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Marie-Soleil Blais’ journey from hockey to the Women’s WorldTour

From Olympic dreams on the ice to a career racing bikes, the Quebecois cyclist is finding her way as a pro in Europe

Marie-Soleil Blais broke into the big leagues in 2019 when she signed with the Astana Women’s Team. A former hockey player, Blais started riding for training in the off-season. With injuries from hockey, she spent more and more time in the saddle and finally decided to make her racing debut at 23-years-old once her university hockey career was over.

As is often the case in North American cycling, coming from another sport had its advantages and Blais fell in love with racing. After years of steady progress and moving up the ranks, Blais is not one of only a handful of Canadians who compete full-time on team’s in Europe, the heartland of the sport. She competed at the Tour Down Under, the spring classics including big stops at the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

In a video on the inCycle Youtube channel, Blais describes how she got into the sport slowly finding her place amoung Canada’s best. Despite starting late, Blais absorbed the lessons she learnt from the fundamentals of racing to finding her way on the Astana Women’s Team.