Ava Holmgren wanted to show off her junior women’s Pan-American Cyclocross Championships jersey in World Cup races this season and soared to a podium finish on Sunday at World Cup Maasmechelen in Belgium.
Competition has been fierce, especially since the 17-year-old doesn’t need to look far from home to find her top challenger, fellow Canadian and twin sister Isabella, who was the bronze medalist a year ago at Pan-Ams in Garland, Texas.
The dynamic duo both race for Stimulus Orbea Racing Team and have raced all four UCI Cyclo-cross World Cups this season. They were part of the elite fields in Waterloo and Fayetteville since the junior categories were absent. Both sisters finished in the top 10 of the junior race at World Cup Tabor – Ava one spot off the podium, her first top five at a World Cup. One week later, Ava outsprinted two competitors, Cat Ferguson of Great Britain and French rider Célia Gery, to earn her first podium in a World Cup contest, doing so in Belgium.
“This was a season-long goal of mine and to reach it yesterday was absolutely insane. It means a lot to be racing with other junior women and to be recognized as a World Cup category,” Ava Holmgren posted to Instagram on Monday.
She went on to thank three female cyclists who “help this sport grow and for being such great role models for women over the past years” – the now-retired 10-time British cyclocross champion Helen Wyman, Czech multi-discipline rider Katarina Nash, and three-time elite women’s Canadian cyclocross champion Maghalie Rochette.
There is a tidal wave of rising young stars in the women’s peloton, most evident at this past weekend’s podium sweep in the elite women’s World Cup contest by 20 year olds, the Dutch trio led by Fem van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) with her fourth consecutive victory. The Holmgren sisters have their eyes on the U23 riders and want to take advantage of a final junior season.
“This will be my last year in the junior category and I’m excited to see how it turns out,” Ava Holmgren told Cyclingnews during the US World Cup swing. “So for the first-ever elite races of the season, I try not to focus too much on results and more about getting in the groove and really gaining all that experience from a different racing dynamic.
“I do have to say that I will be looking at the U23 riders. I’ll be racing against these riders next year, so it’ll be cool to see where I’m up against them.”
Now in the midst of just their second year of junior…
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