Anna Plichta (28) will reinforce the Lotto Soudal Ladies Team from 2021 until the end of 2022. The Polish national time trial champion rode for Trek-Segafredo the past two seasons and has now signed a two-year contract with our women’s team.
Anna Plichta: “It’s already several years that the Lotto Soudal Ladies Team has appealed to me. I now got this offer to join the team and I had to take it! During the year I spend a lot of time in Belgium as my fiancé is Belgian and it has started to feel like my second home. Therefore it also feels very natural to choose for a Belgian team.”
The past seasons Anna was a big support for her teammates. In 2018 at Boels-Dolmans and since 2019 at Trek-Segafredo. Last year, she became Polish time trial champion; a title she prolonged past summer. In September she finished fourth at Trophée des Grimpeuses, a Belgian climbing race.
“This is going to be a new challenge for me”, says Anna. “At Lotto Soudal I will get the opportunity to have a go myself in the races, whereas the past years I worked a lot for my teammates. I am 28 years old now and this is the moment to take this chance. This new role and new team gives me a lot of motivation to start working towards next year.”
Anna tells she likes an aggressive style of racing and loves to attack. “The past two years I also focused more on time trialling and I have really improved quite a lot in this discipline. I won the Polish National Championship two times in a row. I rode good at the European Time Trial Championship where I finished seventh and last year I got fifth in the ITT of the Madrid Challenge. So I already set some nice results on the time trial bike and this is definitely a discipline I want to keep improving at.”
“Now it’s time for a break after what has been an unconventional season. A good rest, also mentally, will now be important to start the new year fresh and to build up a good shape ahead of the new season. I definitely want to be good at the Ardennes races next year and in stage races where a time trial is included. I am definitely looking forward to this new adventure with the Lotto Soudal Ladies.”
