Tour de France Femmes champion Kasia Niewiadoma could have been notably absent Tuesday from the 2025 route announcement of the ladies’s Grand Tour, however she grabbed media consideration away from the Paris spectacle the identical day together with her ladies’s WorldTour staff confirming they might quickly be renamed Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto.
A brand new three-year deal was signed final week in Monaco for zondacrypto to turn out to be a co-title sponsor for each the Canyon-SRAM Racing top-level staff and the Canyon-SRAM Technology growth squad, carrying the brand new title from 2025 to 2027. Niewiadoma was in Monaco for that staff occasion.
“We’re excited to welcome zondacrypto as considered one of our most important companions beginning in 2025. As we evolve as a staff, it’s important to align with companions that share our drive for innovation and ambition. The dynamic strategy to digital finance that zondacrypto has, coupled with its imaginative and prescient for the long run, makes it the proper associate to assist us push boundaries each on and off the bike,” Group Supervisor Ronny Lauke mentioned in a press launch distributed Tuesday.
The Canyon-SRAM staff was created in 2016 by Lauke and the squad moved to the WorldTour degree 4 years in the past. The staff has soared from simply three victories at nationwide championships in 2020 to one of many powerhouse squads on the highest degree, profitable levels at Giro d’Italia Ladies, Tour de Suisse Ladies and the Tour de France Femmes general final yr.
Zondacrypto was established in Poland in 2014 as a platform for bitcoin and now gives over 70 cryptocurrencies in pairs with conventional currencies equivalent to Euro and US {dollars}. The multi-currency platform has turn out to be one of many largest regulated trade marketplaces for quite a few cryptocurrencies in Central and Japanese Europe, with licenses to function in Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, and Canada.
“As a model, we’re very dedicated to supporting feminine sports activities. We’re already companions of Magdalena Fręch and Giro d’Italia Ladies. And now it’s time to begin racing collectively and obtain many extra successes,” mentioned Przemysław Kral, CEO of zondacrypto.
The corporate sponsors 4 Serie A soccer golf equipment in Europe and each the Giro, males’s and girls’s races, and Tour de Pologne. The one notable particular person endorsement thus far is with Fręch, a Polish skilled tennis participant who was ranked within the WTA’s high 25 this yr.
Whereas Niewiadoma was not in Paris for the Tour de France Femmes route unveil, neither was race runner-up and 2023 champion Demi Vollering. The Dutch rider was busy together with her personal announcement the day earlier than, confirming a transfer from Group SD Worx-Protime to FDJ-SUEZ for the subsequent two seasons. The 2 can proceed the battle for considered one of them to win a second yellow jersey on the Tour, subsequent yr the race going to 9 days and extra climbing.
“We have added problem in comparison with earlier editions, significantly with mid-mountain levels that we did not actually have up to now. The course is tougher general. We’re right here to evolve on the identical tempo as ladies’s biking. Over the past 4 years, the general degree has actually elevated so we have allowed ourselves to do extra elevation modifications. 2025 appears to be like simply as shiny as 2024,” defined Marion Rousse, the director of the Tour de France Femmes advised RTBF Information.
The primary winner of the Tour de France Femmes was Annemiek van Vleuten, now retired, who shared the inaugural podium with each second-placed Vollering and third-placed Niewiadoma.
