Rachele Barbieri will leave Team Picnic PostNL at the end of the 2026 season and join Team SD Worx-Protime on a two-year contract through 2028, with the Italian recruited specifically to strengthen Lorena Wiebes’ sprint train.
The 29-year-old has spent much of recent seasons working as a lead-out rider, most notably for Charlotte Kool, and SD Worx-Protime see that experience as increasingly important as they plan for the future of their sprint group. Elena Cecchini retires at the end of this season, while Barbara Guarischi remains one of the peloton’s most experienced lead-out riders at 35.
Barbieri will initially slot into the existing structure around Wiebes and Guarischi, with the longer-term aim of taking on more responsibility in the final kilometres. She also wants to develop towards a road captain role rather than limiting herself solely to sprint preparation.
“I’m really looking forward to playing a part in the lead-out train for the world’s strongest sprinter,” Barbieri said. “I can’t imagine a better mentor than Barbara Guarischi.”
SD Worx-Protime plan for the future of Wiebes’ sprint train
Barbieri’s signing is as much about succession planning as adding another fast rider.
Guarischi has been central to Wiebes’ sprint train since joining SD Worx-Protime in 2023. Her positioning and ability to control the final kilometre have helped create one of the most reliable lead-outs in women’s cycling, something that has allowed Wiebes to begin her sprint from consistently strong positions.
ProCyclingUK’s Barbara Guarischi rider profile reflects how her role has increasingly shifted towards leading out Wiebes rather than chasing her own opportunities.
Barbieri is being brought in to learn within that system before eventually taking greater responsibility herself.
Sporting director Danny Stam said the team had been monitoring Barbieri for some time, with both Guarischi and Cecchini also recommending their compatriot.
“Elena Cecchini is retiring at the end of this season, and Barbara Guarischi is now 35 as well,” Stam said. “Rachele has been signed with an eye to the future.”
“She is set to fill the gap when Barbara eventually retires too, and will then become Lorena Wiebes’ new lead-out rider.”
The timing gives SD Worx-Protime the opportunity to make that transition gradually rather than attempting to replace years of experience in a single winter.
Barbieri has already shown she can work for an elite sprinter
Barbieri arrives with direct experience of the job SD Worx-Protime want her to perform.
She has spent 2026 with Team Picnic PostNL, where part of her role has been working around the team’s faster riders and helping create sprint opportunities. Her experience with Kool in previous seasons is particularly relevant to SD Worx-Protime, with Stam pointing to those performances as proof that Barbieri understands the demands of a specialist lead-out.
That requires a different skill set from simply being quick.
The final kilometres of a bunch sprint demand positioning, timing and the willingness to use energy before the finish rather than saving everything for an individual result. The best lead-out riders also need to make decisions when a planned sprint train breaks apart, which is increasingly common in women’s races as more teams commit riders to the final kilometres.
Barbieri’s current Team Picnic PostNL role has given her opportunities to work on those details within a squad containing several fast finishers.
At SD Worx-Protime, however, the objective becomes much clearer: deliver Wiebes to the final 200 metres in the best possible position.
Wiebes remains the reference point for sprinting
Barbieri joins a team built around the most successful sprinter in the women’s peloton.
Wiebes has again accumulated victories throughout 2026, combining conventional bunch sprint wins with results from increasingly selective races. She won four stages of the Tour of Britain Women in August before adding another victory at La Choralis Fourmies Féminine earlier this month.
Her Fourmies victory underlined how difficult she remains to beat even when the final approach becomes disorganised. Wiebes appeared boxed in before finding room and accelerating clear.
That ability can sometimes make the lead-out look less important than it is.
Getting Wiebes into the final kilometre without forcing her to repeatedly fight back through the bunch saves energy and reduces exposure to crashes. Guarischi has been central to that process, and Barbieri will now be developed as another rider capable of performing the same job.
The wider structure around Wiebes was already one of the strengths highlighted in ProCyclingUK’s SD Worx-Protime 2026 Women’s WorldTour team guide.
Cecchini’s retirement creates another gap to fill
Barbieri’s signing also comes as SD Worx-Protime prepare to lose Elena Cecchini.
The Italian confirmed last year that 2026 would be her final professional season, bringing to an end a career that has increasingly centred on road captain duties and support work in its latter stages.
ProCyclingUK covered Cecchini’s decision to make 2026 her final season when she extended for one more year.
Her departure removes more than another rider from the roster.
Cecchini has been one of the riders trusted to organise teammates, read developing race situations and make decisions before the finale. Those responsibilities are difficult to replace purely through physical strength.
Barbieri is interested in eventually taking on some of that work as well.
“Of course, I’ll primarily play a role in the sprint team, but I want to be a good support rider for any team leader,” she said. “I want to develop into a road captain, where my efforts can help the team achieve its objectives.”
Mediterranean Games victory offered a timely boost
Barbieri arrives at SD Worx-Protime after acknowledging that her last three seasons have not represented her best period individually.
August nevertheless provided an important victory.
She won the women’s road race at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, leading an Italian clean sweep ahead of Martina Fidanza and Guarischi. It was a useful reminder of the finishing speed that made Barbieri a successful sprinter earlier in her career.
She also has considerable track pedigree.
Barbieri won the scratch world title in 2017 and plans to return to the Track Cycling World Championships in Shanghai this October after three years away from the event. SD Worx-Protime are prepared to accommodate that part of her programme rather than asking her to focus exclusively on the road.
That flexibility was another factor in the move.
“I believe that track training makes you a stronger road cyclist,” Barbieri said. “My gold medal at the Mediterranean Games was a real boost.”
Barbieri gets the move she had hoped for
For Barbieri, the significance of the transfer goes beyond changing teams.
She described SD Worx-Protime as the team she had wanted to race for throughout her career and had already spent some time around the squad during an altitude camp in Livigno this season.
“I still can’t believe I’ll be riding for this iconic team next year,” she said. “This is a huge opportunity for me.”
The role is also unusually well defined for a new signing.
Barbieri is not joining to compete with Wiebes for sprint leadership. She is being recruited to help make the strongest sprint operation in the women’s peloton more sustainable beyond the careers of Cecchini and, eventually, Guarischi.
That gives the 29-year-old a clear route into the team while still leaving room for her responsibilities to grow.
For SD Worx-Protime, it is a move designed less around adding another individual winner and more around preserving the structure that has helped Wiebes keep winning.
