Transfer season: 5 global women's transfers I want to see
5 riders who deserve big opportunities next season
Transfer season is now in full swing. The big moves are already being announced.
If we’re ever going to see professional cycling become a truly diverse sport, teams need to take a chance on riders from under-represented nations when they show talent. There is no other pipeline to the top.
Here’s five riders in the women’s peloton who have shown some real potential this year and deserve a shot at the big-time.
Yanina Kuskova, 22, Uzbekistan
Suggested 2025 team: UAE Team ADQ
Whatever you thought of Tashkent City Women PCT at the Tour de France Femmes, one rider showed herself to be worthy of her place at the top level of the sport.
In 2024, Yanina Kuskova has ridden and finished the Tour Down Under, UAE Tour, Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes. All for a team with minimal support and a skeleton staff. She completed half of the Tour as the only remaining rider from Tashkent.
Kuskova has also won the Tour of Bostonliq this season, was 6th at the Tour of the Gila, 5th at GP de Plumelec-Morbihan and scored an excellent 20th at the WorldTour Deekin University Road Race in January.
This tall, diesel-powered climber is no joke, even if her Tashkent team were taken as such at the Tour. Kuskova is a genuine world-level prospect, a rough diamond who has had little in the way of top-level coaching so far. With her results, the only reason you wouldn’t consider signing her would be because of her nationality.
Tashkent won’t be around at the WorldTour level next year. In all likelihood they may never return. Let’s hope we don’t lose this talented rider. She deserves a big opportunity.
Fariba Hashimi, 21, Afghanistan
Suggested 2025 team: Lidl-Trek
If you watched the Olympic Road Race in Paris, you will know why Fariba Hashimi is so highly-rated. The Afghan rider was the strongest from the breakaway that day, bridging over to it and dropping everyone as the race entered the closing stages.
Fariba and her sister, Yulduz, have an inspiring story. They fled Afghanistan fearing persecution from the Taliban, pursuing their dreams in cycling. This year they are based in Switzerland at the UCI World Cycling Centre, racing around Europe for their women’s team. Younger sister Fariba has had something of a breakout season and has a big future in the sport.
Last week, Hashimi raced the women’s Tour de l’Avenir, greatly impressing across the four stages and finishing in 8th place overall. Having watched Hashimi, I don’t think her greatest strength is in the mountains. In my opinion, she is more suited to an Amstel Gold-type parcours, making this result even more poignant.
This year she has also placed 10th in the Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa, going well on both mountain stages. It’s been a remarkable first full season of European racing. Fariba Hashimi has much still to learn, but any team willing to develop her could have a top-level talent on their hands, as well as a story to be a part of.
Adiam Mengs, 22, Eritrea
Suggested 2025 team: Canyon//SRAM Generation
The sad reality is that women in Africa don’t get a lot of opportunities to race at the UCI level. Adiam Mengs has been one of the strongest Eritrean riders, and one of the strongest in Africa, for a couple of years now. The problem is we only get to see her at the National and Continental Championships.
Three times Mengs has been second at the Eritrean National Champs, the first was when she was just 18. Her biggest result so far is winning the African Continental TTT championships in 2022, defeating a Mauritius squad that contained Kim Le Court. In March of this year, she took part in the African Games in Ghana. She won the TTT, was 3rd in the Mixed Relay, 5th in the ITT, 6th in the Criterium and 7th in the Road Race - a decent week’s work.
Mengs is one of a number of young African talents to have been selected to train with the World Cycling Centre in South Africa over the last few years. She travelled to South Africa in 2022 and won stage 2 the Tour du Cap, the nation’s biggest stage race.
The truth is, Mengs would be a huge gamble to any European team given her lack of European racing experience and Eritrea’s common visa problems. It’s high risk, but there could also be high reward.
Anika Visser, 19, South Africa
Suggested 2025 team: AG Insurance-Soudal U23
Anika Visser is a rising star, but not in cycling. The teenager is South Africa’s biggest talent in triathlon and is African junior champion and a three-time national champion.
For now her focus is split across three sports, but whenever she takes a brief foray into the world of cycling, she shows genuine talent. She completed 2023’s tricky World Championships in Glasgow, finishing 63rd in her first major race. This was after dominating the South African junior championships a few months earlier.
This season, Visser became the under-23 South African TT champion, beating European-based Lize-Ann Louw. She has also had top-10s in the elite national championships road race, and the African Games TT and Criterium.
This is all pure speculation, but with the recent adoption of minimum wages in the women’s peloton, it could tempt athletes like Visser into going full-time on the road. South African cycling needs a successor to Moolman Pasio. Could it be a triathlete?
Read more: 6 undiscovered African cycling talents
Romina Hinojosa Cruz, 21, Mexico
Suggested 2025 team: Eneicat-CM Team
This young Mexican put in a solid ride at last week’s Tour de l’Avenir, placing 12th on GC with two 6th places in the final two mountain stages. Last year we saw one Mexican starlet arise at the Tour de l’Avenir in Isaac del Toro. Here’s the next one.
Hinojosa Cruz has raced the entire season in Europe with the same team that also developed Del Toro, the San Marino based A.R.Monex. She’s had a solid year, with top-5 stage placings in UCI 2.2 races - the Tour de Feminin and Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa. Her l’Avenir result was a marked improvement on last year when she finished 69th overall.
The 21-year-old looks like a solid climber who is taking to the roads of Europe well. She could be worth a shot for a Spanish-speaking UCI Women team.
Do you agree with these? What transfers do you hope to see for 2025?
Men’s transfers will be coming later this week
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Biggest challenge - culture.fittting in with team, living in strange land..loneliness..and being the token signed for difference vs performance and thus creating friction in peleton with lousy living wages..South Africans, Mexicans..yes..the rest sadly not yet