Maeva Squiban will remain with UAE Team L’IMAD through to the end of 2029 after signing a three-year contract extension with the team.
The 24-year-old French rider joined the structure in 2025 and has developed rapidly across her first two seasons, moving from an attacking stage hunter into a rider increasingly capable of producing results across one-day races, time trials and general classifications. Her breakthrough came at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, where consecutive solo stage victories in Ambert and Chambéry turned her into one of the defining riders of the race.
Squiban has continued that progression through 2026 rather than relying on those Tour wins to define her. Victory at the Trofeo Marratxí-Felanitx, second overall at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana and silver at the French National Time Trial Championships have all added different parts to her profile. She now wants the next phase of her career to focus increasingly on stage-race general classifications.
“I think I made steady progress and was able to learn a lot over those two seasons,” Squiban said.
Two Tour de France Femmes wins changed Squiban’s status
Squiban’s first season with the team had already produced encouraging performances before the Tour, but the scale of her breakthrough changed completely on Stage 6 from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert.
She attacked from the breakaway on a difficult hilly stage and rode clear to take her first victory for the team and her first Tour de France Femmes stage win. ProCyclingUK’s Stage 6 report from Ambert captured a performance built around exactly the qualities that have become central to her racing: climbing strength, aggression and a willingness to commit before the finish.
Squiban still identifies that afternoon as the most important moment of her first two seasons.
“If I have to choose only one moment, I would say Stage 6 of the Tour de France 2025. It was my first victory with the team jersey and also my first one in the Tour de France. Just a dream.”
What followed made the breakthrough considerably more impressive. Squiban returned the next day and won again in Chambéry, this time after another aggressive race that took her over the Col du Granier and into a long solo run towards the finish.
The Stage 7 victory in Chambéry showed that the first success had not come from one perfectly timed opportunity. Squiban was able to recover, attack again and beat another strong field only 24 hours later.
She finished the Tour with two stage victories and the Super Combative Rider prize, giving UAE one of the most memorable performances of the race outside the general classification battle.
2026 has shown a broader version of Squiban
The challenge after a breakthrough like that is avoiding becoming typecast as the rider who needs a breakaway and a difficult stage to win.
Squiban’s 2026 results have gone some way towards doing that. She opened her European season with victory at the Trofeo Marratxí-Felanitx, where the finish on Sant Salvador gave her a direct test against Marlen Reusser.
The Trofeo Marratxí-Felanitx race report showed a different route to victory from the Tour. Squiban repeatedly attacked on the final climb, forced Reusser to respond and then beat her from a two-rider finish rather than relying on a long solo move.
That was followed by second overall at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, an important result for a rider who increasingly wants to move towards general classification ambitions. The race had been one of the early opportunities identified in ProCyclingUK’s 2026 Setmana Ciclista Valenciana preview as a useful test of whether Squiban could turn her attacking strength into something more consistent over several days.
Her season has also included further performances at the Vuelta a Extremadura and La Vuelta Femenina, while June brought silver at the French National Time Trial Championships. Squiban finished only 11 seconds from the title, another indication that her improvement is not confined to climbing.
Photo Credit: GettyGeneral classification is now the next target
Squiban has been open about where she wants that development to lead.
“I’d like to improve a little bit in every area, but if I had to choose just one, it would be to improve my GC in stage races.”
That ambition makes sense given the direction of her results. She already has the climbing ability to stay relevant on difficult stages and the attacking instinct to take advantage when a race becomes tactical. Becoming a regular stage-race contender will require more consistency across several consecutive days and continued progress against the clock, rather than a complete change in the way she races.
The national time trial silver is therefore particularly useful. Squiban does not need to become one of the best specialists in the world, but reducing losses against the clock would make her climbing performances considerably more valuable in week-long races.
UAE Team L’IMAD have also shown that they can give her room to develop without making her carry the entire team’s ambitions. Squiban was part of a deep Tour de France Femmes 2026 squad built around Elisa Longo Borghini, where her attacking role complemented the team’s GC structure rather than competing with it.
That kind of environment gives her space to learn how to race classifications without losing the aggression that has produced her biggest wins.
Squiban sees no reason to change a successful environment
Squiban said the support she has received from both staff and teammates was central to her decision to extend.
“The team enabled me to learn a lot, thanks to the staff and the riders. Also to take part in the finest races and put in strong performances in some of them.”
She added that the decision to remain with the team was straightforward.
“I feel well with the team, so I didn’t see any reason to make a change.”
That matters because Squiban has reached the point where interest from elsewhere would be inevitable. Two Tour de France Femmes stage victories at 23, followed by further development at 24, make her exactly the sort of rider rival teams would want to secure before she reaches her peak years.
Instead, UAE Team L’IMAD have removed that uncertainty early and kept her through 2029.
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Photo Credit: Unipublic/Cxcling/Aritz Arambarri
UAE Team L’IMAD continue securing their longer-term core
Squiban’s extension also fits a wider pattern in the team’s recent contract work.
UAE Team L’IMAD have been securing important riders beyond 2026 rather than leaving their future dependent on another transfer cycle. The latest deal gives them one of the most promising French riders in the peloton through three more seasons and keeps a proven Tour stage winner within an already deep roster.
Team president Melissa Moncada said Squiban’s development has been about far more than the two Tour victories.
“We are very pleased to continue our journey with Maeva. Since joining the team, she has shown remarkable progression, both in terms of her performances and her maturity as a rider.”
Moncada added that the Tour wins were only the most visible part of a broader progression.
“Her two stage victories at the Tour de France Femmes last year were an incredible achievement, but they are only part of a broader development that we have seen over these two seasons. Maeva has the qualities, ambition and mentality to become an even more important rider in the years ahead.”
The extension will be tracked alongside the other confirmed deals shaping the future peloton in ProCyclingUK’s women’s cycling transfers hub.
Squiban still wants to race aggressively
The move towards GC ambitions does not mean Squiban intends to become a purely defensive stage racer.
Her best performances have come when she has been willing to attack before a race reaches its obvious conclusion, whether that meant going long at the Tour or repeatedly testing Reusser on Sant Salvador. That instinct has given UAE Team L’IMAD a useful option on days where a conventional team plan is unlikely to work.
Squiban’s own description of her ambitions remains much simpler than any long-term development programme.
“Of course, to win races. I am here for this. And to take pleasure on my bike and make my family proud of me.”
The next three seasons should show whether she can add consistent general classification results to a palmarès already containing two Tour de France Femmes stages. At 24, there is still plenty of development available, but the important part for UAE Team L’IMAD is already settled.
Squiban will be doing it in their colours through 2029.
