Former US street champion Ruth Edwards is ready to guide Human Powered Health at subsequent week’s Vuelta Femenina, contemporary off a two-year contract extension with the Women’s WorldTour squad.
After ending her seven-year professional street profession in 2021, Edwards turned to off-road pursuits the subsequent two seasons, profitable Chequamegon MTB Festival in Wisconsin and recording an aggressive runner-up experience eventually 12 months’s Leadville Trail 100 MTB. She returned to the highest tier of girls’s street racing in January with a one-year take care of US-based Human Powered Health.
“I wasn’t positive once I returned if it could be for a 12 months or longer. The proven fact that regardless of the tough spring I’ve had to date I wish to maintain racing is only a true displaying of how a lot I’m having fun with being a part of this staff and excited to develop with them and assist them develop nonetheless I can,” Edwards stated in a staff press launch.
She fared properly in her first WorldTour occasion, ending sixteenth general on acquainted territory at Tour Down Under, a race she gained 4 years earlier than. She then took fourth at Deakin University Elite Women’s street race and third at Trofeo Oro in Euro, however had a sequence of DNFs within the spring Classics, together with a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
“It’s been a tough spring to date, with a number of crashes and illness however the truth that I really feel nothing however help from Human Powered Health may be very inspiring to me,” she stated.
“I really feel actually taken care of and supported right here whereas striving to be higher in a supportive and motivating approach. I couldn’t ask for something higher.”
A confirmed staff chief, Edwards was lately appointed to the UCI Athletes’ Commission. It is the primary time the UCI has added representatives from the ladies’s peloton to their Professional Cycling Council, which now contains stakeholders from ladies’s groups, race organisations and riders themselves.
Edwards is the fourth rider this spring to commit on contract extensions to stay at Human Powered Health by means of 2026. Earlier this month, fellow US rider Lily Williams agreed to phrases for 2 extra years, in addition to sisters Daria and Wiktoria Pikulik of Poland. Williams scored a podium at Nokere Koerse whereas Daria Pikulik has had 4 podiums, together with third at Classic Brugge-De Panne and second at Omloop van Borsele.
“We are very proud of these contract renewals by means of 2026, as they match completely in our technique of constructing a top-tier ladies’s staff over the subsequent few years,” stated staff basic supervisor Ro De Jonckere.
“Since final summer time, we’ve got put a number of effort into bettering our construction and the additional professionalization of our staff. It is good to see how this has not missed its impact and the riders really feel assured that our staff is the precise setting for them to succeed in their full potential.”
The full squad to help Edwards on the Vuelta Femenina has but to be confirmed. This version of the Spanish stage race will cowl eight days of racing with a trio of mountaintop finishes, terrain fitted to Edwards’ climbing prowess.