The 31-year-old Austrian only had a brief stint in a team structure at the Tour of Spain in 2022. After her Olympic victory 2021 she had stated in interviews that she did not want to be permanently tied to a team.
"It is an honour to see the Olympic road race champion riding in IPTR colours and we are delighted to welcome Anna Kiesenhofer to the team. Anna is extremely talented and rides courageously, as we saw in her victory in Tokyo, and also last year when she narrowly missed out on the stage win at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta. She will be a great asset to the team and will help us in our further development in the Women's World Tour," says Israel-Premier-Tech Roland Managing Director Ruben Contreras.
Kiesenhofer starts in the Women's World Tour in 2023 - Tour de France as a goal
"I am very happy to be joining Israel-Premier Tech Roland. The environment and the equipment are ideal for me to give my best in some of the most important races on the WWT calendar. In particular, I want to target the Tour de France and other tough stage races. I'm looking forward to this new challenge. It won't be easy, but I think we have a great team and will provide some surprises this year," said Kiesenhofer in the team's press release.
The Afghan road champion Fariba Hashimi is also new to the team: "To give Fariba more time for her development, she will start the year with the Israel-Premier Tech Roland Development Team before moving up to the World Team in the middle of the year," explains Contreras.
Interview Anna Kiesenhofer August 2022
Anna Kiesenhofer , the Austrian Olympic road race champion in Tokyo, had ruled out a contract with a World Tour team. In 2022, she surprisingly rode the women's Tour of Spain. This was made possible by a short-term contract with the Spanish team Soltec for the Vuelta only. In August 2022, we conducted an interview with Kiesenhofer, excerpts of which are reproduced below:
TOUR: The news comes as a surprise - you had deliberately decided against such races, hadn't you?
KiesenhoferIt doesn't change that much and was a bit of a coincidence. The team manager told me that they were still looking for a leader for the Vuelta. I looked at the stages and saw that there were a few stages that appealed to me. That has nothing to do with what I did at Lotto Soudal back then. I had to ride the spring classics with cobblestones and was completely integrated into the team.
TOUR: Attacks will probably be difficult because the others have you on their radar as an Olympic champion?
KiesenhoferOf course, but you can attack and don't necessarily have to win. I don't have any great expectations myself. If people think that I'm now a rival to Annemiek van Vleuten, that's unrealistic. Before Tokyo I was unknown and nobody expected me and now everyone thinks I have to win. I don't have any expectations myself - that only comes from the outside.
TOUR: They have repeatedly stated that they are afraid of falling...
KiesenhoferYes, I do - I have a love-hate relationship with cycling. The risk of falling is simply real and I'm afraid of that too. But I also know that you can never completely rule out the risk - otherwise you have to stay in bed.
TOUR: You gave up your university job as a mathematician to concentrate on cycling. Was that easy?
KiesenhoferThe search for sponsors was difficult and took a lot of time. I found a few good sponsors, but as an Olympic champion you're not held the door open and offered millions. I suppose women's cycling is also difficult in that respect - football or tennis would certainly be easier. But I'm very happy with my sponsors and can live off them. I'm not interested in maximising profit.
TOUR: You don't have a professional contract with a team - are you an amateur athlete?
KiesenhoferI see myself as a professional athlete - more so than some who are in teams. There is now a minimum salary in the Women's World Tour, but outside of that, very few people can live on it. For me, they are not professionals. In other sports, such as triathlon, it's also completely normal if you're not in a team.
TOUR: Does that mean you live 100 per cent from and for sport?
KiesenhoferYes, I can train as much as I want, but there was a lot of organisational work, especially at the beginning. Finding sponsors, physios and bike fitters also took time. I moved to the canton of Valais with my boyfriend and it was a bit of a challenge because of the good training conditions. It's nice when you don't have traffic lights on the way out. I still manage my training myself, but I now have someone who advises me.
TOUR: They say your long-term goal is the 2024 Olympic Games?
KiesenhoferYes, it's still Paris with the main goal being an individual time trial. I don't know the route of the road race yet, but there probably won't be much elevation gain.
Kristian Bauer
Editor
