Domestique Awards 2025: Breakthrough Rider Women - Ferguson, Holmgren, Squiban or Trinca Colonel

The second chance for you to vote in the Best Breakthrough Rider category, is for those individuals from the women's peloton who have caught our attention in 2025, impressing with their improvement as they take a step up to the top level of the cycling world. 

We have seen many outstanding and commendable performances this year from many people who have not been in the spotlight before, so it wasn't easy to select the four riders who made it onto our final list. Meet the nominees before you cast your vote.

Voting can be done via X and Instagram.

By her own admission, Cat Ferguson faced several difficult periods in 2025, yet she still achieved significant breakthroughs and results in her first professional season. The young Briton showed some of the versatility that characterised her junior career, winning a hilly one-day race in Navarra, a hilly one-day race in Andalusia, and a stage in her home country's World Tour race, where she finished second overall.

Additionally, she recorded a top 20 finish in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and a top 10 finish in the Brabantse Pijl, which are also highy commendable results. We saw the first attempts of an extraordinary talent this year from Cat Ferguson, and from next year onwards, she will be much more likely to be among the nominees for the Most Entertaining Rider category.

Currently the best pure climber of her generation, Canadian Isabella Holmgren took a huge step forward in her second year after a season spent settling in, rising to the top of the young and talented core of Lidl-Trek. Her rise this year began in May, when she won the Durango–Durango Spanish one-day race ahead of WorldTour veterans and in-form riders, followed by a sensational Giro d'Italia Donne, where Holmgren improved day by day to finish seventh in the general classification, topping it off with a third place on Stage 7, considered the queen stage. 

Holmgren manages her energy astonishingly well; it is very rare for a 20-year-old to be so aware of her abilities and to use them to the fullest. Her end-of-season one-day results also suggest that she has stepped up her game at every level and that Holmgren has a bright future ahead of her.

Winning a breakaway in any race in the women's peloton is a serious achievement, but winning two consecutive days in a race - particularly the biggest and most important race on the women's calendar, on home turf, in front of family and friends, is priceless. If Maëva Squiban did nothing else in her career than what she did in those 28 hours when she won the sixth and seventh stages of this year's Tour de France Femmes in solo fashion, her career would already be complete. 

However, the Breton’s year was not limited to this achievement, as she won silver in an incredibly close battle in the mixed team time-trial relay at the World Championships in Rwanda, came third in the Ardèche stage race, and provided Elisa Longo Borghini with significant support in the Ardennes classics. Overall, however, it was her victories and heroics at the Tour Femmes that earned her a place on this list, as hers was one of the best stories and performances of the year.

For any rider, the jump from the continental scene to the World Tour is a severe step, and few manage it flawlessly in their first year. Monica Trinca Colonel, however, did it perfectly, and the reason she is on this list is her excellent consistency, which made her one of the most successful riders on the Liv AlUla Jayco team in her first professional season. 

She finished in the top 20 in 62% of her race days, competed through the entire season without injury, and was in the final group of 12-15 riders fighting for the win in almost every race, which is a huge accomplishment even if it didn't result in many victories. At the same time, her seventh place on GC at the Vuelta Femenina showed that she can be counted on in stage races, as confirmed by her Ardèche GC victory later in 2025. Trinca Colonel's 2025 season is reminiscent of Kim Le Court's 2024, and next year could be the next leap forward following this season's breakthrough.

Also have a look at the other categories of the Domestique Awards!

Most Entertaining Race Men
Most Entertaining Race Women
Most Entertaining Rider Men
Most Entertaining Rider Women
Breakthrough Rider Men
Best Domestique Men
Best Domestique Women