EF-Oatly-Cannondale strengthened their roster for a second season at the Continental level by signing Swiss road race champion Noemi Rüegg to a three-year extension and adding Dutch U23 standout Babette van der Wolf through 2025.
Next year's roster is loaded with young talent, seven riders 26 years old or younger. Rüegg and Van der Wolf will be key riders to support a full spring Classics campaign, which will now include veteran Australian Sarah Roy as a leader. Roy was signed last week to a one-year contract with EF-Oatly.
Rüegg was among the first five riders confirmed for the newly formed Continental women's team when it launched for the 2024 season. She wasted no time in making an immediate impact, scoring the first win for the squad on the opening day of Challenge Mallorca Femenina at the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia de Sant Jordi.
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It was not just the team's first victory, but Ruegg's first win as a pro and she followed two days later with second place at Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx.
“The atmosphere in this team is really special and something I've never experienced in a team before. I feel so welcomed in the team," said Rüegg, who began her pro career at age 19 at Cogeas-Mettler. "It makes it a lot easier to perform when you are surrounded by good people.”
2024 was a stellar season for the two-time junior Swiss champion, who won the elite women's road race national title and earned seventh place in the road race at her first Olympic Games. She had spent the previous two seasons at WorldTour level with Jumbo-Visma, taking third on GC at AG Tour de la Semois and eighth overall at RideLondon Classique.
"This year, I got a lot of support from the team. They gave me the opportunity to race the finales and also to make a lot of mistakes. That's also really important because otherwise you don't learn. The team gave me a lot of confidence and I think that's what I needed."
Van der Wolf, who joins fellow Dutch standout Mirre Knaven as the youngest riders on the squad next season, turned pro in 2023 with Lifeplus Wahoo. This season she amassed seven top 10 results at one-day races, including third at Antwerp Port Epic, and earned a trio of top 10s on stages at the Baloise Ladies Tour.
She concluded the year with 12th place at the UCI Gravel World Series event at the Sea Otter Europe, confirming her valuable skills as a one-day racer on any surface.
"2023 was just an amazing experience. I started with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Tour of Flanders and I even rode the Tour de France. I was just 18 and racing the Tour de France – that's just crazy," she said while with Lifeplus.
"Just being there and riding the races on the highest level is just incredible and in a lot of races, I try to help every teammate."
During that time she also gained experience on the track, winning a gold medal in the junior Madison race with Nienke Veenhoven. She had top-10 results in the Points and Elimination races at the 2024 European Track Championships.
"I'm the type of rider who races with a lot of heart. I don't have the biggest engine in the race but I do have a vision of how the race is going to play out, so I am able to react immediately or to communicate to my teammates what is about to happen and we can respond," she said in an EF-Oatly-Cannondale press release.
"If there's a lot of wind, that makes me excited. I know I am really Dutch when I say that I love a hard echelon day. Maybe add in some cobbles and punchy climbs. I just enjoy a hard race."
