Erica Magnaldi has extended her contract with UAE Team L’IMAD through to the end of 2028, keeping one of the team’s longest-serving riders in place for another two seasons.
The 34-year-old Italian has been part of the UAE women’s project since 2022 and has become a dependable climbing domestique as the team has grown around a stronger group of leaders. Magnaldi also suggested that the new deal may take her through the final two years of her road career.
“I have renewed for another two years, probably the final two of my road career,” Magnaldi said in the team’s announcement of her new contract.
Staying with the same group was a major part of the decision. Magnaldi said the team has become a second family over the past five seasons and that leaving the people who have supported her through that period made little sense as she approaches the closing part of her career.
Photo Credit: GettyMagnaldi has settled into a valuable support role
Magnaldi joined the UAE project in 2022 and has increasingly worked for riders such as Elisa Longo Borghini, Paula Blasi and Maëva Squiban, particularly on climbing days where her consistency has made her an important part of the team’s support structure.
She has still found opportunities for results of her own. Magnaldi finished second to Célia Gery at the 2026 GP Féminin de Chambéry, having won the race solo a year earlier, and added the Italian gravel title in July after starting the season as the reigning European gravel champion.
One of the moments she picked out from 2026 was not a personal result at all. Magnaldi was part of the UAE squad when Paula Blasi won La Vuelta Femenina on the Angliru, and said the celebrations afterwards summed up the sense of unity within the team.
Her priorities for the next two seasons will stay broadly the same. Magnaldi wants to continue as a reliable domestique, take her own chances when the race situation allows and keep gravel in her programme where possible.
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Photo Credit: Florian Frison
UAE continue locking in their 2027 squad
Magnaldi’s renewal is another piece of UAE Team L’IMAD’s roster planning for next season.
The team has already signed Pfeiffer Georgi on a three-year deal from 2027, while Mavi García has postponed her planned retirement and extended through 2027.
Keeping Magnaldi gives UAE an experienced rider who already understands her role within the team and has shown she can contribute deep into major stage races while still taking results when given freedom.
The extension has also been added to ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling transfers hub, which is tracking confirmed moves, renewals and departures ahead of the 2027 season.
