Yesterday we flagged five promising female athletes that graduated from the Junior ranks at the turn of the year. However, identifying rising prospects is one thing. What happens next is something else entirely.
It is therefore instructive to wind back a year to take a look at the equivalent list from the start of 2023. Another cohort of talented athletes had just aged out of Junior racing and were looking to make their mark on the U23 and Senior levels. Being only their first year in the post-Junior environment, it would be unfair to expect the world of them. Nevertheless, it is of interest to see how they got on.
The purpose of this article is thus to track how last year’s rising Juniors fared in order to derive reasonable expectations for this year’s class.
The starting point is with Jule Behrens, the World Junior and European Junior champion from 2021. Behrens enjoyed plenty of success in 2023 and made her mark on the European scene.
Her season started with a series of promising European Cup results. A silver medal in Wels was a highlight, while a 4th place in Kitzbühel and an 8th place in Olsztyn were likewise good performances. Shortly after, Behrens went on to finish 6th at the European Games.
Most notably, her 6th place was her best display to date over the Olympic distance and showed that she was adapting with the longer format.
However, a nasty crash on the bike in August put an early end to her season. The German youngster was hit by a car while on a training camp and suffered serious injuries. Fortunately, she has since recovered. However, the crash put her out of the World U23 Championships and cost her the chance to make a World Cup appearance in 2023.
Missing the World U23 Championships was a particular blow as Behrens’ form had indicated that she had a big showing in store. She had claimed 4th place at the European U23 Championships only a couple of weeks before her crash (and 7th at the European Championships over the Super Sprint distance). The athletes that finished ahead of her on the European level went on to play significant parts in the race at the World U23 Championships; for example, the European U23 winner, Selina Klamt, went on to add the World U23 crown.
It is entirely possible, then, that without her crash Behrens could have pushed for a top-10 finish in Pontevedra.
Nevertheless, she enjoyed a great first year out of Junior ranks and will no doubt be an even greater force at European races this season.
Whereas Behrens did not race at a World Cup (her crash came before the bulk of the races), Márta Kropkó got through a lot of World Cup action. The Hungarian athlete’s high point was her first top-10 on the circuit as she finished 10th in Weihai. To go with that, she finished 12th in Chengdu, 16th in Yeongdo and 19th in Miyazaki.
At her home event in Tiszaujvaros she placed 23rd, while she added finishes of 21st in New Plymouth and 30th in Huatulco earlier in the year. Kropkó clearly got through plenty of racing and will have learned a lot from it.
She also finished 3rd at the African Cup in M’Diq and 15th at the European Games. Her trip to Poland, though, will perhaps be remembered more fondly for the success that came in the Mixed Team Relay. On the anchor leg, Kropkó helped Hungary to the bronze medal, albeit aided by late penalties to Swiss and Spanish teams that were also fighting for 3rd place on the anchor leg.
The relay formed a notable part of Kropkó’s year and she was then a part of the Hungarian relay that finished 5th at the Mixed Team Relay World Championships in Hamburg. Looking ahead to 2024, Hungary will hope to qualify for the relay at the Olympic Games. Now the second-ranked Hungarian woman thanks to her World Cup results, Kropkó would be in a position to become an Olympian this year if the relay qualifies.
Her work in 2023 may therefore pay handsome dividends in 2024.
Meanwhile, Noemie Beaulieu of Canada only made three international starts last year. She finished 9th at the Americas Cup in Sarasota (as it happens, her younger brother won the men’s race) before making her World Cup debut in New Plymouth. She went on to finish 42nd in her first taste of the circuit. A 15th place at the Americas Cup in Long Beach was her only other international result and her absence speak to the challenge of stepping up from the Junior ranks.
Injuries and rises in training load can make for a difficult year, as can the jump in standard.
Indeed, injuries were at the root of Helena Moragas Molina not racing at all internationally in 2023. Persistent problems created frequent setbacks and at this point Moragas is only able to cycle. She has therefore shifted focus to a new sport, namely road cycling.
In 2023, Moragas raced at the Tour de l’Avenir Femmes and the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche. With better luck with injury and more experience in pure cycling races, she will no doubt make great strides forward.
Livia Gross also did not race internationally in 2023 as injuries hampered a third athlete from our five rising Juniors. The lesson of 2023 is therefore clear. While it is evidently possible to have a successful first year out of the Junior ranks, it can be a challenge and injuries are often a problem.
The rising athletes of this year can therefore take heart, particularly from the success of Behrens and Kropkó. Equally, it is clear that care must be taken with such young athletes and the risk of injury is significant at this early stage in their careers.
