UAE Team L’IMAD will stop running its UAE Development Team as a separate UCI Women’s Continental squad from 2027, bringing to an end the in-house team that has acted as a bridge between junior or early senior racing and the organisation’s WorldTour roster since 2023.
The change does not mean UAE are abandoning rider development. In the team’s announcement, UAE Team L’IMAD said the current Development Team riders will continue to receive support during 2027, tailored to their individual needs and stage of progression. Young riders judged ready for the step up will also continue to be developed inside the WorldTour structure rather than through a separate Continental team.
What disappears is the middle layer itself: a dedicated UCI team with its own roster and race programme. For riders who are not yet ready for WorldTour racing, that changes the pathway considerably. UAE say they will support each athlete through the transition, but the 2027 model will rely more heavily on individual placements and opportunities rather than a full development calendar run under the same organisation.
Team president Melissa Moncada said: “Developing young talent remains part of our commitment to women’s cycling.” She added that the aim is to give young riders in the WorldTour team the time, guidance and race opportunities needed to progress.
The development team produced a genuine route into the WorldTour
The decision closes a project that had already produced several clear examples of progression. UAE Development Team was created for the 2023 season as the first UAE-registered women’s Continental team, initially built from the remnants of the long-running Valcar structure while also forming part of UAE’s wider programme to develop Emirati riders.
Lara Gillespie became one of its first major success stories. The Irish rider spent 2023 and the first half of 2024 with the development squad, winning the Irish road title in her first season before taking the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa overall and Antwerp Port Epic in 2024. She stepped up to the WorldTour team during that season and has since established herself as one of UAE’s strongest one-day racers, including victory at the 2026 Argenta Classic.
Paula Blasi’s rise was even quicker. UAE signed the Spaniard to the Development Team for 2025 after barely a year in the sport. Within months she had won the Gran Premio della Liberazione and Pointe du Raz Ladies Classic, prompting a mid-season move into the WorldTour squad. She then won the opening time trial at the 2025 Tour de Romandie and the European under-23 road title before developing into one of the standout riders of 2026. ProCyclingUK looked at that rapid progression in our profile of Blasi during the Tour de France Femmes.
Federica Venturelli followed the same route on a longer timetable. She joined the Development Team in 2024, won two stages of the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa that spring and continued to develop across road and track through 2025. UAE promoted her to the WorldTour roster for 2026, and she has already converted that opportunity into road success, including victory at Dwars door de Westhoek in June.
Febe Jooris also moved from the Development Team into the WorldTour set-up for 2026 after one season in the programme. Her progression was less about immediate victories than giving a young time-trialist a year of UCI racing and mixed-team experience before the step up. The 2025 roster had been built with exactly that purpose in mind, with Jooris, Blasi and Amalia Debarges among the additions covered by ProCyclingUK when the Development Team expanded for 2025.
The programme also helped riders reach the WorldTour elsewhere
Success was not limited to riders who moved into UAE’s own senior team. Fee Knaven has spent 2025 and 2026 inside the development structure and will move to Human Powered Health for 2027, signing a two-year WorldTour contract. Her move shows that the programme had value even when the final step was made outside the UAE organisation. ProCyclingUK covered Knaven’s WorldTour move in August.
The team also accumulated its own results. Linda Zanetti won Omloop van Borsele and Respect Ladies Race Slovakia in 2023, while Gillespie’s Giro Mediterraneo Rosa success, Venturelli’s two stage wins there, Sara Fiorin’s victory at the Umag Trophy and Gillespie’s Antwerp Port Epic win made 2024 a particularly productive season.
The boundary between the two UAE squads was often deliberately flexible. WorldTour riders regularly appeared in Development Team line-ups, while young riders were given opportunities alongside senior teammates. That approach continued into 2026, when mixed selections were used repeatedly in lower-category races. Sofie van Rooijen won Konvert Kortrijk Koerse in August after a Development Team line-up helped control the race and deliver her to the sprint.
There were also successes away from the trade-team calendar. Rinata Sultanova won the Asian Games individual time trial this season after also taking the Kazakhstan national time-trial title, while young riders including Giada Silo, Magdalena Leis and others have represented their national teams at World and European championships.
Why the 2027 change matters
The strongest argument for UAE’s new model is that the WorldTour team is now large and experienced enough to bring selected young riders into its own race programme without maintaining a second UCI licence. Blasi, Gillespie, Venturelli and Jooris have all shown that the organisation can identify riders and move them upwards when they are ready.
The harder question is what happens to riders who need another full season before that point. A Continental development team offers guaranteed race days, a stable staff structure and a clear level between amateur or junior racing and the WorldTour. Removing that team means those riders will need another route to the same experience.
UAE have explicitly said the current riders will not simply be left to find that route alone, but details of where each rider will race in 2027 have not yet been announced. That will be the part of the transition worth watching over the coming months.
The Development Team’s four seasons have still left a clear legacy. It produced riders who are now winning WorldTour races, helped others secure contracts elsewhere and gave UAE a controlled way of moving prospects into senior racing. From 2027, the organisation is keeping the development objective while removing the standalone team that delivered it.
