Pedalling Towards Equality: Team dsm-firmenich PostNL closing the gender gap in the professional peloton

Women’s cycling has been progressing rapidly over the last few years, but there is still a way to go for women’s elite racing as a whole to reach true equality. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL is happy to announce that they are enhancing their efforts to close the gender gap in the professional peloton.

One team, one goal

A pioneer in the sport, the team has been a forerunner in women’s cycling, setting up their very own Women’s program in 2011. This was further expanded upon in 2017 with the introduction of their Development program; highlighting the team’s will to provide a platform for riders of both genders and multiple ages to develop, perform and compete.

The gap is closing, at pace

The incredible growth of the women’s side of the sport in the past years is something to be applauded. Racing has quite frankly never been more exciting. This can be seen with the massive interest and viewing figures for some of the biggest races on the calendar.

All three programs operating under the same umbrella allows all of the team’s riders to benefit from shared expertise and knowledge of the ever-changing and expansive world of professional cycling. And it’s not just expertise and scientific knowledge that is shared, resources and materials are too. This can be seen for example with personalised nutrition during Grand Tours, altitude camps for the most advanced training and optimal preparations for the biggest races with the best equipment.

Delivering a strong message; ahead of the curve

However, for the sport to continue to progress, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL believes that more action needs to be taken.

With the help of our co-title partner PostNL, who share the same ideology on sustainability, health, inclusiveness and outlook on equal chances in life, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL can proudly announce that from next year the minimum salary for World Tour neo-pros and World Tour elite contracts will be the same for both their Men and Women programs.

Steps to bridge the payment gap like this are crucial to further develop and professionalise the sport alongside its commercial growth, to give female athletes access to the same resources as their male counterparts and enable them to make a genuine and comfortable living from doing what they love the most.

Step by step

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL Head of Finance and Operations Marloes Poelman: ‘’There is still a way to go to for women’s elite racing as a whole to professionalise and reach true equality. We must consider important aspects such as improving safety standards, the economic model underpinning this professional sport, TV coverage, accommodation of team personnel and facilities at races, and modernising the global cycling calendar for men and women’s events to better coincide and complement one another; to name a few examples. These are all steps that we hope to see in the upcoming years and that we will play our part in to help progress.

“Giving athletes the same opportunities and access to the same resources is something that we have always believed in – you see this with our Women, Men, and Development programs all intertwined and operating underneath the same umbrella. Having PostNL on board as co-title partner provides us with the opportunity to make a step towards closing the gap in a financial respect. We feel it’s a logical step and hope to build on this together in the future with the rest of the sport.”

PostNL CEO Herna Verhagen concluded: “We’re a proud partner of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL and we’re happy to see a very important next step will take place starting January 2025. Amongst many other actions to further support the development of female cyclists, equalising the minimum salaries for the Women and Men programs is a very important step. At PostNL we ensure equal pay for equal work. Closing the financial gap between male and female employees has been a crucial aspect to start the partnership with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.”