Megan Arens has left Team Picnic PostNL to join AG Insurance-Soudal with immediate effect, with the 19-year-old Dutch rider making a mid-season Women’s WorldTour switch by mutual agreement between the two teams.
AG Insurance-Soudal confirmed Arens’ arrival on 12 August, describing the reigning junior individual time trial world champion as a rider with significant long-term potential. The team has not announced the length of her new contract, but Arens will begin racing in AG Insurance-Soudal colours immediately rather than waiting for the start of the 2027 season.
The move brings Arens’ short spell with Picnic PostNL to an early conclusion. She only stepped into the elite peloton at the beginning of this season after signing a two-year contract with Picnic PostNL for 2026 and 2027, having previously developed alongside Maria Okrucinska and Daniela Hezinova at Grouwels-Watersley R&D.
“I’m really excited about joining AG Insurance-Soudal, and I’m very grateful to the team’s management for giving me this opportunity,” Arens said. “Watching the team perform at the Tour de France Femmes has once again shown me what a strong and ambitious team it is.”
Arens leaves Picnic PostNL during her first WorldTour season
The timing makes this considerably more unusual than a normal transfer announcement.
Arens had been one of the key young additions to Picnic PostNL’s 2026 roster, joining directly from the junior ranks as part of a wider attempt to rebuild the team’s women’s squad around younger talent. ProCyclingUK’s Picnic PostNL 2026 Women’s WorldTour team guide highlighted Arens and Hezinova among the riders being given time to develop rather than being expected to produce immediate WorldTour results.
Instead, that development will now continue with AG Insurance-Soudal. The official announcement states that the transfer was completed by mutual agreement with Picnic PostNL, allowing Arens to move immediately, but neither team has provided further detail on why her original two-year deal has been cut short.
AG Insurance-Soudal general manager Jurgen Foré said there was considerable confidence within the team that Arens could become an important rider in the coming seasons.
“We’re very pleased to welcome Megan to our team,” Foré said. “She has already shown that she is a rider with a lot of talent and potential, and we believe she fits perfectly within our philosophy of developing young riders.
“Over the past few years, we’ve built an environment where riders can grow step by step, and we’re convinced Megan has everything she needs to continue that progression with us. Our ambition is to give her the support and opportunities to become the best rider she can be.”
The 2025 junior world title established Arens as a major prospect
Arens was already regarded as one of the strongest riders of her generation before reaching the professional peloton, but her breakthrough result came at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali.
She dominated the junior women’s individual time trial over an 18.3km course in Rwanda, finishing 35 seconds ahead of Paula Ostiz and another two seconds clear of Oda Aune Gissinger. Arens had been only narrowly ahead at the intermediate checkpoint before making the decisive difference over the demanding closing kilometres.
ProCyclingUK’s report on Megan Arens winning the 2025 junior time trial world title detailed how she produced the strongest final section of the leading contenders to secure the rainbow jersey.
The victory capped a season that had also included success at the junior Trofeo Binda and the Dutch junior time trial championship, while podium finishes in races such as the junior Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem had already suggested she was capable of far more than specialist time trialling.
Tour de Suisse showed Arens’ potential on the climbs
Her first senior season has provided further evidence that Arens could eventually develop into a genuine all-round stage racer rather than being defined by the rainbow jersey she won against the clock.
The clearest example came at the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women, where she finished third in both the mountains classification and young rider classification. Arens repeatedly attacked on the climbs and remained competitive against established WorldTour riders on the race’s hardest terrain.
She was particularly aggressive on the final mountain stage around Villars-sur-Ollon. Arens attacked on the first ascent of the Col de la Croix to take maximum mountains points, later followed moves from Femke de Vries and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and remained in the front group deep into a stage containing more than 3,000 metres of climbing.
ProCyclingUK’s Tour de Suisse Women Stage 5 report followed Arens’ repeated attacks as she challenged De Vries for the mountains classification before eventually being distanced late in the stage.
That performance arguably told AG Insurance-Soudal more about her long-term ceiling than another strong time trial would have done. Arens already had evidence of elite ability against the clock. Switzerland showed she could also race aggressively on sustained mountain terrain against some of the strongest riders in the professional peloton.
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Photo Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
AG Insurance-Soudal offer another development environment
Foré has made clear that AG Insurance-Soudal do not expect Arens to arrive as a finished product.
The team already mixes established leaders with younger riders still developing at WorldTour level, and the 2026 Tour de France Femmes provided a timely demonstration of its ability to win major races. Kim Le Court-Pienaar won Stage 6 in Tournon-sur-Rhône, sprinting to victory from an eight-rider group after surviving a demanding day containing around 2,600 metres of climbing.
ProCyclingUK’s Tour de France Femmes Stage 6 report covered how Le Court-Pienaar recovered after being distanced, returned to the decisive move, attacked inside the final kilometres and still had enough left to win the sprint.
That performance evidently made an impression on Arens.
“Watching the team perform at the Tour de France Femmes has once again shown me what a strong and ambitious team it is,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being part of this group, continuing to develop and hopefully contributing to many great results together in the biggest races and Grand Tours in the years ahead.”
Arens does not need to be defined as a time trial specialist yet
At 19, there is little reason to decide exactly what sort of rider Arens will eventually become.
The rainbow jersey demonstrated an exceptional engine against the clock. Her junior Classics results suggested she could cope with technical and aggressive one-day racing, while the Tour de Suisse showed enough climbing ability to make a future in stage races equally plausible.
That breadth is likely to be central to how AG Insurance-Soudal develop her. Rather than forcing Arens into one role immediately, the next seasons should provide opportunities to discover whether her biggest future lies in time trials, hilly Classics, stage racing or some combination of all three.
What is already clear is that the first chapter of her WorldTour career has ended much earlier than expected. Arens entered 2026 as one of Picnic PostNL’s most interesting long-term prospects.
She will finish it as an AG Insurance-Soudal rider.
