


An interesting transfer within women's cycling. Visma | Lease a Bike can count on Katharina Sadnik for the next two seasons. The Austrian won this year’s MTB World Cup classification for U23, but she is ready for a new challenge and wants to fully focus on road cycling.
Sadnik is perhaps still relatively unknown to the wider cycling audience, so she introduces herself on her new team's website. "I started mountain biking when I was about nine years old. At school, we were introduced to mountain biking, and one of the teachers told my parents: ‘She has talent, let her try a race.’ That’s how it all started."
New adventure
The 22-year-old Sadnik made a name for herself as a mountain biker but is now taking a different path. "I was already thinking about it last year. I trained a lot on the road bike and I loved the speed. I started my first road races. This year I rode the Tour de l’Avenir and Tour de Féminine, where I finished tenth. It was my first real introduction to road cycling and I loved it. I wanted to experience more."
And now she gets that opportunity, with a top team like Visma | Lease a Bike. "I never thought Visma | Lease a Bike would be interested in me," she admits. "When the first contact came, I could hardly believe it. I have a lot of respect for what this team stands for and I’m very proud to be part of it. In mountain biking, you race individually, but on the road you have a whole team around you."
"That’s something I’m really looking forward to: sharing experiences, working together and being able to rely on each other. I want to be a good domestique, support my teammates and grow into a valuable team player. I want to keep learning and improving with every experience. I’m happy to now focus entirely on road cycling and I’m curious how far I can go."
Time and space to grow
Team manager Rutger Tijssen is also very enthusiastic: "Katharina comes from mountain biking, so she has developed excellent bike handling skills. That will come in handy in the spring classics. We see a role for her in supporting our squad in these races. She is still young but has a lot of potential, and we give her time and space to grow into the role we have in mind for her."
View this post on Instagram