The mountain called, and Valentina Cavallar followed. It was the final and decisive stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2024 when the lightweight Austrian rode into the limelight for the first time. To the surprise of many, even the experts. The then 23-year-old rode away from everyone on the decisive final stage on the highest mountain of the Tour, the Col du Glandon, and took the mountain classification - ahead of the top favourites Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma. "I only realised afterwards what I had achieved," she said in retrospect when she was introduced as a new signing for the Belgian team SD Worx-Protime. The sensational performance dates back to her first year as a professional cyclist. Until shortly before that, she had been active as a rower and had taken part in the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, among other things. She only signed her first professional contract with the French team Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women at the end of March 2024. And immediately got the chance to take part in the most important cycling race of the year. After 13 days of racing as a full-time cyclist. Although the world's best riders flew past her later on stage 8, the young Austrian saved seventh place on the long climb to the finish in Alpe d'Huez. "It was a big step up," she said about this race day. But she is still a long way from the top - even though she managed her first professional victory last year, albeit only in the small Alpes Gresivaudan Classic race (UCI category 1.1), which included a long climb up the Collet d'Allevard at the end. There is no doubt that Cavallar is a lightweight climbing specialist. One with great potential.
Cavallar recognises her talent and has big goals: "In the long term, my big goal is to win a Grand Tour." In other words: the overall classification in one of the longest and most difficult stage races for women, which have also been held for decades for men: Vuelta, Giro or Tour. The goals are ambitious, but she wants to get there "step by step", as she emphasises. The move from the disbanded Arkéa team to SD Worx-Protime, one of the best racing teams in the world, is the next step towards her big goals, to the very top. "I can learn from the best and ride for the best," she says about the reasons for the switch. She will have to slowly work her way up the team hierarchy. Ahead of her are the world's best sprinter Lorena Wiebes, the returning Anna van der Breggen, once the world's best female cyclist, and the two-time road world champion Lotte Kopecky. Plus former European champion Mischa Bredewold and Olympic fourth-placed Blanka Vas.
Apprenticeship years at SD Worx-Protime
"The team takes its time with me," she says. She is due to compete in her first race late in the season. It was not yet clear at the beginning of the year, around the time of the team presentation, exactly which one. However, starts in the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège one-day races with their high altitude metres in the second half of April are firmly planned, followed by the Spanish stage races Vuelta a Espana and Itzulia. "My biggest weaknesses were riding in the peloton and descending," she says of the early days, but wants to face up to the challenges and continue to improve. "I love learning. But it takes time to ride well in the peloton and to descend well."
Advantage of cycling over rowing
She has not regretted her decision to give up rowing as a competitive sport. In the past, she had to make a living with grants from her parents and a part-time job as a fitness coach, but now she can make a living from cycling, reports the law student. "I couldn't make a living from rowing. But women's cycling is fortunately developing so quickly," says Cavallar, who is now a full-time cyclist. At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, she and her partner Louisa Altenhuber reached the B final in the lightweight double sculls, where they finished 14th. Too low for her standards, as she said at the time. She was fascinated when she stood at the side of the course during a stage of the Tour de France Femmes in the Vosges Mountains at the Petit Ballon during cycle training in 2022. "I had the dream of becoming a professional cyclist," she says. When, after a long wait, she was offered a job in the Austrian army as a rower, it was too late. Her decision had been made. "The plan was for me to row until Paris 2024, but I felt that the fire was no longer there," Cavallar announced via Instagram at the time.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
