Laura Stigger shocked the biking world when she received the junior girls’s street race world title on residence soil in Innsbruck, Australia in 2018. Six years later, she has constructed a profitable profession in skilled mountain biking however she is able to return to street racing having signed a brand new take care of one of many largest groups on the earth, SD Worx-Protime, for the 2025 season.
“It was tremendous particular to instantly take the world title in my very own area at my first actual introduction to the street. I’m now curious to see what I’m price within the elite class on the street,” Stigger stated in a crew press launch.
“It is good that I can uncover that whereas I can nonetheless proceed my mountain bike profession with the Specialised Manufacturing facility Racing Crew.”
Stigger had a profitable multi-discipline junior profession the place she additionally received two world titles in cross-country mountain biking and a gold medal on the European Championships in 2017 and 2018. She went on to win three under-23 mountain bike World Cups and the collection rating in 2019.Â
Since transferring as much as the elite ranks in 2020, though she was nonetheless below 23, she has secured a number of victories and podium finishes within the World Cup collection in cross-country and brief observe racing.
Stigger, 24, presently races with Specialised Manufacturing facility Racing, and she’s going to proceed competing in cross-country mountain biking. She may also race choose street races together with the Ardennes Classics, with SD Worx-Protime, additionally sponsored by Specialised.
Laura Stigger wins junior girls’s street race world title at 2018 Innsbruck World Championships (Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
“Laura will mix mountain biking with street biking. We’re happy that she’s going to do that with us. With Laura, we have now one other good reinforcement for climbing. She is going to do effectively in Ardennes work. Final 12 months she attended a coaching camp with our crew and it went very effectively. That is why we took the choice to present her the prospect to get a style of the actual factor on the street,” stated crew supervisor Danny Stam.
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“The combos of various disciplines is increasingly a pattern. Mountain biking and street biking are fairly complementary. Mountain bikers are normally fairly sturdy within the mountains and may launch their energy effectively there.”
Stigger believes that her strengths are in punchier street races however that she must construct her expertise. She stated that coaching on residence roads in Innsbruck meant that she was well-suited to climbing in that space, which was why she positioned a deal with the street Worlds six years in the past.
“That succeeded and I additionally ended up successful the world title in my residence metropolis. Completely surprising. An exquisite reminiscence,” Stigger stated.
She stated she subsequently met Anna van der Breggen, who had received the elite girls’s street race in Innsbruck that 12 months, at an altitude camp after which spent a while coaching collectively. She stated Van der Breggen, who will come out of retirement and race with SD Worx-Protime in 2025, inspired her to compete on the street.
“The truth that it has lastly occurred just a few years [later] is gorgeous and thrilling on the similar time. I sit up for now using alongside her in the identical crew,” Stigger stated.
“I feel my steering expertise from mountain biking will come in useful. I hope to make essential strides in each street biking and mountain biking by combining each disciplines.”
