Who are the partners of cycling's biggesy stars? The partners behind Pogacar, Evenepoel, Kopecky, Vollering and more

Professional cycling is one of the most demanding sports in the world. Riders spend months away from home, travel constantly and live under immense pressure to perform. In that environment, the people closest to them often play a crucial role.

In this article, we take a closer look at the partners of some of the world’s best male and female cyclists and the role they play behind the scenes.

Urška Žigart is not only the partner of Tadej Pogačar, but she is also a professional cyclist herself.

The Slovenian rider enjoyed one of the strongest seasons of her career last year, finishing fifth in the Tour de Suisse, ninth in the Giro d’Italia, and second in the Tour de Romandie.

Žigart has long been considered a rider with significant potential. Earlier in her career, her results were sometimes limited by positioning and bike handling in the peloton. Her move to AG Insurance Soudal Team appears to have been an important step forward, with noticeable improvements in those areas and increasingly consistent results.

With her development continuing, the coming seasons could bring even more progress.

Oumaïma Rayane, often called “Oumi”, is the partner of Remco Evenepoel.

Unlike many others on this list, she is not involved in cycling professionally. Rayane recently graduated with a Master of Science in Applied Economic Sciences with a specialization in Finance.

Balancing university studies with the demanding lifestyle of a top professional cyclist is far from easy. She has often spoken about living out of a suitcase and missing classes due to travel and race schedules. Evenepoel’s injuries also added pressure, as she spent significant time helping him both physically and mentally during recovery periods.

Her ability to manage both responsibilities highlights the resilience required to live alongside an elite athlete.

Trine Marie Hansen is not only the wife of Jonas Vingegaard, she is also his manager.

Her outspoken nature has occasionally drawn attention. In the past she has criticized certain aspects of Visma Lease a Bike’s training approach, particularly the number of altitude camps that keep Vingegaard away from home for long periods.

She has also questioned some tactical decisions by the team, arguing that the Danish Tour de France winner should sometimes be given sole leadership.

Despite these moments of controversy, Vingegaard has always spoken highly of her. He has described Hansen as someone who helps him stay mentally balanced during stressful periods and plays a key role in maintaining perspective, especially after difficult moments such as his heavy crash in Itzulia Basque Country 2024.

Sarah De Bie is the wife of Wout van Aert. The couple has two children together, Georges and Jérôme.

They deliberately chose to start a family during Van Aert’s active career so their children could experience part of his sporting journey.

At the same time, that decision brings challenges. Injuries and busy race schedules mean De Bie often has to manage family life while Van Aert is recovering or traveling.

She has temporarily put her own career on hold to support the family, while also managing several business responsibilities, including bookkeeping, their clothing brand Panache, and administrative work related to their real estate investments.

Cameron Vandenbroucke is Tim Merlier's partner.

She briefly competed as a cyclist herself for Lotto Soudal and is currently an active runner. Her surname immediately stands out to cycling fans. She is the daughter of the late Frank Vandenbroucke, one of the most talented and enigmatic riders in cycling history.

Vandenbroucke and Merlier have a son together named Jules.

Axel Merckx is the partner of Lotte Kopecky. His last name also sounds quite familiar, as he is the son of the legend Eddy Merckx.

Axel Merckx was also a cyclist. He couldn’t fill his father’s shoes, but that isn't strange, as Merckx is still widely considered the best ever. However, Axel was also a very decent cyclist himself. He podiumed the Olympic road race in San Sebastian and Il Lombardia, got 4th in the World Championships road race while riding for Museeuw, who won the race, and won a Giro stage.

After his career, he founded Hagens Berman Jayco, which is considered to be one of the best development teams out there.

Taylor Phinney is the husband of Kasia Niewiadoma. He's the son of former cyclists Davis Phinney, who won two Tour de France stages, andConnie Carpenter-Phinney, who won the Olympic road race. Taylor was also a cyclist himself.

As a 1st year junior (2007), he already won the World championships time trial. In the early years of his career, he also raced on the track. He won the World's individual pursuit as a 2nd year junior (2008). A month later and only shortly after he turned 18, he was selected for the Olympic individual pursuit and became 7th. 

The season afterwards (2009), still as an 18-year-old, he already won the individual pursuit with the pros. The year after that (2010), he defended his title, but afterwards, he never returned to the track. On the road, he was racing for the Devo team Trek-Livestrong. He won the U23 edition of Paris-Roubaix, also as an 18-year-old (2009). A year later, he also went back-to-back there.

Later in the 2010 season, he became the U23 World time trial champion. Obviously, Phinney got a lot of attention from different WorldTour teams. He rode as a stagiaire for RadioShack at the end of 2010, but he ultimately chose the BMC Racing Team.

His best results as a professional cyclist include a Giro time trial win, a 2nd place at the World time trial, and a 4th place in both the Olympic road race and time trial. In 2014, he crashed heavily at the National Championships' road race. He only returned to racing 14 months later and never returned to his old level. He quit cycling in 2019, but still occasionally races on gravel.

Clément Berthet is the partner of Juliette Berthet. He is also a cyclist and currently rides for Groupama - FDJ United. However, he has yet to start a race in 2026, as he's currently suffering from a knee injury. The two met while they were both studying in Besançon; ten years later, they are a married couple.

Berthet has never won a pro race, but he's been close numerous times. In 2021, the Frenchman made the transition from mountainbiking to road cycling. He didn't have any problems doing so and immediately became a good WorldTour rider.

Iván Romeo is the partner of Cat Ferguson. They are both young, rising talents and riding for the Movistar Team. There's not a lot to be found about how they got together, but riding for the same definitely has something to do with it.

Romeo turned pro in 2023 and is mainly a time trial talent, but he's also evolving into a breakaway specialist. In 2024, he won the U23 time trial World championships. 

Last year, he even started going for the classification in the week-long stage races, for example, by finishing 4th in the UAE Tour. He won a stage out of the breakaway in the Criterium du Dauphiné and was also in the running for the 20th stage of the Tour de France. 

However, in the final, he heavily crashed and, as a result, lost the chance to win the stage. This year, he is evolving further, for example, by winning the Ruta del Sol.

Jan de Voogd is the partner of Demi Vollering. The two met on Instagram and immediately hit things off. De Voogd is actually the person who got Vollering into cycling and advised her to fully focus on the sport. You could say that really paid off.

The two are engaged and are getting married soon. Vollering also stated that after her career, she wants to have children with De Voogd.

Moniek Tenniglo is the partner of Marianne Vos. It's not known how and where the two met, or how long they have been together. 

However, Tenniglo was also a professional cyclist, and they did ride in the same team from 2014 until 2017, so maybe that's where the chemistry ignited. 

As a cyclist, Tenniglo didn't obtain any major results. She rode on the pro level for 8 seasons.