Lisa van Belle will remain with Team SD Worx-Protime through the end of 2028 after agreeing a two-year contract extension with the Dutch Women’s WorldTour squad.
The 22-year-old joined SD Worx-Protime in the spring of 2025 and has spent the past season and a half combining an increasingly substantial road programme with her track ambitions. The team see Van Belle developing into an all-round rider capable of contributing deep into the Classics and potentially becoming part of Lorena Wiebes’ lead-out.
That latter role would build on something SD Worx-Protime have already used. Van Belle was part of the team that controlled the closing kilometres when Wiebes won the 2025 Dutch road race title, taking over in the lead-out after Mischa Bredewold before Femke Markus and Femke Gerritse completed the set-up.
For a rider still relatively early in her WorldTour career, the extension gives Van Belle another two seasons to turn those support roles into a more defined place within one of the deepest squads in women’s cycling.
SD Worx-Protime see Van Belle as a future Classics rider
Sports manager Danny Stam believes Van Belle’s development since joining the team justifies the longer commitment.
“Lisa is a young rider who is constantly taking small steps forward,” Stam said. “With her background as a track cyclist, you know she can develop even further on the road. She has a broad range of abilities.”
The Classics are where Stam believes that range can eventually become particularly useful. Van Belle has the power developed through track racing, experience of fast and technical races and enough versatility for the team to see her as more than a specialist lead-out rider.
“She should be particularly effective in the classics in the future,” Stam said. “I also see her perhaps playing a role in the lead-out train for Lorena Wiebes.”
Van Belle’s 2026 road programme has already included races that fit that development. She was part of a strong SD Worx-Protime group at Dwars door de Westhoek, making the major break alongside Bredewold, Markus and Marta Lach, and has continued building experience across the Belgian one-day calendar.
The team’s wider approach to 2026 has placed renewed emphasis on its Classics strength, something covered in our SD Worx-Protime 2026 Women’s WorldTour team guide. For Van Belle, learning to survive further into those races gives her an obvious route towards becoming more valuable to the team.
The Vuelta was Van Belle’s introduction to WorldTour racing
Van Belle’s arrival at SD Worx-Protime came in April 2025 after beginning the season with Velopro-Alphamotorhomes, having previously raced for Proximus-Cyclis.
Her first major assignment was significant. Van Belle went straight into the line-up for La Vuelta Femenina, joining Anna van der Breggen, Bredewold, Gerritse, Elena Cecchini and Mikayla Harvey for her introduction to stage racing at the highest level.
The team had already described her as a new signing in its 2025 Vuelta Femenina plans, but Van Belle now admits the experience felt like being thrown straight into the difficult part of the sport.
“I made my debut in the Vuelta Femenina at the age of 21, and it felt like being thrown in at the deep end,” she said. “But it turned out to be a crash course that taught me a great deal.”
That first season was largely about adapting to the level around her rather than chasing individual results. Van Belle has since become more regularly involved in the team’s racing and says the experience available within the squad is one of the main reasons she wanted to remain.
She singled out Cecchini, Wiebes, Lotte Kopecky, Bredewold, Barbara Guarischi and Van der Breggen as important influences during her first 18 months.
“Everyone shares their expertise with you,” Van Belle said. “They guide you, offer advice and pass on their experience. Thanks to that, I’ve already managed to take a few important steps forward.”
Van Belle wants to become useful deeper into races
The immediate ambition is not a move into protected leadership.
Van Belle instead wants to broaden the number of situations in which SD Worx-Protime can use her, particularly as races become harder. That means improving enough to reach the later stages of the Classics rather than completing her work before the decisive selection.
“I think it’s important to do my bit,” she said. “That’s why, first and foremost, I want to develop myself as an all-rounder so that I can play a part in even more finals and support the team in that way.”
The longer-term goal is to earn opportunities of her own, but SD Worx-Protime have enough established leaders that there is no need to force that transition. Wiebes remains the obvious reference for sprint races, while Kopecky, Bredewold and several others give the team proven options when the terrain becomes more selective.
Van Belle’s job over the next two seasons is to become increasingly useful around those riders and see whether individual chances follow.
The Wiebes madison partnership points towards Los Angeles 2028
The contract also keeps Van Belle and Wiebes together through the build-up to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Van Belle already had significant track credentials before joining SD Worx-Protime and has increasingly developed her madison partnership with Wiebes. The pair won the UCI Track World Cup round in Nilai, Malaysia, in April 2026, strengthening the case for continuing with the combination.
They had also raced together at the 2025 Track World Championships in Chile, where their madison ended in a crash after they had put themselves into a strong position.
Stam believes the partnership has the potential to continue all the way to Los Angeles.
“You can see Lorena and Lisa growing as a pair,” he said. “It’s also great for us as a team when we get to see a pair from our squad in action on the velodrome at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.”
For Van Belle, the track programme is not separate from her road development. She believes the repeated accelerations, positioning and tactical demands of track racing can make her more effective in the road roles SD Worx-Protime are now targeting.
“The madison project with Lorena Wiebes also motivates me,” she said. “It will only strengthen our bond if, as team-mates, we can win a jersey together on the track.”
That overlap also makes the potential lead-out role particularly logical. The two riders are already learning how to read each other’s movements at high speed on the track, while Van Belle has begun contributing to Wiebes’ road lead-outs.
Van Belle chooses continuity over a change of team
Van Belle said she did not need much time to consider the extension once SD Worx-Protime made the offer.
“When I was asked to extend my contract, I actually knew straight away: I want to stay here,” she said. “I feel that Team SD Worx-Protime offers me the right environment to continue developing.”
The decision gives SD Worx-Protime time to develop Van Belle without requiring an immediate breakthrough result. Her progress so far has been built through taking on increasingly demanding jobs rather than through a sudden run of individual victories.
By 2028, the team hope that development produces a rider capable of helping Wiebes in the fastest finishes, remaining involved much later in the Classics and combining both with a serious Olympic track programme.
For Van Belle, the next two seasons are about turning that range into a more complete road rider rather than choosing between the different parts of it.
