Sofie van Rooijen will leave UAE Team L’IMAD at the end of the 2026 season and join Human Powered Health on a two-year contract running through to the end of 2028.
The 24-year-old Dutch sprinter arrives with seven professional victories already to her name, including a Women’s WorldTour stage win at the 2025 Tour of Chongming Island and, most recently, victory at Konvert Kortrijk Koerse. That latest success provided a timely reminder of the speed Human Powered Health are recruiting as they continue to reshape their roster for 2027.
Van Rooijen joins a growing collection of fast and versatile riders already confirmed for next season, including Marta Lach, Amalie Dideriksen, Letizia Paternoster and Quinty Ton. Rather than simply building a conventional sprint train, Human Powered Health are assembling several riders capable of surviving difficult racing and still finishing quickly.
“Human Powered Health is always one of the strongest teams to look out for, so I’m excited,” Van Rooijen said. “I like the way they ride, aggressive, but also that they still have strong riders for the sprint. That also attracted me.”
Kortrijk victory came at an important moment
Van Rooijen’s victory at Konvert Kortrijk Koerse arrived after a 2026 season in which the results had not always reflected the speed she had shown during her breakthrough years.
She described the win as particularly important after a period containing setbacks, with the result reinforcing her belief that she could still deliver when an opportunity arrived.
“I have made some good steps mentally,” Van Rooijen said. “I have had some setbacks, but mentally I learned a lot, and now I’m a stronger rider in my head.”
That context matters because Van Rooijen had already established that her sprint is capable of winning at the highest level. Her ProCyclingUK rider page tracks a progression that accelerated sharply during 2024 before producing a major breakthrough the following season.
Kortrijk therefore was not evidence of a previously unseen ability. It was confirmation that the winning speed remains there as she prepares for another significant change in her career.
Human Powered Health are deliberately recruiting speed
General manager Ro De Jonckere has been explicit that Human Powered Health’s recruitment strategy for 2027 is not accidental.
“People may notice that we are adding quite a few fast riders to the team for next season, and that is very deliberate,” he said. “At the end of the day, you need speed to win bike races.”
The transfer market supports that.
Marta Lach will join from SD Worx-Protime, giving Human Powered Health a rider who has increasingly specialised in surviving difficult Classics racing and then using her sprint.
Amalie Dideriksen has also signed through 2028, bringing the experience of a former road world champion and a rider accustomed to positioning herself deep into tactical one-day races.
Letizia Paternoster’s move adds another powerful finisher whose 2026 season has increasingly shown an ability to survive genuinely selective terrain, while Quinty Ton brings a broader all-round profile suited to the Classics and demanding stage races.
Van Rooijen adds more outright sprint speed to that group.
“We are not signing riders simply because they are fast,” De Jonckere said. “We are looking for riders with the qualities to become much more complete and to give us different options in the finales of races.”
Van Rooijen has already won at WorldTour level
The strongest result on Van Rooijen’s palmarès remains her victory on Stage 2 of the 2025 Tour of Chongming Island.
She beat a WorldTour field in a conventional sprint to claim what was then the biggest victory of her career, with ProCyclingUK covering her first Women’s WorldTour win in Chongming.
That victory followed a five-win 2024 campaign in which she emerged as one of the most promising Dutch fast finishers in the peloton.
The challenge since then has been broadening the number of situations in which she can access that sprint.
At WorldTour level, very few races remain perfectly controlled from start to finish. Climbs, crosswinds, repeated attacks and technical approaches often decide which sprinters are still present before the final kilometre becomes relevant.
Human Powered Health believe Van Rooijen can become better at surviving those earlier selections.
“Sofie has already shown that she has the speed to win,” De Jonckere said. “But we also believe there is more to come from her.”
The Classics are the next major development goal
Van Rooijen has made clear that becoming more competitive in the Classics is one of the main reasons she is excited about the move.
