The women’s pro victory at the 2022 Big Sugar Gravel turned out to be quite a jackpot for Paige Onweller. Along with a signature win over a stellar pro field, the Michigan rider gained name recognition and a big, fat payday in the LifeTime Grand Prix presented by Mazda.
The victory at Big Sugar moved Onweller from 12th to ninth in the six-race series, which translated from zero dollars to $7,000.
“Today was twofold. My main goal was to be top three today in Big Sugar. I knew I had to race well in order to get into the top 10 [of the series], which is definitely the goal,” Onweller told Cyclingnews while she proudly toted her oversized check.
”So I just really wanted to have one race that I was able to say ‘I went all in’. And I was able to win.”
Her new foray into cycling began only two years ago. Over the winter she was selected into the field of 30 pro women for the inaugural Grand Prix off-road series that culminated in Bentonville, Arkansas on Saturday.
Only the top 10 received a share of the $250,000 prize purse, split equally with the pro men. She soloed to victory across the 104-mile course, beating the likes of Emily Newsom, Alexis Skarda, Rose Grant and Lauren De Crescenzo.
“I am very new to this sport. Last year in August at Gravel Worlds was my first mass-start bike race. I was a runner previous to this. So yeah, I don’t think I was on any radar, to be honest. Like even the media car that was next to us, I could hear them talking and saying ‘who is that?’, so I just kind of chuckled and I was like, yeah, no one knows my name. And that’s OK. I think they will now.”
Her time as a runner was plagued with injuries, so she turned to the bicycle to sustain her competitive drive. The 32-year-old admitted that she has dedicated herself to studying and learning about the sport and the equipment, especially “just trying to learn how to ride my bike”.
She got her first taste of racing a bike last year via esports with the Twenty24 development team, and then a one-off entry for the individual time trial at USA Cycling Pro Road Nationals.
“I had a coach’s exception to ride USA Pro Road Nationals last year in the TT, and it was the first race like ‘real life race’ that I had done because I did eSports on Zwift. I just kind of didn’t do as well. I had raw power. I just didn’t really have any skill.”
So to develop these skills, Onweller hired her own coach. She also videotaped herself riding the bike and spent countless…
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