Bella Abroad: Two-time world champ Isabella Holmgren starts the season with her WorldTeam

“It’s very different from what I’m used to,” Isabella Holmgren said. She was three days into Lidl-Trek’s first team camp in Calpe, Spain, ahead of the 2024 season. Both Isabella and her twin sister Ava signed with the WorldTeam this past August. In mid-December, they were finding out just what the support is like on a top road outfit. “We got a ton of new kit a few days ago. It’s just, like, crazy, the amount of stuff that we have and that we get. It’s nice because there’s a lot of people all around supporting. So, for example, I don’t have to cook my own meals or wash my own bike and things like that. There’s people to do that for you and help out. That’s been super nice.”

In spring 2022, Isabella and Ava rode with Stimulus-Orbea, a development squad led by their father Rob. It helped Isabella to her 2023 junior cyclocross world championship win and her sister’s silver at that event. This past year, the twins also worked with Watersley R+D Cycling Team on the road, but continued with Stimulus-Orbea for cross country—the discipline in which Isabella has her other rainbow jersey—and cyclocross. While these outfits are well-run, they simply didn’t have the same resources as a WorldTeam such as Lidl-Trek.

Isabella’s first three days at the team camp featured mostly meetings with team sponsors, photoshoots, some athletic testing and only a little bit of riding. The following day, the team would truly take to the hilly roads of the region on their bikes. In the midst of her busy schedule, Holmgren was trying to incorporate some school work. The hotel’s finicky WiFi, however, was stymying her efforts. Even though the 18-year-old rider has her high school diploma, she was tackling a high school chemistry course that would give her some more options later when she plans to start looking into universities.

 

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Holmgren, the elite Pan Am cyclocross champion, as well as under-23 Canadian CX champ, was looking forward to racing ‘cross in Belgium throughout the Christmas period. Then, there’d be another team camp, followed by the cyclocross world championships in early February. Afterwards, she was expecting to head home to Canada for about a month to sort out her visa before returning to her European base. Isabella, Ava and their older brother Gunnar—who races XC for the Netherlands-based KMC MTB Racing Team—have a new place in Girona. Racing on the roads of Europe would start in March for the twins—not the Spring Classics, but events that will help them build their skills.

Although Isabella has seemingly been riding all her life, and racing since the age of nine, her career, and that of her sister, started progressing quickly after their 1–2 spots on the junior CX world championship podium. In a sense, things were going to plan, but still unexpected. “I would say it was definitely a goal to make cycling into a career,” Isabella said, “but I just didn’t exactly know what it would look like once I achieved that.” On the cusp of her first season as a professional road cyclist, even more new discoveries were ahead for Isabella Holmgren.