Maike van der Duin will leave Canyon SRAM at the end of the 2026 season and join Team Visma | Lease a Bike on a two-year contract running through to the end of 2028.
The 24-year-old Dutch rider has been recruited with a clearly defined role in mind. Visma want Van der Duin to become an important part of the developing sprint train around Nienke Veenhoven, while also giving her opportunities to continue progressing as a fast and versatile finisher in her own right.
Van der Duin has spent the past four seasons with Canyon SRAM after joining the team in 2023, but the move to Visma represents a chance to reshape her role at a point when she has returned to regular racing after a difficult period with her health. Her recent performances have included several podium finishes at the 2026 Baloise Ladies Tour, putting her back among the strongest riders in fast finishes.
“I’ve seen many riders at Team Visma | Lease a Bike make significant steps in their development,” Van der Duin said. “That shows that the team is doing something right and makes it an attractive environment to be part of. From our very first conversation, I also felt a great deal of trust from the team. The fact that they truly believe in me and want to work together on my development ultimately made the difference for me.”
Van der Duin wants to specialise further in the lead-out
The most significant part of the transfer is how openly Van der Duin and Visma have defined her future role.
Rather than joining simply as another sprint option, she wants to specialise further as a lead-out rider and become one of the central pieces around Nienke Veenhoven, whose own contract with Visma already runs through to the end of 2028.
“My ambition mainly lies in the lead-out role,” Van der Duin said. “I want to specialise further in that area, gain more experience and, together with Nienke, build a strong sprint train. At the same time, I want to continue developing myself, race more and play an increasingly important role in finals.”
That gives the signing more strategic importance than simply adding another quick rider. Van der Duin has the speed to compete for results herself, but Visma see particular value in her ability to position, accelerate repeatedly and make decisions deep into hectic WorldTour finales.
Those qualities are increasingly important as women’s teams develop more structured lead-outs. The difference between having one fast sprinter and having a reliable sequence of riders capable of delivering that sprinter into the final 200 metres has become much more pronounced as the depth of the peloton has increased.
Veenhoven is becoming the centre of Visma’s sprint project
Veenhoven’s development explains much of the logic behind the move.
Visma secured Veenhoven through to the end of 2028 last year, identifying the young Dutch rider as one of the central long-term prospects within the women’s team. Her 2026 season has justified that confidence.
She won the opening road stage of the Baloise Ladies Tour in Knokke-Heist and went on to complete a hat-trick of stage victories during the race, while also winning the opening stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina earlier in the summer.
Van der Duin was frequently racing against her during those finishes. At the Baloise Ladies Tour, she finished third on multiple stages while Veenhoven repeatedly featured at the front, offering a useful indication of why Visma believe the pair can work together rather than simply compete against one another.
Team manager Rutger Tijssen said the aim is to build a stronger and more consistent sprint structure around Veenhoven over the coming seasons.
“With Nienke, we have one of the biggest sprint talents in the peloton and over the coming years we want to continue building our sprint train around her,” Tijssen said. “Maike brings speed, experience and race intelligence, and fits that ambition perfectly. We are convinced that she can be of great value in supporting our sprint project.”
Van der Duin’s speed still gives Visma another finishing option
The lead-out role does not mean Van der Duin will simply disappear into support duties.
Her own finishing speed remains one of the reasons the signing works so well.
Van der Duin has consistently shown that she can compete in reduced and conventional sprints, while her versatility allows her to remain relevant on days that become too difficult for some of the purest fast finishers. That gives Visma flexibility if Veenhoven is absent, dropped or tactically compromised.
A rider capable of leading out one day and contesting the finish herself on another gives the team considerably more options than a specialist whose value is confined entirely to the final kilometre.
Her ProCyclingUK rider page reflects that breadth, with results and appearances across Classics, stage races and sprint-heavy events rather than a programme restricted purely to flat finishes.
Tijssen believes there is still substantial room for Van der Duin to develop within that role.
“As with any new collaboration, it will take time to get to know each other and become fully aligned,” he said. “We see a huge amount of potential in Maike and have every confidence that she will become an important part of our sprint train in the years to come.”
The move follows a difficult health period
The transfer also carries extra significance because of what Van der Duin has come through during the previous two seasons.
In 2025, she revealed that she had been dealing with prolonged health problems and systemic inflammation after spending much of the previous two years feeling below her normal level. The condition disrupted her racing and left her with no clear timeline for a full return.
ProCyclingUK covered Van der Duin’s long battle with illness as she worked towards resuming normal training and racing.
Her ability to return to competitive WorldTour racing in 2026 therefore makes the Visma move particularly notable. Rather than entering the transfer market as a rider trying simply to rebuild a place in the peloton, she is joining one of the strongest teams in women’s cycling with a specific role in a long-term performance project.
Her multiple podium finishes at the Baloise Ladies Tour were especially encouraging in that context, showing that the speed that previously made her one of the most promising Dutch sprinters remains intact.
A new chapter after four seasons with Canyon SRAM
Van der Duin joined Canyon SRAM in 2023 after earlier spells with Biehler Krush Pro Cycling and Le Col-Wahoo.
Her time with Canyon SRAM helped establish her at Women’s WorldTour level, particularly through her ability to contribute in sprints, Classics and harder one-day races. She also combined her road career with considerable success on the track, including an Olympic Madison medal.
The Visma move now provides an opportunity to take that experience into a more specialised position.
Van der Duin grew up in Assen and first started riding at six, initially attending local Rabo Dikke Banden races with her parents before eventually taking part herself.
“I first got on a road bike at the age of six,” she said. “Together with my parents, I went to Rabo Dikke Banden Races, local kids’ bike races, close to my hometown. At first, I only watched and thought it was really cool. The next time I took part myself, then came more races, and from that moment on I was hooked.”
Almost two decades later, the next stage of that career will centre on becoming one of the riders responsible for delivering another Dutch sprinter into winning positions.
Visma continue shaping the 2027 women’s roster
Van der Duin’s arrival is another important piece of Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s planning for 2027.
Rather than treating Veenhoven’s sprint development as an individual project, the team are increasingly building the structure around her. Van der Duin adds experience, raw speed and the sort of race awareness that becomes increasingly valuable in the final five kilometres of WorldTour races.
The timing also makes sense. Veenhoven is still developing, while Van der Duin enters the move with several seasons of top-level experience and a clear interest in specialising more heavily in the lead-out role. Their contracts now both run through 2028, giving Visma time to develop the partnership rather than expecting an immediate finished product.
The transfer will also be added to ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling transfers hub, which is tracking confirmed moves and contract changes across the professional peloton ahead of the 2027 season.
If the partnership develops as Visma hope, Van der Duin’s move could become much more important than simply strengthening the team’s depth. It gives Veenhoven an experienced rider specifically committed to helping build the sprint train around her, while Van der Duin gets a clearly defined role and the opportunity to continue rebuilding her own career at the highest level.
She will officially join Team Visma | Lease a Bike ahead of the 2027 season, with her contract running through to the end of 2028.
