Marta Cavalli‘s remarkable season was cut short by a horrific crash at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and, in some ways, left the cycling world wondering just how much untapped potential has yet to be seen.
FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope are probably also pondering all the possibilities that a now fully-recovered and healthy Cavalli will bring to the team during in 2023.
At 24 years old, Cavalli is one of the strongest and most versatile riders in the Women’s WorldTour. A telling start to her career at the development team Valcar Travel & Service, where she finished in the top 10 at the Tour of Flanders, led to her first top-tier contract with then-called FDJ Nouvevlle Aquitaine Futuroscope in 2021.
She quickly became a rider to watch among her peers and competitors.
In 2022, her best season to date, Cavalli won two of the three Ardennes Classics; Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, finished fifth at Paris-Roubaix, sixth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Not just a Spring Classics specialist, Cavalli’s second place overall at the Giro d’Italia Donne, behind Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), also marked a significant progression in her stage racing career and a sign that she is a major GC contender.
She went into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as a co-leader alongside Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig but was forced to abandon the race on stage 2 into Provins. She sustained head and lower body trauma in the crash, and it took four months to reach a complete recovery.
She has already shown signs of returning to full strength, having raced in October at Giro dell’Emilia, Tre Valli Varesine and Tour de Romandie. However, she says she will need the winter months to continue preparations for the new season, where she intends to begin at the UAE Tour, followed by Strade Bianche and the Ardennes Classics.
As for the Grand Tours, Cavalli hasn’t decided if she will focus on the Giro d’Italia Donne or the Tour de France Femmes, or both.
Cavalli has shown exceptional growth as a rider in the Spring Classics and stage races, but a season without injury could reveal her full potential on the Women’s WorldTour in 2023 and beyond.
FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope was built with a vision of becoming to the top French team in the world, and more recently around Danish Champion Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig with a goal of winning the Tour de France.
Her awe-inspiring victory on stage 3 into Épernay was one of…
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