‘Moving teams is like moving house’ was the metaphor recently used by Niamh Fisher-Black‘s Lidl-Trek teammate Anna Henderson when discussing with Cyclingnews how switching squads feels to a rider. But in the case of Fisher-Black, moving on from SD Worx-Protime to the American team at the end of 2024 brought a whole extra challenge, too.
Quite apart from the more predictable fresh round of hopes and concerns a new team (or residence) invariably implies, for Fisher-Black, switching squads also involved her developing over the months into a bigger new role as leader. That’s a lot of plates to juggle, and as she told Cyclingnews and other reporters last December at the Lidl-Trek training camp, even though the 25-year-old took fifth in the Tour de France and silver in the World Championships road race last season, it was not at all a straightforward process.
The changes of 2025
As for what made it a breakthrough year and that great performance in Rwanda, which only saw her fall short at the final fence, Fisher-Black points mainly to psychological factors rather than to important changes in training or racing style.
“I have to say it’s something that I had to change from my side a little bit, and the margin between being a top rider in the peloton and being a winner is so small.
“I would almost say I grew up a little bit this year. The big change into a new team – it opened my eyes a bit to new characters and a new sense of belief in me from the team, and I really like who they built me up to be,” she says.
“I guess they helped me take a different perspective on races and maybe be a bit easier on myself, being more confident. I think the other riders on the team – they were patient with me.”
Being in a team with plenty of established leaders, such as SD Worx-Protime, as she was for four years prior to joining Lidl-Trek, had perhaps made it too easy to stay in their shadow, she agreed, although in any case, the actual impetus to change her approach could only come from herself.
“In the end, it always had to come from me, you know – that next step. So maybe that’s where the change was probably such a good thing for me, the point in my career to push me out of that comfort zone.”
While Fisher-Black says the process is not complete, the fact that much of it already took place in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the Tour de France as she worked her way up to fifth is hugely encouraging for the future.
That included her breakaway to third place on the crucial Col de la Madeleine summit finish, of course, arguably the ride that cemented her fifth place overall, but her rise to leadership status was a team effort as well, she says.
“I would argue I still could be a lot better, and I still need to take some steps, but for sure, I’m more confident now that I can compete with the best. I can see myself there, and that is a nice feeling.
“It took some time, for sure. Initially, I started to feel calmer, and then I had a setback, and you start to fall back into, like, the old ways.
“But I think that was where the team really helped me. They just sort of took me aside and said – We can just look at what we can do better, you know. And then from there on, I just kept sort of improving with that.
“The Tour was a rocky week for us all, for the whole team, and it was really cool how in the last few days we turned it around. I think that had a big impact on me seeing what you can do if you just, just race, you know, with nothing to lose.”
But as the Belgian saying has it, ‘Tall trees catch the most wind,’ and Fisher-Black recognised that getting used to the idea of being a top figure meant it certainly wasn’t plain sailing, even to reach that lift-off point in the Tour. It was as much or more of a personal journey, too, as it was a team one.
A team in transition
She noted that it is a different team from last year, a much bigger group and a bigger organisation. “Sometimes I felt like I didn’t think I deserved all the support that I get here,” she admitted.
“I think that’s been the biggest thing this year. In the beginning, I put so much pressure on myself, because I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to give back to this team.’
“But then I realised we’re all in it together, and it’s not helping anyone if I put that pressure on myself. But of course, I want to pay this team back at some point, because it’s amazing what they do for us.”
Like every rider from outside Europe, a sense of isolation can be tricky to handle, too. But even if she literally could not be further away from her own country, Fisher-Black is fortunate that her brother, Finn, is also a top-level racer in Europe, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. The two have a very close relationship when it comes to their respective jobs, she says – meaning an extra, important layer of support is readily available for her.
(It should be said that both being pros in Europe definitely brings benefits to both riders, too. Speaking to Cyclingnews during the 2025 Tour de Pologne, just a few hours after the Tour de France Femmes had finished, Finn Fisher-Black said that Niamh’s successful performances were a major motivation for him, too.)
“I think my brother and I are quite close in that aspect,” Fisher-Black confirmed back in December. “The reality is that high-performance sport is not an easy thing. There are highs and lows, and we both know that by now, and we also both live in foreign countries. So I think he is my main sounding board for advice and I hope he could say the same – but yeah, I think actually it’s probably more one-sided.
“I trust very much what my brother says, especially for any advice about cycling, actually, most things, I will ask him about. So it’s nice to have him there.”
Looking forward to this season, Fisher-Black has already taken seventh place overall in the UAE Tour Women, so things are definitely heading in the right direction in 2026. But the entire team’s ability to adapt over the last twelve months has been important as well.
Fisher-Black agrees that Lidl-Trek’s loss of two major figures in 2025, with no Elisa Longo Borghini for the first time in six years and the mid-season retirement of Lizzie Deignan – which will now be followed by the absence of Ellen van Dijk – did create a state of flux in the team.
The sense of a team changing direction made it easier for her to step up, perhaps, but she gives an even-handed answer when asked if the loss of such major reference points made it easier or harder.
“Yes and no, I think. It has been difficult in the sense for this team this year that it’s been such a transition year. I think people easily forget that this is a team sport and building a team takes time. We knew that was something that we maybe weren’t going to get straight away, but then again, it was refreshing to come into a team where there was no inbuilt hierarchy.
“Deciding that this person’s the leader was something we really could find with each other, and we could find the balance of that. So I think that was also what made my transition to the team easier in a sense, anyway.
“I don’t know, I have nothing to compare it to, but for me it was a really nice changeover.”
She agrees, too, that in 2026 there will be another big series of changes, given Van Dijk is no longer with the squad as a rider, although she’s also sure that, as she puts it, “We have some pretty quality riders to fill their shoes, and to make sure that we keep that sort of team cohesion going.
“The new riders also, I can already tell, fit in really well. So I think it is not only going to progress more, it’s not like we will go back to the beginning again.”
Stepping out of the box
To go back to the beginning of her time at Lidl-Trek, though, finding what she had to say about moving on at this point is interesting to compare with how Fisher-Black perceived her future 12 months ago, in January 2025, when talking to Cyclingnews‘ Simone Guiliani.
“I think it’s difficult to become a GC rider, I still need to grow a lot, and there are a lot of things I need to work on, and it takes a lot of support and not just expecting to be given that support, but also learning to demand that support,” she said back then.
“Also learning to be a leader, and I think that’s what a lot of really good cyclists or athletes forget – that this is a team sport. And firstly, I need to grow as a person, and that’s my next step: get to know this team and see if maybe I could go into that role.
“With a fresh start, a clean slate, it’s a really nice way for me to make that step. I mean, I joined SD Worx as a young girl, and I think I was always going to be that young girl to them. A new environment maybe gives me a new opportunity to step outside of that box.”
What’s coming next, if we fast-forward back to early 2026, is hard to say. But it’d be more than safe to say that, compared to January 2025, Fisher-Black has well and truly stepped outside of that box.
