Antonia Niedermaier: Cycling world champion in the snow - a special relationship

It's not exactly what cyclists usually call dream weather. An icy wind is whistling across the open slopes on the Unterberghorn, snowflakes are blowing in your face up here. But Antonia Niedermaier is in her element. She glides light-footedly uphill with extended lunges - as if it were flat. She loves it, the mountains, the snow, the effort, the winter. The confrontation with nature. The 21-year-old from Upper Bavaria is a professional cyclist for Team CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto and a keen ski tourer. "It's good balance training. It's fun, you're out in the fresh air, in the mountains. I couldn't imagine a winter without ski touring," she says.

In Germany, she is currently perhaps the most promising contender for a major success in the difficult stage races such as Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes. "She likes time trials and long mountains. Physiologically, it's clear that she's a climber and tour rider," emphasises her coach Dan Lorang. She is set to be the leader of her German racing team in the upcoming Giro d'Italia (6 to 13 July) - a distinction that shows what the team believes she is capable of. A reason to want to find out more about this young woman with her special path into cycling and her rapid success as a late starter, who rode her first road race at the age of 18. And now, at the age of 22, she is already part of the world elite, as a stage win and sixth place overall at the Giro and two world championship titles in the U23 class in the individual time trial prove.

Ski or bike? The main thing is mountains!

An interview on touring skis? It didn't take long to persuade Antonia Niedermaier. Asked, done. A rendezvous at the valley station in the Tyrolean village of Kössen, just a few minutes' drive from her new adopted home on Lake Walchsee. She has been living there since last autumn, lured by her boyfriend's new job at a mountain sports outfitter in the Inn Valley, the mountains all around, the proximity to her old home in Bruckmühl near Rosenheim, just across the border - and of course the lower taxes for professional athletes in Austria.

She crosses the car park beaming with joy, a very short and very narrow pair of Dynafit touring skis in her hands, weighing 700 grams each. We start off at the edge of the piste - 1000 metres of altitude, time to talk about early successes, a life uphill, the decision to take up cycling and thus also a little against ski mountaineering, bitter setbacks, goals for the future. About the Giro or the Tour. About all or nothing. Cycling? Antonia Niedermaier would never think of it on days like this in early January, when the mountains and meadows are snow-white, the lake is frozen over and the roads are covered in a film of brown slush. "It would be too dangerous for me to get on my bike now," she says. Walchsee is a so-called snow hole - where, even in times of climate change, winter comes a little earlier and goes a little later than elsewhere at a comparable altitude, 650 metres above sea level. And she doesn't find this regrettable. On the contrary: she is delighted that the valley basin at the foot of the Zahmer Kaiser is completely white with snow - even though she has big cycling goals for 2025 and can and wants to use every day to prepare before the start of the UAE Tour the racing season begins. She knows how to occupy herself differently. Training in her room, pedalling through virtual landscapes on the Smarttrainer? "That's not for me," she says. Niedermaier has arranged 2.5 hours of basic endurance training with her trainer Dan Lorang for this day. On touring skis.

Antonia Niedermaier: Steep uphill - 100 per cent sport

The climbing skins are already on, Niedermaier clicks her ultra-light touring ski boots into the minimalist pin bindings and off she goes. Her sports watch shows 617 - the altitude, not the heart rate. Niedermaier says she is not a numbers person, she doesn't need a display to control her heart rate to the target value of 120. She relies on her instincts. Her feeling for her body and what it needs. This also has to do with the fact that the petite young woman learnt early on that the body sets limits that you have to accept. But more on that later. As the athlete climbs uphill on her skins, the reporter asks from behind the wheel, as it were, whether her sporting motto in life is "the main thing is to go uphill"?

"Yes, exactly!" she replies. And that's how her sporting career went: steeply uphill - despite setbacks. She combines great physical talent with ambition and clear self-confidence, a clear plan. "When I do something, I want to do it one hundred per cent," she says. She had started an online degree in childhood education. But combining top-class sport and an academic career like her team-mate Ricarda Bauernfeind doesn't really work for her, she says. It's all or nothing - that's her motto. But she is not ignoring the future. Later, she would like to become a primary school teacher, preferably specialising in inclusion. It sounds like she is always looking for challenges. After last season, she completed a three-week internship at a Montessori school - she doesn't just see her future in sport. On the ascent, she lifts a toddler who has fallen on the piste back onto the boards as she passes by - the child then slides further down the slope, baffled by the unexpected help.

Knee blocks Antonia Niedermaier's ambition

Antonia Niedermaier is ambitious, very ambitious. Sport is currently her life and her profession. Now in her third year. It was a rapid rise. She practised ballet regularly until the age of 15. It was only then that she discovered competitive sport - she wanted a medal like the ones her father, a keen amateur athlete, brought home from mountain bike races. Unfortunately, there was no medal at the finish line after her first start - so she had to keep going. Niedermaier tried mountain running and won the women's classification at important events at the age of 16. Then the German Alpine Club (DAV) lured her into ski mountaineering - the young woman from Mangfalltal won the overall ranking in the U23 World Cup and became double world champion in the junior category. Although she had to struggle with a deformity - her kneecap kept popping out of its natural socket, which was extremely painful. As soon as she went downhill, her legs could no longer keep up with Niedermaier's ambition. It's better to go uphill - that's a lesson learnt from a young athlete's life. She has now had joint surgery on the right and left - the patella is now staying where it should be. "I no longer have any problems," she says. She sounds reassured. As focussed as she is on the sport now, she says she doubted for a long time whether she should really put everything into the sport, whether she should really become a professional. Perhaps this also has something to do with the fact that her body didn't follow her ambition - even if she doesn't mention it.

