Giro reflections

Magdeleine Vallieres Mill hails from Sherbrooke, Québec. At nine-years-old, she and her dad took a 1,000 kilometer bike packing trip over nine days. After that, Magdeleine was hooked. A sports program at her high school introduced her to bike racing. She loved every discipline, racing road, cyclocross, and mountain bike as a junior before deciding to focus on road racing.

She applied for the UCI World Cycling Center (WCC) program as she transitioned out of the junior ranks and was offered one of eight spots on the WWC squad for 2020. The Continental team serves as a launching pad into the professional ranks for its scholarship riders, who typically hail from across the globe. Magdeleine’s first season with the WCC was interrupted by Covid but she took advantage of every opportunity and ultimately earned a spot on EF Education-TIBCO-SVB.

Magdeleine is approaching her second season with the team full of energy and excitement. In her rookie season, she didn’t know what to expect but her eagerness to seize every opportunity ultimately led to plenty of race days for the 21-year-old. She raced the classics, one-day races, and stage races, all while providing essential support to her teammates. Now in her second year as a pro, Magdeleine continues to be an essential member of the team. You will often find her at the sharp end of the peloton, pulling for her teammates.

Her diverse cycling background has helped her develop a love for the chaotic classics, the endurance required in stage racing, and has taught her unrivaled track standing skills.

Lauren Stephens is the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB veteran. The former math teacher turned professional cyclist with the team in 2013, and has raced with the team for all but one season of her career.

Name a type of riding and odds are that Lauren has raced it — and at an elite level. She wrapped up the 2022 season by racing the marathon mountain bike world championships in Denmark, the road world championships in Australia, and the inaugural gravel world championships in Italy. The 2021 road US national champion, Lauren placed third in both the road and time trial at the US national championships the following year.

When she was in high school, Lauren used to spend her summers riding her mountain bike 18-20 miles on the road, a distance she thought was crazy at the time. She never imagined that riding would become her career (or that 20 miles would seem like a short ride!).

Lauren is an all-rounder who can climb, chase down breakaways, and time trial. She loves to get off road and is an avid gravel rider. She has twice won the 100 mile distance at Unbound Gravel.

As much as she loves to explore the world, she calls her home roads in Texas her favorite place to ride. She and her husband have made it an annual tradition to bikepack to their family’s house for Thanksgiving, always picking a new route that covers a few hundred miles.

Lauren says that her results come from steadily chipping away at her goals each season and from a high level of motivation combined with a healthy dose of stubbornness.

Veronica’s focus and dedication made the 2022 season one full of podiums. In Luxembourg, she won the final stage of the Festival Elsy Jacobs which earned her second place on the general classification. She took the overall win at the Navarra Women’s Elite Classics as well as second place at both Emakumeen Nafarroako Women’s Elite Classic and Durango-Durante Emakumeen Saria. At the Tour de France Femmes, Veronica rode aggressively and with heart, finishing among the top ten on two stages which landed her in ninth place on general classification. Veronica had the honor of representing her country at the 2022 World Championships in Wollongong, Australia. She concluded the season with a pair of second place podiums in the Italian one-day races and a fifth place GC finish at the Tour de Romandie.

Her list of race results is particularly impressive given that 2022 was her first season as a full-time professional cyclist.

Veronica burst onto the professional racing scene at the 2021 US National Road Championships, coming in third place behind Lauren Stephens and Coryn Labecki. The result, and the way she earned it, turned heads, ultimately landing Veronica a guest ride with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB at Joe Martin Stage Race. Veronica backed up her nationals bronze with second place at Joe Martin, her first national level race.

Because the 28-year-old had limited experience in the peloton before she turned pro, Veronica is proud of the growth she has displayed as she has learned to navigate the bunch. This improved skill has led to greater confidence, which in turn has helped her become a more proficient racer.

