crypto platform come on board as a sponsor. In 2022, men’s WorldTour team Qhubeka-NextHash was abandoned by its cryptocurrency sponsor and forced to use its bank guarantee to pay rider and staff wages after NextHash was unable to afford its side of the partnership. Lauke is adamant that his team’s deal with Zondacrypto will be a successful one, however.
“The financial demand and pressure is growing every year. We have strong and solid partners, but the levels that we are reaching, we had to seek additional support for additional income sources,” Lauke says. “We also had to identify potential companies that want an advertising platform, and see advertising value in being part of Canyon//SRAM. We started the conversation with Zondacrypto earlier this year and within the last 10 days it really accelerated and led to a contract for the coming three years. It’s the modern times on the financial side so it’s a new chapter for us and certainly very interesting.”
Lauke points to the rise of Esports as an example of when his team have successfully been pioneers in the past: “We were the first in our sport, with adding Zwift as a partner when nobody believed in cycling Esports, we got a lot of funny comments at the very beginning, but now it’s everywhere. Again, we’re movers with having a crypto platform as a partner and I’m pretty sure it’s something we’ll see more of in the future.”
Women's WorldTour teams are being forced to find bigger budgets as like the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift have accelerated the growth of the women’s side of the sport. Lauke points out that the attention the race has generated as a key vehicle for driving change in the sport.
“Since this race, the rider salaries have exploded. The demand on infrastructure has exploded. This is a lighthouse event in our sport and with it, everything has changed drastically,” he says. “We first operated in 2016 and to give you a comparison, we now have a ten times higher budget in 2025 than we did in our first year. You need more staff members, support staff, detailed care, recruitment and everything has become more expensive and demanding. The UCI regulations have become much more particular, while no additional income sources have been created. That’s the biggest challenge so far.”
Niewiadoma’s historic Tour win came in her contract year with Canyon//SRAM, meaning Lauke and his team also had the task of retaining the Polish rider as her market value skyrocketed. The 47-year-old explains that transparency and honesty were integral in negotiations with the yellow jersey winner – taking a “human” approach when discussing Niewiadoma’s future.
“We've worked with Kasia for many years, and every time when the contract has expired in the past, we had an open conversation about it with Kasia and myself and more recently there’s been an agent involved on her side too,” Lauke says. “It was always a straightforward and transparent conversation where she said she liked it on our team but wanted to see what else the market offered. She got the time that she needed to do that and ask around and overall decided to go with us. I believe we have the overall package and treat her as a human, not necessarily a high-performance athlete or a robot. That’s probably one of the most critical reasons why she decided to stay here.”
While Niewiadoma will remain with her current team, next season will see an unprecedented number of changes in the women’s peloton, notably with Demi Vollering leaving SD Worx-Protime to join FDJ-Suez. Elsewhere, the likes of Niamh Fisher Black, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Elisa Longo-Borghini are other big names on the move.
“I expect a different dynamic in the peloton next season with all the changes. It’s too early to make a forecast on who will be dominant but I can’t remember when I have ever seen such a dynamic in the transfer market in the last five to eight years. I’m surprised how many have changed teams and are looking for a new home – the quality of riders is now spread between various teams more easily. There's more teams than in the past who have a competitive budget so they are more even,” Lauke says.
Having the best general classification riders spread out among a wide range of teams will undoubtedly make next season’s racing more competitive than ever. For Canyon//SRAM, defending their Tour de France Femmes title is going to be a tall order, but Lauke says that the recently-revealed 2025 race route is well-suited to Niewiadoma.
“Overall, I think it offers quite a variation, lots of qualities are needed in order to perform well. We are happy with the outcome, the sports directors are happy, the coaches are happy and Kasia is happy,” he states.
“When you are defending champion of a race like that, I can't see pressure on our side. I feel it will unleash additional energy from the riders, because they know how it feels, what it brings to the group in terms of emotions and how much closer a team gets when they have fought for it and finally earn the merits at the end of the event. It gives them extra wings.”
With the increased budget thanks to new sponsors, the confidence that winning the yellow jersey has given them and the signings they have made ahead of 2025, Lauke believes Canyon//SRAM are firmly on the right track to continue their success. While women’s cycling is developing at an eye-wateringly fast pace, both literally and figuratively, the German team is certainly keeping up with the rate of change.
“We want to remain the stone in the shoe for any other competitor, be the uncomfortable team you don’t really want to race against,” Lauke says. “We also need to develop our confidence, race smart and have a few more victories so next year is even better.”
