{"id":172138,"date":"2025-09-27T04:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172138\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:08:10","slug":"interview-isabella-holmgren-defends-rainbows-in-switzerland-and-races-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172138\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Isabella Holmgren defends rainbows in Switzerland and races in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isabella Holmgren\u2019s summer ended with a flurry of success. The Oro-Medonte, Ont. rider won on the road and in the mountains, defending two world championships titles, and landing another top 10 at worlds, plus a stage race win. All in less than a months time.<\/p>\n

To say the Canadian is busy would be a gross understatement. Between winning races in different countries, on different bikes and contesting races on several different continents in just over few weeks, we caught up with Holmgren in Rwanda. She and her twin sister, Ava, are in the African country as part of Team Canada for road worlds. Holmgren described through patchy internet connection how she balances disciplines, travel, expectations and what racing the Rwandan worlds event was like.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, it\u2019s really been an amazing experience,\u201d Holmgren says of being part of the first African world championships. \u201cThere\u2019s already tons of people lined up on the streets just to watch the pre ride and cheering for us. So it\u2019s been really cool. And it\u2019s been cool to experience a new part of the world, somewhere I\u2019ve never really experienced before. So yeah, I\u2019m lucky to be here, and I\u2019m excited to race tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"Isabella<\/a>Isabella Holmgren fights to 6th place at 2025 UCI road worlds<\/p>\n

The course itself is staggeringly difficult, setting records for elevation gain even against historic world championships courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re basically going up or down the whole time, and lots of corners,\u201d Holmgren confirms. \u201cSo I have a strong feeling, feeling it\u2019s just gonna be an elimination race. It\u2019s gonna be super tough, but I\u2019m looking forward to it. Hopefully I can suffer hard tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hard courses suit the Canadian, it seems. She finished sixth in a fiercely competitive under-23 women\u2019s race<\/a>, just 17 seconds off the winning time.<\/p>\n

Relentless climbs and technical descents could also describe a mountain bike course, another venue where Holmgren\u2019s found success. At numerous world championships and World Cups the Canadian has distanced her competition on the climb, and kept them away on challenging descents.<\/p>\n

That balanced skillset makes Holmgren very hard to beat. Her two most recent world championships titles (she has four total) came in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in short track (XCC)<\/a> and Olympic (XCO) cross country<\/a>. Those were repeats of her double-rainbow XCC\/XCO performance in 2024<\/a> but, after a season on the road, Holmgren said nothing was guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to expect worlds week because it was a super technical course,\u201d The Canadian said of the Crans Montana venue. \u201cBut I think for me, if it\u2019s a race, the goal is always to win. So of course, I wanted to defend the titles. But it was a it was an interesting week, and the conditions were changing all the time, so it\u2019s hard to have expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That week included making the switch from the road bike to two different mountain bikes. Holmgren earned her first gold on Trek\u2019s Supercalibre. The second came aboard an unreleased version of the brand\u2019s Top Fuel with a prototype set of wheels, too<\/a>. That is a lot of change, with just under two weeks to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually raced the same bike, the top fuel in Les Gets the week before, and then I kept one with me for the two weeks before worlds, so I had some time to get used to the bike,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even have a road bike with me those weeks, so I really got to get used to the mountain bike for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

For anyone but Holmgren, describing two weeks on a bike as a long time would be surprising. But it\u2019s also unusual that a world champion has a schedule where riding mountain bikes is unusual. The Canadian continues to split her time between on the road, where she and her sister race with Lidl-Trek, and Trek Factory Racing off-road. And to find success with each.<\/p>\n

\"Incredibella!<\/a>Holmgren racing at Tour de l\u2019Avenir<\/p>\n

Before worlds, Holmgren raced and won Tour de l\u2019Avenir<\/a>, a road stage race considered by many to be an indicator of future success at the Tour de France. Holmgren claimed the overall win, the mountain jersey, youth classification and several stage wins. Just two days after that remarkable showing, she was back on a mountain bike and back on the podium at the Les Gets World Cup in France. That transition has proved difficult for many, including iconic racers like, say, Mathieu van der Poel.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me mentally it\u2019s super easy, because I just really enjoy doing the mix of everything. \u00a0But technique wise, technique wise, for the mountain bike, it\u2019s definitely a bit more difficult,\u201d Holmgren says of making the switch back to dirt.\u201dJust getting used to the technical features and not being too scared and like actually riding them, is definitely a bit more challenging when you haven\u2019t been on the mountain bike as much. But the whole week, Oscar, the skills coach for the factory team helped me to make sure I was comfortable on the course. And the mechanics made sure the bike was perfect, so it was really an easy transition to the mountain bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a good support team can make sure everything runs smoothly, it\u2019s all up to Holmgren once she\u2019s on course. \u00a0With such a busy schedule, and constant travel, that means careful planning, being willing to accept trade-offs. Much of her training is done on the road bike, with rest days used to develop mountain bike skills. Holmgren races less on the road than most, but also knows she races less mountain bikes than her competition there. It also \u00a0means knowing when to ease off the gas a little.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the main thing is to just try your best to stay healthy, so always being super hygienic in airports, especially in washing hands and sanitising and everything,\u201d Holmgren says of staying in top form for back-to-back-to-back worlds events. \u201cBut also just making sure that I\u2019m still having good rest days and recovering properly. You can\u2019t be pushing too hard and training all the time when you\u2019re traveling so much, I don\u2019t think.\u201d<\/p>\n

With polymath stars like Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Mathieu van der Poel being forced to focus on a single discipline to find their desired level of success or, in the latter\u2019s case, struggling to do so<\/a>, I was curious how the Canadian feels about maintaining such a varied schedule, and how long she wants to keep doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019d like to do it for as long as possible. I really enjoyed the combination of both of the disciplines,\u201d Holmgren says adding, in explanation \u201cI think they\u2019re very different, but it\u2019s a bit refreshing to jump from one to the other because they\u2019re so different. The most difficult part is really just the skills, but with the technical coach on the factory team, he makes that part really easy. Of course it\u2019s hard, but as long as you devote some time to making sure that you can practice your skills, and make sure you have good rest, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Rwanda, Holmgren has one more race on the road before switching gears back to dirt. She\u2019ll return to Canada for the World Cup finale at Mont-Sainte-Anne.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then,\u201d says Holmgren, \u201cit\u2019s time for off season at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well earned, after a globe-trotting season full of so much success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isabella Holmgren\u2019s summer ended with a flurry of success. The Oro-Medonte, Ont. rider won on the road and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[80419,51300,52521,79221,49,48,635,44560,1700,62722,82,88305,78832],"class_list":["post-172138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-uci-mtb-world-championships","tag-2025-uci-road-world-championships","tag-2025-uci-road-worlds","tag-ava-holmgren","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-isabella-holmgren","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-news","tag-sports","tag-xcc","tag-xco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}