Gunnar Holmgren steps up to KMC MTB Racing Team
Ontario racer graduates to Dutch squad off 2023 success
Photo by:
KMC MTB Team / Instagram
After a breakthrough season, Gunnar Holmgren is joining the Dutch-based KMC MTB Racing Team. The Orillia, Ont. racer moves from the Quebec-based Piv0t Cycles-OTE up to the top-level, UCI Elite team for the 2024 season.
The KMC team is run by World Cup colour commentator and Olympian, Bart Brentjens. Holmgren joins a stacked roster of established European pros. For the 2023 season, KMC’s squad included Ukrainian World Cup overall winner Yana Belomoina and Latvian World Cup winner Martins Blums. Lotte Koopmans, Janika Lõiv and Oleksandr Hudyma rounded out the team roster, though the latter will depart the squad.
Holmgren joins the UCI Elite-level team based on stellar results in his second year racing in the elite category. On top of several top-20 XCO finishes at the World Cups, Holmgren was part of Canada’s double mountain bike gold at the 2023 Pan Am Games.
Joining KMC means Holmgren will have the full support of a major European team as vies for what is currently Canada’s lone men’s entry for the mountain bike event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Holmgren joins KMC after several years on Quebec’s small-but-mighty Pivot Cycles-OTE squad. The Ontario racer joined the “Blue Train” in 2020 and has raced with them across Canada, through the World Cup seasons and at the Pan Am Games. Holmgren thanked the Canadian team for their support over the past seasons before announcing his new team.
Gunnar isn’t the only Holmgren who will be enjoying the support of a pro squad next season. His younger sisters Isabella and Ava Holmgren recently signed with Women’s World Tour road team Lidl-Trek for 2024. They move up from the Ontario-based Stimulus Orbea development squad.
