Usoa Ostolaza will leave Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi at the end of the 2026 season and join Uno-X Mobility on a three-year contract running through 2029.
The 28-year-old Basque rider gives Uno-X a proven general classification option after a season in which she finished fourth overall at La Vuelta Femenina, third at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas and seventh at Itzulia Women. She also won the Gran Premio Ciudad de Eibar and took fourth on stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes.
Those results have moved Ostolaza beyond being one of the strongest riders outside the Women’s WorldTour. She has increasingly been able to stay with established GC contenders on the hardest climbing days, and Uno-X see her as part of their attempt to become more competitive in the Grand Tours.
“I feel Uno-X Mobility is the perfect place for me to keep dreaming and growing as an athlete,” Ostolaza said. “It is a team with heart, professionalism and ambition.”
Ostolaza adds a genuine GC option to Uno-X
Ostolaza’s development during 2026 has changed the type of rider Uno-X are signing.
She finished fourth at La Vuelta Femenina, behind overall winner Paula Blasi, Anna van der Breggen and Marion Bunel. That was her clearest indication yet that she could put together a complete general classification performance over a WorldTour stage race rather than simply target individual mountain stages.
The result was followed by third overall at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. Ostolaza finished third on the final climb to Lagunas de Neila, behind Yara Kastelijn and Évita Muzic, with the same three riders filling the final general classification podium.
Seventh at Itzulia Women added another strong result on home roads. Across those three WorldTour stage races, Ostolaza showed enough consistency to make Grand Tour leadership a realistic part of her next contract rather than an aspiration based on isolated performances.
Uno-X Head of Sports Anna Badegruber sees exactly that role developing.
“Usoa will strengthen the climbing group within our team,” she said. “We have already seen what she can do in the general classification at Grand Tours, but she has also proven herself in hard one-day races.”
A late arrival who has progressed quickly
Ostolaza’s route into professional cycling has been unusual.
She previously competed in triathlon and did not begin racing seriously on the road until 2020. Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi brought her into the team the following season, beginning a progression which has taken her from domestic racing to the front group of Women’s WorldTour stage races in relatively little time.
Her first major breakthrough came in 2024. Ostolaza won the Spanish road race title and the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, then returned to win the Pyrenean stage race again in 2025.
This season moved the level up again.
Her fourth place at La Vuelta was followed by the Burgos podium and a strong Itzulia Women, while victory at the Gran Premio Ciudad de Eibar demonstrated that her climbing can also be converted into one-day results. Ostolaza attacked on the final ascent of Ixua and finished alone in Eibar.
That combination is attractive to Uno-X. She can target GC when the climbing is demanding enough, but she also has enough acceleration to make reduced-group finishes and hard one-day races worthwhile.
“The biggest change has been working on the mental side and getting to know myself better, both as a person and as a cyclist,” Ostolaza said. “When you feel at peace and motivated, you have the perfect combination to work hard on the bike and arrive at the races in good shape.”
Photo Credit: GettyUno-X offer a different route than the move previously expected
Ostolaza had been widely expected to move to another Women’s WorldTour team after her performances during the first half of the season. ProCyclingUK reported in July that she was close to joining FDJ-Suez, but the confirmed destination is instead Uno-X Mobility.
The Norwegian team offers a different opportunity.
Rather than joining a squad already built around one of the established Grand Tour favourites, Ostolaza can become a more central part of Uno-X’s stage-racing plans. The team already have a strong climbing group, but her 2026 results give them a rider who has demonstrated that she can compete inside the top five of a Grand Tour.
That represents another step for a squad which has gradually strengthened since entering the Women’s WorldTour. ProCyclingUK’s Uno-X Mobility 2026 team guide identified stage-race consistency as one of the areas where the team needed to convert solid depth into higher-level results.
Ostolaza directly addresses that.
Time trial improvement will be a priority
There is also a clear development target within the move.
Ostolaza has established herself as one of the stronger climbers in the women’s peloton, but improving against the clock would make a substantial difference to her GC prospects.
“I am excited to learn from a different approach to racing, new equipment and new routines,” she said. “One area I especially want to work on is the time trial, improving my position and learning more about aerodynamics.”
That matters because the gap between finishing around the top five of a Grand Tour and challenging for the podium can be determined away from the mountains.
Her climbing level already allows her to stay close to many of the strongest GC riders. Losing less time in individual time trials would leave fewer seconds to recover once the road goes uphill.
Uno-X believe the three-year contract gives them enough time to work on those details rather than expecting an immediate transformation.
Grand Tours become the main target
Ostolaza was already Laboral Kutxa’s clear leader for the 2026 Tour de France Femmes, but her race was disrupted by crashes after she had taken fourth on stage 3.
Her earlier results still make the direction clear.
“The Grand Tours will be a major focus, and I want to fight for the best possible result in the general classification,” she said. “I also believe I can perform well in certain classics that finish with a small group.”
That broader range should make Ostolaza one of Uno-X Mobility’s most important additions for 2027.
She is leaving Laboral Kutxa after six seasons with the team that brought her into professional cycling, but she does so having developed from a late convert to the sport into a rider capable of contesting WorldTour general classifications.
The next step is turning regular top-10 finishes into podiums and, eventually, a challenge for a major stage-race victory. Uno-X have given her three seasons to find out how far that progression can go.
