Maeve Plouffe went from the high of representing Australia on the track at the Olympic Games in Paris last season to the low of an uncertain future on the road.
The 25-year-old made her Women's WorldTour debut with DSM-firmenich in 2023 and had hoped her contract with the Dutch squad would be renewed for 2025. Not distracted by the track goals at the Games in August of 2024, Plouffe was quick to refocus on finishing the road season with them strongly.
"The Olympics was massive, but I was on the bike doing four hours the next day," she told Cyclingnews before the start of the women's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Saturday where she was racing with ARA Australian Cycling.
"I still had a big WorldTour schedule, and I was really eager to get some good results on the board, and not even for myself, but just do some good work and get some good road races. I ended the season quite well and on quite good form."
Plouffe wrapped up her 2024 campaign at the Simac Ladies Tour in October, where teammate Franziska Koch finished second overall behind winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx – Protime), but the contract extension she was hoping for never came.
"I had my off-season and then it was a little bit of a struggle because I didn't realise I wasn't getting a WorldTour contract until quite late in the season, so that was a very stressful end to my season, trying to scramble around, find a team," she said.
"I don't know the date exactly, but it was already when most teams were full, let's just say that I knew it would be competitive, especially with a lot of teams folding … lots of riders on the market, but I was obviously hoping for an extension."
Plouffe found a lifeline in Hess – a British-registered Continental team she hopes to be competitive in races across Belgium and the Netherlands, as she looks to balance road and track commitments with a view to the LA Games in 2028. She is on the hunt for a coach who understands that balance but enjoyed being her own taskmaster through the pre-season and in the lead-up to the Australian summer of cycling, where she’s been competing with the national composite team.
"I've just been my own coach, doing my own thing, and enjoying racing. I feel like I really needed that, so I'm happy with my form here. It's not as specific or targeted as it could be, but I think it's just what I needed," she said.
"I want to be in the sport for a really long time, so I think it's, like, looking after myself long-term. And it's been sort of the gap I needed."
Plouffe opened the 2025 season at the Santos Women's Tour Down Under in South Australia, racing with the ARA Australian Cycling Team where she finished outside the time limit on stage three to Stirling.
"That was horrible,” she said of Stirling. “I would love a flat day of TDU. Unfortunately, my sprint day I had a mechanical and didn’t have gears for the whole rest of the race, so that was my day done. I was pretty sad. But everyone adapted and we got some good results for the team."
Plouffe is once again serving as a road captain at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for the national squad before a return to Europe that will see her step out with a new team to continue her development on the road.
"This Belgian, Dutch style racing, even road racing in general, like, it is still somewhat new to me," she said.
