Quinty Schoens will join UAE Team L’IMAD from VolkerWessels for the 2027 season after agreeing a two-year contract with the Women’s WorldTour squad. The 27-year-old Dutch climber will remain with the team through 2028, taking the next step in a cycling career that began after she had already competed professionally in triathlon.
Schoens arrives following a strong run of stage-race results in 2026. She finished sixth overall at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina and eighth at the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, before completing the Tour de France Femmes and placing 22nd on the Mont Ventoux stage. Those performances have drawn attention to her ability on longer climbs.
The move will be Schoens’s first contract with a Women’s WorldTour team, although she is not new to WorldTour racing. She rode the inaugural Tour de France Femmes in 2022 and returned for this year’s edition, gaining experience of the events she will now contest as part of one of the sport’s leading squads.
From professional triathlon to cycling’s top division
Schoens’s route into road racing has been unusual. Born in the Netherlands and now living in Urmond, she first took up cycling as part of rehabilitation following a gymnastics-related back injury when she was eight. The sport then became part of her training as she pursued a professional triathlon career.
She competed in triathlon until the age of 22, when an injury brought that chapter to an end. Cycling gradually became a new competitive outlet and, eventually, a second professional sporting career. Her early road seasons came with Parkhotel Valkenburg before she moved into the VolkerWessels set-up for 2024.
Schoens described reaching UAE Team L’IMAD as a dream come true, explaining that she had not imagined beginning another professional career after leaving triathlon. The transition required her to learn the positioning, race craft and team responsibilities of road cycling while building on an endurance background developed over many years.
A first appearance at the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 came particularly early in that transition. Four years later, she returned to the same race with a much stronger record in mountainous events, highlighting how far her road racing has developed.
Strong 2026 climbing results bring WorldTour opportunity
Schoens’s climbing was particularly evident during June. She finished eighth overall at the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, including seventh on a stage featuring demanding mountain terrain. The race’s final classification reflected the strength of the climbing field, making her top-ten finish a useful measure of progress.
A week later, she took sixth overall at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina and sixth on its mountainous second stage, which finished at La Molina. Both results showed she could remain competitive across consecutive days against established stage racers rather than relying on one successful attack.
Her Tour de France Femmes campaign ended with 66th overall, but that placing only tells part of the story. Schoens finished 22nd on stage seven, which included the ascent of Mont Ventoux. She has identified that climb, along with the Tourmalet and La Molina, as the sort of long, difficult terrain she most enjoys.
She also brings evidence of being able to finish a race in front. In 2025 she won the Mirabelle Classic, part of an extraordinary VolkerWessels sweep of the first six places. That result demonstrated the strength of the collective she has been part of and her ability to complete the job when given the chance.
Schoens wants to become a dependable mountain domestique
At UAE Team L’IMAD, Schoens sees the next stage of her career primarily in terms of helping team-mates. She told the team she takes particular satisfaction from contributing to a collective result and wants to develop into a rider who can stay with leaders for longer on difficult climbs.
“The harder the races, the better. The longer the climbs, the better,” she said. Her objectives include holding a higher pace on sustained ascents and improving her ability to respond to the faster accelerations that often come at the beginning of a decisive climb.
Those qualities could be valuable to a team with established Grand Tour contenders and riders who target mountainous stages. Schoens has already spent several seasons learning how to survive demanding terrain, and UAE’s performance staff will now have the chance to develop that ability within a WorldTour structure.
UAE Team L’IMAD president Melissa Moncada welcomed the signing, highlighting both the rider’s results in stage races and her attitude towards team responsibilities. The team’s announcement placed particular emphasis on her potential as a dependable support rider rather than presenting her as an immediate leader.
Another piece of UAE Team L’IMAD’s 2027 rebuild
The transfer comes as UAE Team L’IMAD reshape their rider-development system. The organisation has confirmed that its separate Continental development squad will close after 2026, with more development support brought into the wider WorldTour project.
Schoens is not a graduate of that programme. She joins from VolkerWessels with several seasons of professional road racing behind her, bringing a different sort of experience to a team that has also recruited established Classics riders and invested in retaining climbing talent.
The WorldTour move is an important personal step, but the two-year agreement also gives her time to adapt. A stronger training and recovery structure should help her build on the progress made with VolkerWessels and establish where she can contribute most effectively in the mountains.
Away from racing, Schoens has also maintained a nail salon business for almost a decade, something she credits with providing a creative outlet alongside sport. That balance has remained part of her life through two different professional sporting careers.
For 2027, the racing priority is straightforward: learn from her new team-mates, improve on longer climbs and become an increasingly useful rider when the road turns uphill. Her debut season with UAE Team L’IMAD will show how those ambitions translate to racing week after week at WorldTour level.
