It’s been an incredible year for the team. From Arvid de Kleijn’s Tour of Turkey lunge to Olivia Ray’s Lion’s Den surge, our riders have criss-crossed the globe on two wheels, navigated an ever-changing pandemic-hit landscape and shared plenty of experiences along the way.
Before we make the transition to Human Powered Health™, we asked a selection of our riders and staff about their 2021 seasons, their most memorable moments, the lessons they learned, and how the team helped them to realise their ambition.
I’m most proud of my comeback. As much as my ankle break was faster than expected to recover from, I had a rough time getting over it. Once I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, it was worth the pain and tears to get back to what’s important, the team and racing.
The one thing that I learned, that I hope someone else can take from this is that it always gets easier, they will ease, they will be hurting too but it’s all in your mind, control that, and you’re already a step ahead.
Carpenter’s stage victory at the Tour of Britain was the high point of a season full of aggressive racing.My most memorable moment from 2021 was winning stage 2 of the Tour of Britain. I had struggled to seal the deal in a number of winning breaks over the past few years and to finally be able to finish it off solo was very satisfying. I can do a lot of other things well in bike races but where I excel is in the break and having the entire team and staff more invested in this tactic allowed me to have a couple more opportunities than I might normally have.
One thing that I’ve gradually learned over the course of many years is to remain calm when it comes to preparing for bike races. With all of the data available now it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and fret over specific things. Instead, at least for me at this point in my career, it’s become more obvious that I’m usually prepared to address situations as they arise and make calls on the road. If I get distracted by one small detail it means sometimes I can miss something more important.
An Olympic medal was the realisation of a dream for Williams in 2021.The team allowed me to give full focus to preparing for the Olympics. That flexibility was special and rare and I could not have qualified or performed there without the team’s support.
I’ve continued to learn over the course of the pandemic and in my third year as a professional athlete to be patient. I want to have good results every time I step on the bike but that’s not realistic and being consistent takes time. More than anything I am looking forward to racing a ton in 2022 and learning more every time I get to race.
Men’s team director McCarty has been ever-present during some of the team’s biggest results in 2021.My most memorable moment of the year was when we won two races on the same day: Colin Joyce in Denmark and Kyle Murphy in Portugal. I remember getting back from the podium ceremony with Colin and the guys were going crazy on the bus, watching the live feed of Kyle. I stepped on just in time to see Kyle cross the line first on TV. I just had this feeling that we had finally started putting everything together. It was very gratifying.
I am most proud of the hard work and never-quit attitude our riders and staff in Europe displayed this season. We keep saying how difficult it has been to operate a bike racing team during a pandemic, but it has truly been an experience to face so much stress and uncertainty while also trying to be at our best.
White won her final race before retirement at the Sea Otter Classic.My teammates worked for me so I could get a win during my last race weekend and that was pretty incredible. Just having the support of the girls and of the team is something I will never forget.
This lifestyle is such a gift and although it’s never easy, the reward is so worth it. I have learned not to take for granted when things are challenging or don’t go my way, because it’s all part of the journey!
2021 was a bumper year for Murphy. As well as the birth of his daughter and two victories in Portugal, he was also the first rider to fall foul of the UCI’s new littering rule. Kind of a record, right?I am so proud of the team. In my mind, this year we delivered on our goal of developing North American talent by taking them to Europe and getting results with those riders. Although we may be heading in a different direction for the future, it was really nice for me to see that play out.
Our baby girl Sadie was born in February, and the team was so supportive around the birth with time off and made sure I was home. I’m incredibly grateful for that. I think it created a foundation of trust between the team and me that I could balance fatherhood and racing. Because of that support, I was able to achieve things on the bike I wasn’t sure were possible.
I’ve also learned that I shouldn’t drop trash in races, oops.
La Course was a seminal moment for women’s team director Kiesanowski.Realising the ambition of the team and competing at La Course in Brest was a very proud moment. We raced on the same day as the men for the Tour de France and heard a couple of months later that there would be a women’s Tour de France the following year. Then applying for a WorldTour license so as to cement our place in the 2022 Tour de France Femmes was huge.
Racing in the Stars and Stripes has been a true honor for Rosskopf.The team gave me the environment, and support to win the national road championships. It’s an elusive title and one that I’m so thankful for. It could have been any one of our guys and it’s not a win I thought I was capable of even a couple of years ago. But through conversations among ourselves and with our directors in the days leading up to the race I showed up on the start line with a clear head and the confidence to navigate nearly any race scenario.
This season has given me a much-needed reminder that who we are is not defined by our last race or what kind of watts our legs are producing on a given day. Every rider and staff show up with their own story behind their face, what it took to get them there. When we botch a race, the support from this crew just rolls on unphased, reminding me that their respect for each other goes beyond the bike.
Truly a year to remember for our staff and riders. We’ll see you in 2022.