New Zealand’s track cycling star Ally Wollaston (23) has signed a two-year deal with the French WorldTour team. This contract will see Wollaston, who won bronze at Paris 2024, joining the international road biking team at the start of 2025 and riding for them until the end of 2026.
The cyclist only joined AG Insurance-Soudal in 2021. During her tenure with the Belgian road bike racing team, she acquired a WorldTour license, meaning she is set for the UCI Women’s World Tour. The UCI is, of course, one of the most popular mountain biking events in the world, both in terms of spectating and sports betting.
UCI tours are held annually, meaning Wollaston will likely compete on behalf of FDJ-SUEZ in 2025. To place a bet on upcoming mountain bike competitions, online betting sites are recommended over retail betting sites. Chirag Dubey states that these sites come with more betting options, meaning it’s possible to wager on sports such as biking, which are not as popular or easy to find at other bookmakers, compared to sports such as horse racing or football (source: https://www.sportscasting.com/betting-sites/).
Speed and versatility
The general manager of FDJ-SUEZ, Stephen Delcourt, stated that Wollaston was selected due to her “speed, versatility, and attacking spirit”. Delcourt and the rest of the team had been keeping tabs on the New Zealander over the last three seasons and also described her as having “pure talent”. Following her performances this year, the French team finally decided to approach her.
A multi-disciplined rider, Wollaston’s first notable cycling achievement was in 2019 when she formed part of the New Zealand women’s team that won the team pursuit race at the 2019-2020 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong.
In the same year, she achieved a gold medal in the individual pursuit category at the 2019 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships.
These early victories paved the way for her professional racing career, which started in 2021 when she joined NXTG Racing – also known as AG Insurance-Soudal. Her first European appearance – and win – for the team was at the Grand Prix du Morbihan in May 2022.
New Zealand then selected her to represent her nation at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. However, a wrist injury sustained during the 2022 Tour De France Femmes prevented her from competing.
Rocky start to 2024
After earning her WorldTour license at NXTG, the cyclist won her first WorldTour victory at the Women’s Tour Down Under in January 2024. However, she developed knee problems shortly after which made cycling difficult. Wollaston eventually had to undergo surgery at the end of March, which cast doubt on her ability to compete in events throughout 2024.
Luckily, Wollaston made a full and quick recovery from her surgery and made it to Paris. Elsewhere in 2024, the New Zealander also won two stages of the Spanish road biking race the Volta a Catalunya in June.
Wollaston at the Olympics
Not only was Wollaston able to compete in the Olympics, but she also contributed massively to New Zealand’s statistics.
Firstly, she joined Bryony Botha, Nicole Shields, and Emily Shearman to form New Zealand’s team pursuit. Together, they achieved a silver medal, despite leading the race most of the way. They finished with an impressive time of 4 minutes 04.927s. Unfortunately, they were beaten by the USA, with their pursuit team achieving a time of 4 minutes 04.306s.
Given the team’s solid effort throughout this race, New Zealand was definitely the most deserving of first place. However, finishing in second place was an improvement on the team’s performance during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Three years ago, the team – which then only included Botha – finished in eighth place. Wollaston’s efforts helped New Zealand finish in eighth place overall in terms of total Olympic medal count.
Wollaston then went to represent NZ in the women’s omnium, which was the last race of the games. Compared to her efforts in the team pursuit, she made a relatively weaker start to this category. She dropped to seventh place during the elimination and tempo races and then briefly to eighth place during the points race.
However, during this final race of the night, she managed to pick up significant momentum and lapped the field twice. This final push saw her finish on the podium, achieving a bronze medal for her team. To go from eighth to third place proves her determination and ability to turn a race around – definitely qualities that FDJ-SUEZ looks for. It was exciting events like this that helped the Olympics gain 850 million unique viewers on YouTube.
Final thoughts
Ally Wollaston has built herself a solid reputation over the last five years as a powerful cyclist, a dedicated sportsperson, and, above all, a team player. Given her collection of medals and her ability to overcome injury and win silver at the Olympics, there is no one more deserving in the world of women’s cycling to join FDJ-SUEZ.
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