Pauliena Rooijakkers is taking the next step in her career with her new Canyon-SRAM Racing team.
The cyclist from Venray is enjoying herself in the first weeks with her new team, she says in an interview with Cyclingnews†
German top team
Last season, the 28-year-old rider achieved good results in the Tour of Burgos and Clásica San Sebastián. It earned her a transfer to the German top team Canyon-SRAM Racing. She has raced for Team CCC-Liv for the past three seasons. In previous years she played for the Limburg team Parkhotel Valkenburg.
Amstel Gold Race
Rooijakkers especially appeals to the international composition of the team. The team is home to no fewer than eleven nationalities. Absolute toppers in the team are Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Soraya Paladin and Lisa Klein. Rooijakkers hopes to support her teammates as best as possible throughout the season. In the spring this will mainly be in classics such as the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. With this, Rooijakkers indicates that she will be at the start of the Limburg classic this year.
Tour of the Ardèche
After the classic spring, her focus will be on multi-day races with longer climbs. Rooijakkers has proven that she can cope well uphill in these kinds of tough races. Last season she was the winner of the mountains classification in the Tour de Ardèche. Of course she also hopes to go for her own chances in these kinds of races, if the tactics of the team allow it.
Mountainous stage races
Rooijakkers is looking forward to riding mountainous stage races with her new teammates. “We have several riders who can survive on tougher climbs, that also motivates me to ride beautiful finals with these girls,” she explains.
Strade Bianche
As it stands, Rooijakkers will start her racing season on March 5 with the Italian race Strade Bianche.