Six months after celebrating a women’s junior UCI Cyclo-cross World Championship Isabella Holmgren covered her mouth with a gloved hand in shock as she earned a second world title, this time in the women’s junior cross-country race at Mountain Bike World Championships.
After a decisive win in the MTB XCO race and eighth place in the women’s junior road race in Glasgow, she then inked a two-year contract with Lidl-Trek, along with her twin sister Ava. The dynamic duo is now set to race in multiple disciplines with the Women’s WorldTour team beginning in January 2024. Ava, by the way, won the junior’s silver medal at cyclocross Worlds, the pair making history for Canada as the first riders to win medals at a Cyclocross World Championships event.
The Holmgren sisters are not identical. They have distinct physical characteristics, riding styles and personalities. At a race, Isabella stands out with a 10-12 cm height advantage over her sister. Tall in stature and lots of tall milestones accomplished as a teenager, there is so much more to do as an under-23 rider.
For an interview to learn more about the young, talented riders, Cyclingnews caught up with Isabella first to learn more about her upbringing in a cycling-focused family, find out if her head has stopped spinning from a wildly successful year and where the road, and trails, will take her with the new Lidl-Trek team.
Cyclingnews: You grew up with an active family in Ontario. Tell me about family competitiveness with parents, both who competed in cycling, and brother Gunnar, who has earned top-10 finishes on the U23 Mountain Bike World Cup circuit. Was everything you did a “who can do it faster” scenario?
IH: I grew up in a very active family. The whole family rode bikes when we were younger and we would do weekly series at Hardwood Ski and Bike recreation centre. It was a really nice family activity that we looked forward to. We are certainly a competitive family when it comes to card and board games, but when it comes to cycling, I’m really only competitive with Ava.
However, we use our competitiveness in a positive way that pushes us to go harder in training. On the other hand, we’re also able to just enjoy a nice endurance ride together (maybe only with a few sign sprints).
CN: What other sports or activities have you enjoyed, besides riding a bike?
IH: Ava and I grew up playing many sports. I think this was an important thing to do as kids since we were able to try different…
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