Marta Cavalli will return to racing in 2025, with the talented Italian climber leaving FDJ-Suez for DSM-Firmenich PostNL.
The Italian won the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne in 2022 and was fourth overall in the Giro Donne. However, she was hit from behind and crashed hard in the 2022 Tour de France Femmes, suffered a concussion and took time out to recover in the spring of 2023 and much of 2024 due to lingering issues.
That run of bad luck continued in February when she crashed at a training camp and in July she was hit by a car. She raced for just five days in 2024.
Cavalli has avoided the spotlight as she took time away from the sport to heal but recently returned to social media.
"Time cancels everything except emotions, only they can become memories," she wrote in Italian on Instagram last week.
"Something has ended and something has changed. For sure that something is part of me forever.
"Get back on your feet, then on the bike, believe in yourself and rebuild your future."
DSM-Firmenich PostNL announced that Cavalli will race for the women's WorldTour team for the next three seasons until 2027.
She'll be their main GC prospect after talented French climber Juliette Labous did the opposite transfer and went from DSM to FDJ-Suez earlier in the transfer window.
"Marta is physically a very talented bike rider, and she has taken some incredible wins at the highest level of the sport," DSM-Firmenich PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna said.
"Of course, she has had a lot of misfortune in recent years which has been tough on her, but she is a really determined character who has shown tenacity to fight back to where she is now, and she always wants to give her all.
"We believe that we have a good support network within the team that can help her to regain her confidence even more; and with our experts and coaches that together we can compete for results in the biggest races."
Cavalli was considered one of the best climbers in the women's peloton at her peak and so a potential Grand Tour contender. She won the Mont Ventoux Challenge in 2022 but also finished fifth in Paris-Roubaix.
2025 and a place DSM-Firmenich PostNL is a chance for her to restart her career, while FDJ-Suez enter a new era built around the best climber in the world, Demi Vollering.d
"I really enjoyed my time at FDJ-Suez but after four years I wanted a change and a chance to meet new people and experience new things. That gives me a lot of motivation to continue to make steps and I think there are opportunities to do that with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL," Cavalli said.
"From our first talks the team has really trusted in me and believes that I can get back to where I was as a rider, and that was something important to me. There are a lot of people within the team who can help me grow as a rider and person.
"I’ve been a bit unlucky the past few years, so this is a good chance to restart and my goal is to come back to the highest level possible at Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.”
