Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig has turned the web page on an damage and illness-plagued 2024 season, rejuvenated by a transfer to Canyon-SRAM and her upcoming partnership with Kasia Niewiadoma.
After sustaining a sacrum fracture at Omloop Het Nieuwsbald in February, Uttrup Ludwig struggled to get ‘again within the enjoyable finish of the races’ between Might and the tip of the season when she returned.
For one of many peloton’s most charismatic figures, 2025 brings a clear slate after a disappointing closing 12 months of 5 on FDJ-Suez, with the German squad touchdown her signature again in October.
Canyon-SRAM felt a ready-made match for the Dane after they started talks at the beginning of 2024, and after becoming a member of up together with her new teammates and workers for the primary time in particular person final week on the group’s coaching camp in Monchique, Portugal, Uttrup Ludwig is “extra motivated than ever.”
“It was early within the 12 months that we simply began chatting on a number of video calls, and it simply appeared like the right match,” Uttrup Ludwig informed Cyclingnews.
“They appear like they need to develop riders and I am getting older, however I nonetheless suppose I can get higher. They thought I’d be a very good match for the group and likewise, once I completed the calls, I simply could not cease smiling. I knew this was the fitting group for me.”
“I had a very good feeling and I simply can’t wait until we begin racing as a result of that is what I really like a lot about Canyon-SRAM, how they assault and should not afraid of dropping.”
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One important for Uttrup Ludwig in making the transfer, nevertheless, was that Niewiadoma – the reigning Tour de France Femmes champion – was conscious of her incoming arrival and on-board with the thought of a partnership.
“It was, to be trustworthy, a want from each of them that after they joined this group, the opposite one was right here as nicely,” Canyon-SRAM group boss Ronny Lauke informed Cyclingnews, additionally talking from the Algarve coaching camp.
“Each had an equal concept that they needed to be a part of this group. However much more, it was essential that the opposite rider was on the group. They needed to race collectively, so I am wanting ahead to that duet.”
Uttrup Ludwig believes they’ll make for a double act among the many ladies’s peloton’s strongest, alongside a stacked group of younger climbers and stars on the German group – Neve Bradbury, Antonia Niedermaier and Chloé Dygert amongst them.
With a two-year deal extension for the Pole and the identical size of contract supplied to the Dane, they’re going to deliver their panache-personified greatest to the racing till no less than the tip of 2026.
“100%, it was tremendous essential for me that Kasia was in on the thought. I really known as her, and we sat down collectively as a result of, for this to work, it must go each ways in which we each need this,” defined Uttrup Ludwig.
“I really feel we may be so robust collectively as a group, in addition to with the younger climbers there’s simply a lot like firepower. However they simply wanted to be in on the thought of the counter-attacking and I feel that may be an actual power of ours subsequent 12 months.”
It was too early for Uttrup Ludwig to know her full 2025 schedule, though she confirmed it would not begin in Australia because it did final 12 months with a stage win on the Tour Down Beneath. Nevertheless, as a former stage winner, the Tour de France Femmes is an apparent objective, and for Canyon-SRAM to retain it after a whirlwind ladies’s switch window, squad depth goes to be important.
Uttrup Ludwig did not change group due to the arrival of Dutch star Demi Vollering, however with FDJ-Suez vastly enhancing their squad, and regardless of the returns of Anna van der Breggen and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to the ladies’s peloton, she thinks Canyon-SRAM will probably be as much as the problem.
“[Niewiadoma] is clearly the defending champion, so I must assist her there. However I am additionally wanting ahead to the Spring Classics and simply being that robust drive, to be attacking and counter-attacking with one another,” she stated.
“It is gonna be so insane subsequent 12 months. I am simply so excited as a result of this was actually a switch season. There are simply so many good riders altering groups and actually good riders coming again.
“You may actually need to deliver your A-game to the races. Additionally, simply typically, ladies’s biking is rising a lot, that successful races is getting tougher and tougher. However that is a very good factor, that is what we wish, proper?”
Getting again to high kind ‘earlier than the chaos begins’
Uttrup Ludwig is one in all a number of new arrivals at Canyon-SRAM, alongside sprinter Chiara Consonni and Unbound Gravel winner Rosa Klöser, with a brand new sponsor additionally on board for 2025 – Zondacrypto, a Central and Jap European cryptocurrency alternate market.
The Dane settled in nicely through the 10-day Portugal camp, with the thrilling half – the racing – nonetheless but to return from January 1 onwards, when she’ll lastly be allowed to don her new race equipment.
“It is good to be again on the bike once more, and it is tremendous cool to be right here with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, so life is nice,” she stated.
“The vibe is so chilled and everyone seems to be simply having enjoyable. That is what December camp is all about, attending to know one another, with no large strain and simply slowly increase that kind in direction of the season begin. It is refreshing.”
With a brand new coach at Canyon, Uttrup Ludwig has simply been increase her base forward of the reintroduction of high-intensity coaching for the essential components of the calendar. She’s not often seen the shape that took her to a win in Australia final January since her crash at Omloop and is not determined to hurry her rediscovery of it.
“In the meanwhile, it is simply loads of base kilometres. I need to get again to the high-intensity intervals and stuff, however my coach is like ‘Maintain your horses as a result of we are able to nonetheless await that within the new 12 months’,” Uttrup Ludwig stated.
“It is going actually easily, the coaching to this point, so I am simply having fun with it. It is also a very good interval to only practice, have enjoyable and be comfortable as a result of the season is so intense. You actually need to cost these batteries earlier than the chaos begins.”
Upon reflection, the Dane described 2024 as one in all her hardest seasons since beginning her senior profession again in 2014. Other than the fractured sacrum, additional races simply noticed continued setbacks.
“2024 was in all probability one of many hardest years in my profession. Getting back from the fracture was actually exhausting, and it took a very long time for that to heal and for me to even have the ability to be again on the bike coaching,” recalled Uttrup Ludwig. “I attempted to be constructive, despite the fact that I simply felt like I used to be on the again foot on a regular basis, simply behind, and positively not my greatest.
“It is clearly not superb to have an low season in the midst of the season after which I used to be making an attempt to return again whereas everybody’s getting stronger. 2024 was a battle 12 months, and me simply looking for my outdated stage and get again within the enjoyable finish of the races.
“I’ve closed 2024 and I am comfortable to place that behind me. I actually wanted that low season to refresh my thoughts and to actually recharge as a result of it was mentally tremendous exhausting. However I really feel extra motivated than ever to return again to my outdated stage, have enjoyable on the bike, assault, and be the rider that I try to be.”
