Today, they are not only members of the same UCI Women’s Continental Team, they are like members of the same family. They come from eight different countries and hugely different backgrounds, but in the last months have shared unforgettable experiences as they come to grips with high-level racing.
The young members of the UCI World Cycling Centre’s WCC Team barely had time to unpack after arriving in Aigle, Switzerland, before leaving for their first team-building training camp in Spain at the beginning of March, with races most weekends in both Spain and France.
Starting with regional races in Spain, then moving on to UCI Class 1 events, and even a UCI Women’s WorldTour race, the learning curve has been a steep one.
Highlights have included victories at regional level, successful breakaway moves, the first UCI points for Colombian Natalia Franco (thanks to a top-20 placing in the Class 1 Durango Emakumeen Saria) and finding themselves in the same hotel as some of their role models and heroes (although for the moment they are too shy to approach them). There have been disappointments too: a few DNFs, asthma attacks, crashes….
It is all part of the cyclist’s life and has seen them progress in leaps and bounds according to their coach Cristina San Emeterio.
“They have improved so much. Our goal was to learn and improve, and they have. We took a lesson away from each race. At the stage races I explained that it is normal to be tired. I told them they could try to attack anyway. If you get caught, you get caught. If, at the start, you say ‘I can’t do it’ you never learn.”
Their coach was proud to see that over the five stages of the Bretagne Ladies Tour Ceratizit (France), they performed better each day. She is also proud that theirs was the noisiest table in the hotel restaurant in the evenings.
Fantastic to see the return of the @BretagneLadiesT after two years of absence due to the health crisis.
— David Lappartient (@DLappartient) May 3, 2022
Best of luck to all including the UCI World Cycling Centre team who have had a great start to the season, guided by experienced coaches and support staff 👏 pic.twitter.com/Brrra5frfv
Enjoying the ride
“They respect each other but they also laugh and joke. I got remarks from other teams about the good atmosphere in our team. And it’s true.
“They really are together and work well as a team. When Natalia won her first UCI points, everybody was happy because it was thanks to teamwork.”
One of the highlights of the start of the season was undoubtedly racing in their first-ever UCI Women’s WorldTour event, the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. The WCC Team discovered just one week beforehand that they had an invitation to this top-tier stage race.
“It was another level, but we were focusing on learning, not winning,” says Cristina San Emeterio. “I told them to learn from the UCI Women’s WorldTeams and to fight with the other UCI Continental Teams.”
Back for a training block at the UCI WCC in Aigle, they will now work on the weaknesses their coach detected at races. The season is still long, and we will talk to some of the WCC Team members as their adventures continue.
WCC Team
Natalia Franco (Colombia), 25
Selam Amha Gerefiel (Ethiopia), 24
Veronika Jandova (Czech Republic), 20
Yumi Kajihara (Japan), 25
Dziyana Lebedz (Belarus), 19
Maude Le Roux (South Africa), 25
Luciana Roland (Argentina), 26
Elina Tasane (Estonia), 18.
Photo credit: Bruno Lavit