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Mara Roldan’s awesome Amstel

The neo-pro impressed with her first top-10 finish at a WorldTour race and is looking forward to more major results

Photo by: Picnic PostNL
April 22, 2025
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For Whitehorse, Yukon’s Mara Roldan, her first Amstel Gold Race went pretty darned well. The Team Picnic PostNL rider found herself in the mix in the finale, ultimately finishing 10th. On the third finishing circuit of the Amstel Gold Race, a strong breakaway of 23 riders formed on the Cauberg, including Alison Jackson and Roldan.

With 38 km remaining, they held a solid gap, but the group fractured after a surge by Juliette Labous. Jackson and Roldan were dropped, with Jackson chasing just 12 seconds behind. In the final lap, Puck Pieterse, Labous, Silvia Persico, Mischa Bredewold, and Ellen van Dijk formed the decisive group. Bredewold attacked on the final Cauberg climb, soloing to victory. Jackson and Roldan battled back impressively to finish seventh and tenth, respectively.

Impressive debut on ‘home turf’

“My first Amstel felt like a pretty special experience. It was incredible to race in the place I now get to call ‘home’ (Roldan races for a Dutch team), and to line up with such a strong field on the roads that I have been fortunate to train on every day since the start of this season,” she said.

The 21-year-old cyclist said the team came into the race very keen and motivated to be part of the action.

“The plan for me was to follow pre-final moves as we got into the hilly section of the race and the first few circuits, and then shift my focus to positioning our leaders, Marta Cavalli and Pfeiffer Georgi, for the final laps. We thought that if the big favourites remained in the peloton, a breakaway up the road would eventually be caught,” she said.

A fast and hill day

Roldan said the pace was very hard early on in the hilly sections and a lot of moves went. She followed what she could and eventually a small group broke away.

“Groups of two and three riders eventually bridged, my teammate Megan Jastrab being one of them. We both thought things would come back together, so our focus was to stay sharp and try to keep the front from splitting any further. I was obviously excited to be at the front of the action for the first time in a big race like this,” Roldan said.

Since the plan was to race for Marta Cavalli and Pfeiffer Georgi, neither she nor Jastrab did any work in the breakaway. She did, however, follow attacks if needed and tried to stay near the front wheels as much as possible.

“The pace was still very hard even in the wheels at times, and when we heard that the time gap was not going down much, we had to start shifting focus to actually racing the final ourselves, which is again something I had never done,” she said.

The result was definitely a confidence booster for her, and it meant a lot to have the opportunity to race into a finale like Amstel.

Looking ahead

“It was obviously not exactly the plan to have me race the final, but I am happy with how we were able to adapt to the circumstances as a team, and for myself to take on that final role when the opportunity came. I was lucky to have a teammate there to help position me, and to have Callum Ferguson, my directeur sportif, in my ear giving me the confidence to be there and to push myself to the line,” she said.

Roldan said she has many exciting races still ahead this season that she will soon be able to talk more about, and she is very excited for what still lies ahead with this team.

Roldan signed for the WorldTour team in October 2024, after some impressive domestic results with the Continental team Cynisca. She’s fitting in well and is enjoying her debut at the WorldTour level.

“I feel very fortunate to be a part of this team and to have experienced teammates who have so much knowledge to share,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been really improving and learning at every race this season, and when we have good races together it really makes me excited for the next opportunities with them!”