"She is very, very mature in her thoughts for her young age. I find what she does and how she thinks extraordinary. It's very exciting," says her team manager Ronny Lauke, who first signed her to his junior team CANYON//SRAM Next Generation and last year extended the partnership to three years as a professional in the World Tour team until the end of 2025. Nobody can yet estimate the exact potential of this petite yet strong body. In terms of disposition, she is a typical classics rider. The 1.63 metre tall athlete weighs 51 kilos in top form - but she is not a pure mountain flea. At the last World Championships, she was not only the best U23 athlete in the individual time trial, she also set the fourth best time of all women on the tarmac around Zurich. She has thus demonstrated her key qualifications as a tour specialist. But now she wants to turn talent into results - dreams into reality. In the middle of the Tyrolean winter, she is delighted that her employer has placed its trust in her as the leader of a very important race next summer. She is also mentally strong, emphasises Lorang, who also coaches Ironman world champions. It is impressive how she overcomes setbacks.

Italy's mountains as a career ladder

"We want to try and give her the leading role for the Giro. We think it would be a good start for Antonia," says Lauke, explaining the plans for the coming season. For the time being, they have decided against her debut at the Tour de France Femmes at the end of July. There are also mountain stages plus time trials in Italy. In the Tour of France, the attention and media coverage is more intense. That creates pressure, that eats up time and energy. And of course Niedermaier would have to take a back seat in the team hierarchy to last year's winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma in the Tour, for which she is only scheduled as a substitute rider, and could probably only start as a noble helper to her team-mate.

From the snow to the World Cup in Africa

Back to the snow-covered Unterberghorn. As she glides steadily and with visibly little effort towards the summit of the Unterberghorn, she says: "Let's go through the terrain, then you'll find it easier." She turns off the edge of the piste onto an unprepared slope, where she makes a new track through the deep snow. More training stimulus for her, less effort for her companion. Someone who thinks for herself, but also for others. Someone who can do ambitious solos, but is also a team player. But even on this day, she is following a plan - the plan for the 2025 season: laying the foundations for the top form she wants to have not only in July at the Giro d'Italia, but again in the autumn at the Road World Cup in Rwanda. Two races in which climbing specialists like her may feel they have an advantage. She knows what she wants and she says so. And yet she remains reserved, polite and friendly. The recent rapid professionalisation in women's cycling has supported her in this. "It's a good time to be a professional in women's cycling," emphasises her coach Lorang. The minimum salary in a Women's World Tour team is roughly equivalent to the starting salary of an academic. Currently 38,000 euros. As a ski mountaineer, she would not have been able to earn anywhere near as much as she does now as a racer with the German team CANYON//SRAM, she emphasises. As in almost all winter sports, even top international athletes can only survive financially thanks to sponsorship from the German armed forces or police. During the police examination, the now multiple world champion was certified as "unfit for sport". Nevertheless, she has fought her way to the top of the world rankings.

No Olympic start in winter?

Ultimately, Niedermaier is unlikely to have regretted her decision in favour of cycling for several reasons. Her versatility is appreciated there. "We clearly shared the idea that she would do both: that she would try to reach the Olympic Games in the summer and then the Winter Olympics with the winter sport," emphasises her employer Lauke. Last summer in Paris, she fulfilled her dream of competing in the Olympics on her bike. She no longer really believes that she will compete in the 2026 Olympic Games on skis in the Italian Alps - even though she is currently the best ski mountaineer as long as she can really get uphill. She feels thwarted by the DAV, the sports association responsible for the future Olympic discipline of ski mountaineering (or skimo for short). She is not scheduled to compete in the World Cup this winter. She has "not submitted an application" for World Cup starts this season, according to a brief statement from the DAV. In any case, only the sprint and mixed relay disciplines are planned for the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering - anything but what Niedermaier likes. She is not the sprinter type, neither on skis nor on the bike. However, she is really fast when it comes to pulling off her skins - a quick, barely visible movement and she is ready for the descent. Immediately afterwards, she turns through the deep snow and disappears down into the valley - she wants to ski up the mountain again, unaccompanied. This adds up to almost 2000 metres in altitude. "I thought it was super cool. It's a beautiful mountain, you can climb 1100 metres in one go," she says later about the first day of training on her new home mountain. The next day, she is back on the Unterberghorn and adds a few more metres in altitude. Antonia Niedermaier just can't get enough of mountains. Perhaps this summer will show where that leads.

About the person: Antonia Niedermaier

• Nationality: German
• Born: 20 February 2003 in Rosenheim
• Size: 1.63 metres
• Weight: 51 kilogrammes
• Place of residence: Walchsee (Austria)
• Teams: Team Mangertseder Bayern (2021), CANYON//SRAM Generation (2022), CANYON//SRAM/CANYON//SRAM Zondacrypto (2023-2025)

Important cycling successes

• 2021: German Junior EZF champion, European Championship silver medallist (juniors), World Championship bronze medallist (juniors)
• 2022: Stage and overall victory in the Tour Cycliste de l'Ardèche
• 2023: German Champion EZF (U23), World Champion EZF (U23), European Championship runner-up EZF (U23), stage win Giro Donne
• 2024: World Champion EZF (U23), World Championship third road (U23), European Championship second EZF (U23), World Championship fourth EZF, sixth Giro d'Italia