Olympic cycling champion Kiesenhofer (31) signs first contract in WorldTour | Cycling

Jan 31, 2023 at 5:14 PM Update: 8 hours ago

Olympic cycling champion Anna Kiesenhofer signed her first contract with a WorldTour team on Tuesday at the age of 31. The Austrian will ride for Israel-Premier Tech-Roland.

Kiesenhofer was the big sensation at the Olympic Games in Tokyo two years ago. The cyclist surprised all Dutch favorites with a breakaway and soloed to gold. Behind that, Annemiek van Vleuten was second.

Afterwards, Kiesenhofer said that she had completely figured out her attack on the basis of a calculation model. At the time, the Austrian was still a math teacher in daily life, having studied at the Vienna University of Technology, the University of Cambridge and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Kiesenhofer only did not participate in international competitions for a special reason. She didn’t feel comfortable in the peloton. She came to that conclusion after riding for Lotto Soudal for a few months in 2017.

Last year, Kiesenhofer tried again with the Spanish team Soltec. She rode the Tour of Spain in the service of the team. In the stage race won by Van Vleuten, Kiesenhofer finished twentieth. In the fourth stage she went solo for a long time, but unlike at the Olympic Games, she just missed the victory.

Kiesenhofer will ride a few one-day races on behalf of Israel-Premier Tech-Roland in the Tour de France. “I’m really looking forward to this new challenge,” she says on the site of her new team. “It won’t be easy, but I think we have a great team and will bring some surprises this year.”

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