Though she is new to cycling, Veronica is not new to competitive sports. She played Division III soccer at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon while double majoring in Spanish and anthropology. Following graduation, she turned to running, and a running friend encouraged her to attend a local club ride meet-up. This led to Veronica joining Fount Cycling Guild where she worked closely with Jennifer Wheeler, who rode for TIBCO in 2011-2012. Wheeler recognized Veronica’s budding talent immediately and connected the up and coming rider with Linda Jackson, founder of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB.

Veronica raced the Giro d’Italia Donne for the first time this season and her aggressive approach animated the race. She had a trio of top-ten results and on the final stage, she attacked during an intermediate sprint to earn a single bonus second which placed her in fourth place on the final general classification, her best result to date in a WorldTour GC.

For now, Veronica sees herself as an all-rounder. She is punchy and loves the hills, including the longer mountain climbs. She spent a month of the off season in Medellín, Colombia where she explored the local climbs and got to practice her Spanish.

Veronica is as surprised as anyone at the way her cycling journey has unfolded to date, but is excited to continue to develop and see just how far she can go in the sport.

Letizia Borghesi has been racing bikes for half her life. The 24-year-old pinned on her first number when she was 12. After hearing stories from her dad about his wins as a U23 racer, she thought to herself, “I could do that,” and she took up cycling. While injuries prevented her dad from turning professional, Letizia has achieved what he was unable to. Her family is very supportive of her athletic career and she says that growing up in an active household helped her to develop a strong sports mentality. You can often find Letizia’s parents at the races, having driven from their home in northern Italy to support their daughter.

In 2022, her first season with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, Letizia earned a pair of top ten finishes in the spring classics and gained plenty of experience racing at the WorldTour level. This season, her palmarès includes a string of top ten finishes. She raced the Giro d’Italia Donne this year where she was an important teammate in supporting Veronica to the team’s best GC result at a WorldTour stage race. Letizia’s stage win at the 2019 Giro her biggest result to date. It came down to a head-to-head sprint after spending the day in the breakaway and Letizia managed to pull off the win just on the finish line.

Growing up in the mountains of northern Italy, Letizia is happiest when she is outside. She adores her home region of Trentino and you can often find her hiking to nearby lakes when she’s not training on the road. She earned the silver medal in the 2022 Italian gravel national championships, her first ever gravel race. In the off season, Letizia enjoys competing in the local cyclocross races. Given her experience in cyclocross, it’s not a surprise that her favorite races are the cobbled classics because she loves the steep climbs and is used to the harsh weather conditions.

Letizia completed her bachelor’s degree in sports science and she is currently studying for her master’s degree in biology/nutrition.

Lizzy Banks had an unusual entry to the sport, especially for a British rider. In 2013, she signed up for her first charity ride – a 100 mile course – when she didn’t own a bike. She bought one off Gumtree, which is similar to Craigslist, a few weeks before the event.

The following year, in 2014, Lizzy began to commute by bike to her medical school placements. She was always running late so always riding fast, and as she passed people on the streets, she realized she might have a knack for cycling. She entered the university hill climb competition and came fifth.

Bitten by the racing bug, Lizzy set out to secure a British racing license. Although she admittedly had no idea how to race, she somehow began to climb the ranks. She was picked up by her first team, a local squad, during her first season and hired a coach. When the coach asked Lizzy to outline her ambitions, Lizzy said she wanted to make the Olympics. Lizzy says the coach’s response made it clear her answer was unexpected.

Six years later, Lizzy would have been in running for Olympic selection for the 2021 games had it not been for a hard fall at Strade Bianche earlier in the year. She suffered a severe concussion in the crash and was sidelined for all but two races in her fourth season as a professional. The 2022 season was also challenging for Lizzy who has since recovered from long Covid.

Though Lizzy was new to EF Education-TIBCO-SVB last season, she was reunited with our general manager Rachel Hedderman. The pair had worked together earlier in their careers and they are thrilled to be working together again. Lizzy, widely considered a rising star in the women’s peloton, is expected to be a leader for the team’s development riders and to build on her previous successes, which include two Giro d’Italia Donne stage wins.