“I hope to be there more in the finals, to get more opportunities, like in the sprint,” she said. “I also hope to develop myself more in the Classics. That’s one of my biggest goals.”
That ambition fits the roster Human Powered Health are constructing.
Van Rooijen does not necessarily need to become the team’s designated leader in every Belgian Classic. The strength of the recruitment is that Human Powered Health should have several options depending on how difficult the race becomes.
If the race remains relatively controlled, Van Rooijen offers genuine sprint speed. If repeated climbs eliminate the pure sprinters, Lach or Paternoster may remain. Ton and Dideriksen provide further tactical options when races become attritional or fragmented.
That should allow Human Powered Health to race more aggressively rather than spending entire afternoons protecting one rider for one possible scenario.
Van Rooijen sees that depth as a strength.
“I think we will have a strong team, multiple riders who are really fast, so that we can play the final and play the game,” she said. “I think that will be really exciting.”
Her U23 European title hinted at a broader rider
Van Rooijen’s background also suggests that her future does not have to be limited to straightforward bunch sprints.
She is a former under-23 European road champion, an achievement that required considerably more than simply waiting behind a sprint train on a flat stage. Championship races reward positioning, tactical awareness and the ability to stay competitive as teams repeatedly attack one another.
That wider skill set is something Human Powered Health want to develop further.
The team’s view is that Van Rooijen already possesses the most difficult quality to manufacture: exceptional finishing speed. The developmental work now centres on making sure she reaches more finales in a position to use it.
“We know we are getting a rider with exceptional speed, but we also believe Sofie has the potential to become much more than a pure sprinter,” De Jonckere said. “That combination makes her a very important signing for us as we continue to build a team that can compete for victories across the calendar.”
Human Powered Health’s 2027 roster is taking a clear shape
Van Rooijen’s signing provides another piece of what has become one of the clearest recruitment strategies in the women’s transfer market.
Human Powered Health are not relying on one established star to transform the team. Instead, they are accumulating riders who can give them several ways to win.
Lach can finish quickly after difficult climbing. Dideriksen brings extensive one-day experience. Paternoster has increasingly shown that her sprint can survive harder terrain. Ton adds versatility. Van Rooijen supplies a more specialised level of speed but still carries significant scope to develop beyond conventional sprint stages.
The result should be a team capable of entering the same race with several viable plans.
That matters particularly in the Classics, where the strongest teams often win not because they possess one overwhelming leader but because they force rivals to respond to several different riders.
All of Human Powered Health’s confirmed moves can be followed in ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling transfers hub, which is tracking signings, departures, extensions and retirements ahead of the 2027 season.
Performance testing and rider health were part of the attraction
The team’s wider performance structure was another factor in Van Rooijen’s decision.
Her move will include a first visit to the United States and Human Powered Health’s Performance Labs, where the team use testing to build a more detailed picture of riders’ physiology, performance and health.
Van Rooijen is particularly interested in what that process might reveal.
“I’m really curious what they will test and what they will find out,” she said. “I also really like that they have the health of the person first. That’s also what drew me into the team.”
That emphasis has become a recurring part of Human Powered Health’s recruitment pitch.
For a rider such as Van Rooijen, whose strengths are already obvious but whose next gains may come through improved endurance, climbing resilience and repeatability, the opportunity for detailed testing has clear appeal.
Her sprint does not need reinventing.
The challenge is making sure she arrives at the final 200 metres often enough to use it.
A two-year deal gives Van Rooijen room to develop
Van Rooijen will officially join Human Powered Health on 1 January 2027 and remain with the team through the end of 2028.
At 24, she enters the move at a point where the raw attributes are already well established but her final rider profile is not.
She can already win bunch sprints. She has already won at WorldTour level. She has already shown through her European title and performances in one-day races that there is more to her than pure straight-line speed.
Human Powered Health are betting on what happens if those elements come together more consistently.
Kortrijk provided a useful reminder of what Van Rooijen can already do.
The more interesting part of the transfer is what the team believe she can become.
