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Blanka Vas and Anna Shackley have prolonged their contracts at Staff SD Worx via 2024. They’re two of the most important abilities in ladies’s biking they usually plan to proceed to develop and hone in on their particular targets throughout the subsequent two seasons.
Vas signed with the crew as a trainee in August of 2021 and raced her first full season on the Ladies’s WorldTour this yr. She has gained back-to-back nationwide highway and time trial titles together with fourth place on the 2021 UCI Street World Championships and fourth within the cross-country mountain bike occasion on the Olympic Video games in Tokyo.
A multi-discipline rider, Vas is at present competing within the cyclo-cross season and can transition again to highway races and mountain biking within the spring.
“It might not have been instantly apparent to most people, however Blanka Vas confirmed as soon as once more some robust performances for her age over the last highway season,” mentioned sports activities supervisor Danny Stam.
“In 2021, she achieved unexpectedly nice outcomes. This yr she continued to develop and rode a full highway season for the primary time. Now we have seen that she has turn out to be lots stronger. Particularly within the harder one-day races, she impressed.
“Blanka is a rider who can do something and desires all of it. The long run will present what she will be able to finest concentrate on.”
Vas has pointed to the one-day races and hilly Classics as an space of the game that fits her finest, however she hopes to excel within the cobbled classics in future. Subsequent yr, Vas will cut up her time between highway, cyclo-cross and mountain biking with an purpose to compete on the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris.
“I did not should suppose lengthy after I was capable of lengthen my contract. Inside the crew, I can proceed to do the mixture of highway, cyclo-cross and mountain bike. Thus, subsequent yr I’ll experience just a few extra mountain bike races with a view to qualifying for the Paris Olympics in 2024,” she mentioned.
“This season I rode a reasonably full highway programme for the primary time. I discovered an enormous quantity. Being in one of the best crew on the earth with Danny Stam, Anna van der Breggen and Lars Growth as sports activities administrators and having skilled prime riders like Chantal Blaak and Demi Vollering subsequent to you is a giant benefit. I’ve not but determined the place my largest alternatives on the highway really lie. Though I do have a desire for the one-day races. I just like the hill classics however hope to get to know the cobbled classics sooner or later. Aside from the sporting half, I additionally just like the ambiance of the crew. I actually really feel at house right here and I’m completely happy to proceed biking on this surroundings within the coming years.”
Shackley started her first full season on the Ladies’s WorldTour with SD Worx in 2021, and it was a breakout yr the place she competed on the Olympic Video games in Tokyo.
Though she missed the Giro d’Italia Donne this yr as a consequence of COVID-19, she was fifteenth general at Itzulia Ladies, 14th at Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, seventh on the Problem by la Vuelta and tenth at Tour de Romandie.
“This yr, she proved her expertise. Within the remaining classification of the Ceratizit Problem by La Vuelta and the Tour de Romandie Féminin, she completed within the prime ten. She has proven large progress this yr, whereas additionally struggling setbacks. For example, she needed to miss the Giro d’Italia Donne as a consequence of a corona an infection. Her autumn was very robust,” Stam mentioned.
Shackley mentioned it was a tough first yr in 2021 with SD Worx, being new to the Ladies’s WorldTour, however that she was happy along with her second season racing with the crew.
“I made some good progress in 2022. Within the hill classics and within the heavier spherical work I come into my very own finest. Actually, my leads to the autumn have been good. That provides plenty of motivation going into the winter towards the upcoming season,” she mentioned.
“At Staff SD Worx I’m having fun with myself. I’m creating effectively right here. There may be additionally a great crew ambiance between the riders and the employees. I really feel at house right here.”
