Stepping into the World Tour with Israel-Premier Tech Roland
As you might have heard, I will be riding for Israel-Premier Tech Roland this season. My decision to give road racing another go might come as a surprise to some, as I have the reputation of not really enjoying riding in the bunch ;) . And to be honest, right after winning the Olympic road race in Tokyo, my first thought was not exactly “I want to join a pro team now”. But things have changed, I think I have become more mature (more relaxed??) as a person and I want to take on this challenge that will involve many uncertainties and uncontrollable moments, but also a unique chance to grow through the experience and perhaps achieve some things I can be proud of.
During the months after Tokyo it quickly became clear to me that I’m not yet done with sports. Perhaps more than ever I started to enjoy the process of training and self-improvement (if it were only about “outcome goals” I guess I could have retired because it would be hard to surpass an Olympic gold medal for me). My first plan was to focus on a few select races, mainly time-trials, and kind of keep doing things as I had done before Tokyo.
But I was a full-time athlete now and somehow just having a handful races per year to focus on was no longer fulfilling. There were times when I felt like I was missing out, races that I wanted to do, but that I didn’t have a (UCI) team for. I jumped at the opportunity to race the Vuelta with the Spanish team Soltec, and the bittersweet experience there confirmed to me that I want more of this kind of challenges in my life.
More of this? :D
So, what’s on the menu for 2023? I don’t have an exact plan yet. There will be a few races that I will participate in just to get used to being uncomfortable ;) . E.g. I will start the season early at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana (Feb 16-19). Ultimately, I want to perform well in some of the “Grands Tours” (I’m using the quotation marks because in women’s cycling they are not yet “grand”). I still have to decide which ones – it mainly depends on the course profiles and not all of them have been revealed. But the Tour de France with the combination of a hard mountain stage and a flat ITT definitely looks interesting :) .