Marianne Vos has reportedly signed a two-year contract with the new Jumbo-Visma women's team that begins in 2021, according to the Dutch news outlet AD Wednesday.
The Dutch website Cycling Opinions reported last week that Jumbo-Visma would create a women's team for 2021, and they were looking to sign Vos and current road race world champion Annemiek van Vleuten as team leaders.
Jumbo-Visma have developed from the former Rabobank team or which Vos was a member for nearly five seasons (2012-2016).
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Cycling Opinions, also reported that the Jumbo supermarket chain was interested in creating a women's squad, with support from expected new bike sponsor Cérvelo, who are due to replace Bianchi.
Team manager Richard Plugge has identified Esra Tromp of the Parkhotel Valkenburg to lead the women's project, while it was reported that Martin Vestby, who currently directs the women's Mitchelton-Scott team, is expected to sign onboard as directeur sportif.
The news of Jumbo-Visma creating a women's team first surfaced in January with initial links to Boels Dolmans, that at the time were in search of new title sponsors. However, Danny Stam laid rumours to rest when he signed on SD Worx as their title sponsor for the next four years. He also confirmed to Cyclingnews that he was not in negotiations with Jumbo-Visma and that the team had no intention of signing alongside a men's WorldTeam.
Vos' professional cycling career spans 14 years and 12 world championship titles across three disciplines: road, cyclo-cross and track. Last year alone, she won 19 races, some of which contributed to her overall victory at the 2019 UCI Women's WorldTour. It was one of her strongest seasons since returning from a hiatus in 2016.
Vos started racing professionally for the Team DSB - Ballast Nedam in 2006, the year she won her first elite women's road race world title in Salzburg. She has gone on to race for teams Nederland bloeit, Rabobank Women Team, along with WM3 Energie, WaowDeals Pro Cycling and now CCC-Liv.
CCC-Liv has faced uncertainty this year when co-title sponsor CCC decided to end its sponsorship of the men's WorldTour team. Concern then shifted to the women's programme with questions about whether the Polish footwear company would continue as title sponsor.
The teams are two separate entities, and a spokesperson for CCC-Liv has assured media that sponsorship contracts have been paid and are fully up-to-date, and that the team is looking forward to continued racing and the restart of the Women's WorldTour. Although the future of the team remains unclear, at the moment, there are past connections to Jumbo-Visma as some of the riders and staff stemmed from the former Rabobank programme.
CCC-Liv recently hired Tour de France stage winner and former cyclo-cross world champion Lars Boom as performance manager with an eye towards the first women's Paris-Roubaix in October. Boom raced for Rabobank and Belkin for a combined 11 seasons, before moving on to Astana. In addition, current director Jeroen Blijlevens held a director's role at the Blanco and Belkin versions of the former Rabobank team.
