Movistar Team Women has 14 riders, but with more racing days in the Women's World Tour and the Giro d'Italia Donnay and Tour de France Femme in July, star rider Annemiek van Grooten believes the team will need to grow in the future to fully meet calendar demands. Star rider Annemiek van Grooten believes that the team will need to grow in size in the future in order to fully meet the demands of the calendar.

In an interview with Cycling News, van Vleuten said that the women's team will begin to feel the strain of a smaller roster, especially if they suffer a sport-related injury or illness. 'We need more players,' she said."

"When you see that the Giro d'Italia Donné and the Tour de France Femme are only 10 days apart in July, and many teams have 12 to 14 riders, many riders are not ready for both races," van Vleuten told Cycling News.

The 2022 Women's World Tour kicks off Saturday at the Strade Bianche in Siena, Italy.

The premier series will feature 25 events this year, including the new Battle of the North stage race, Iturria Women, the Tour de Romandie, and the much talked about return of the Tour de France Femme, for a total of 71 days.July. Giro d'Italia Donne will be held July 1-10, and the Tour de France Femme will be held July 24-31, some 13 days apart.

This is an increase from last season's 18 women's World Tour events and 37 days of racing, almost double the number of days for the same team size.

"Injuries and illnesses are not tolerated. At the end of the year, teams will come to the conclusion that they need more riders, more rosters, because in July and August, teams will not be at full strength," Van Bruten said.

In an interview on the podcast "Lantern Rouge (open in new tab)," Sebastian Unzue, COO of Abarca Sports and team manager of the Movistar Team Women, agreed with Van Vleuten and said that in the next few years the women's team He stated that he expects the roster size to grow.

"If you analyze the last five years since we joined the women's peloton, the number of race days has increased significantly every year, not only on the World Tour, but also on the Pro Series, 0.1 and 0.2 races.

"That means that teams have to pursue more commitments and participate in more races than originally planned. Ultimately, it will also affect the number of riders on the team."

"Right now, the average on the (women's) World Tour, if I'm not mistaken, is about 13 or 14 riders, but if the calendar continues to grow as it has over the past few years, 14 riders won't be enough in the next few years.

"In my opinion, the number of riders on the team will increase. That's the only way to compete in a busy program like this year's, for example."

Canyon-SRAM director Ronnie Lauke is open to racing with a roster of up to 16 riders, and that growth is welcome, he told CyclingWeekly (open in new tab ).

"We are not a WorldTour men's team with 30 riders, we have a maximum of 16. It's a challenge, because no team does, but I like challenges. But July and August are pretty tough months, so we have to have a big roster of 14 to 16 riders to meet the demands of the race and to share riders. We need a big team," Lauke said.

Larger teams require larger budgets to cover the minimum salaries of contracted riders and more staff to care for the riders. 2022, the 14 women's world teams will be obligated to pay contracted riders €45,100 per year, while employed riders will be paid a minimum annual salary of €27, 500. The UCI Continental women's team does not have a minimum annual salary.

Juan Bruthen said he is satisfied with the minimum salary requirements introduced in the standard contract for women's world teams starting in 2020. Trek-Segafredo and Bike Exchange-Jayco announced last year that they would increase the salaries for the women's team to equal or exceed the minimum salary requirements set by the UCI for the men's WorldTour.

"When the WorldTour, its rules, and the amount of money we had to pay our riders were announced, many teams struggled at first saying it was impossible," Van Bruten said. [Now we are at the level where we have to pay the minimum salary amount (€27,500) and 14 teams can pay it.

"The fact that there are at least 14 teams that can pay their riders the minimum means that the professionalism of women's cycling has taken a step forward. The fact that they can become full-time cyclists is huge for the development of women's cycling.