Visma | Lease a Bike Women Signs MTB Star Katharina Sadnik

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."