Laura Stigger surprised the biking world when she received the junior ladies’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 planet, SD Worx-Protime, for the 2025 season.
“It was tremendous particular to right away 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 value within the elite class on the street,” Stigger mentioned in a staff press launch.
“It’s good that I can uncover that whereas I can nonetheless proceed my mountain bike profession with the Specialized Factory Racing Team.”
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.
Since shifting 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 quick monitor racing.
Stigger, 24, at the moment races with Specialized Factory Racing, and she is 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 Specialized.
Laura Stigger wins junior ladies’s street race world title at 2018 Innsbruck World Championships (Image credit score: Getty Images)
“Laura will mix mountain biking with street biking. We are happy that she is going to do that with us. With Laura, we have now one other good reinforcement for climbing. She will do properly in Ardennes work. Last 12 months she attended a coaching camp with our staff and it went very properly. That’s why we took the choice to present her the possibility to get a style of the true factor on the street,” mentioned staff supervisor Danny Stam.
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“The mixtures of various disciplines is increasingly more a development. Mountain biking and street biking are fairly complementary. Mountain bikers are often fairly robust within the mountains and may launch their energy properly there.”
Stigger believes that her strengths are in punchier street races however that she must construct her expertise. She mentioned that coaching on residence roads in Innsbruck meant that she was well-suited to climbing in that space, which was why she positioned a concentrate on the street Worlds six years in the past.
“That succeeded and I additionally ended up profitable the world title in my residence metropolis. Totally surprising. A beautiful reminiscence,” Stigger mentioned.
She mentioned she subsequently met Anna van der Breggen, who had received the elite ladies’s street race in Innsbruck that 12 months, at an altitude camp after which spent a while coaching collectively. She mentioned 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 indisputable fact that it has lastly occurred just a few years [later] is gorgeous and thrilling on the identical time. I look ahead to now driving alongside her in the identical staff,” Stigger mentioned.
“I believe my steering abilities from mountain biking will come in useful. I hope to make vital strides in each street biking and mountain biking by combining each disciplines.”
