It’s been forecast for a number of years that Lidl-Trek and Canada had a new multidisciplinary star on their hands, but the reality wasn’t expected to hit this quickly. But just two days before she turned 20, leaving behind a teenager career that included four world titles in mountain bike and cyclocross, Bella Holmgren announced her arrival on the road stage, winning her first pro race. Among the riders she outsmarted included Elisa Longo Borghini, Évita Muzic and Silvia Persico. Crème de la crème of women’s racing, all denied by a youngster only competing against elites in Europe for the 16th time. The apprentice beating the masters.
“I definitely was not expecting to win this season and I was pretty emotional because I was so shocked to do so,” Holmgren, from southern Ontario, Canada, tells Rouleur about her victory at the Durango-Durango one-day race in Spain’s Basque Country in late-May, where she attacked over the final climb with 10km to go, holding on for the win by eight seconds. “I'm really just trying to be the best teammate I can and learn that role. The first time I thought about winning was when I crossed the line. I didn’t even have a celebration ready!”
Ominous signs, then, for the peloton of what could be about to come. But they can’t say they haven’t been warned: Holmgren, as well as her twin sister and fellow Lidl-Trek rider Ava, has been tipped for stardom for a number of years, winning 13 of the 20 international mountain bike cross-country races she’s ever raced – a win percentage of 65% – while she’s racked up eight international cyclocross victories.
Holmgren is blessed with enormous talent, but it might not have been cycling where she made her profession. “I started riding my bike when I was younger and I did weekly races with my family on the weekends, but my primary focus was swimming,” she tells me from her home in Girona, where she lives with sister Ava and their older brother Gunnar who is an off-road pro. “My sister and I swam competitively for a long time and we were in the pool seven times a week. I was too young to focus on only one or two events, but the 400m and 800m distances were what I preferred.” When Covid hit and pools closed, the bike took prominence. “I fell in love with riding more and switched to cycling aged 15.”
Holmgren already has four rainbow jerseys to her collection. Photo by: Javier Martínez/SWpix.com
Mountain biking and cyclocross are the family’s first loves – her parents, physiotherapist Lisa and coach Tim, met through cycling – and it was what Holmgren focused on initially. Repeated world titles – three in MTB and one in cyclocross, the latter in 2023 alongside Ava who took silver – only fuelled her passion. “I can’t describe what it’s like wearing the rainbow stripes,” she says. “It’s such a nice feeling but one I will never take for granted.” At last year’s Paris Olympics, she finished 17th in her first ever elite race. “It was the most nervous I’ve ever been but it was an amazing experience,” she reflects. “My brother was also there riding for Canada and we had so many friends and family watching us. Now that I’ve competed in the Olympics, I want to go back and improve because I know I can do better than last time.”
It’s plausible that she’ll be there in Los Angeles in 2028 competing for Canada on the mountain bike and road. Until her final year as a junior, Holgreen hadn’t dabbled with road racing too much, but immediately she saw her future. “What I love about road racing is that it’s an unpredictable effort,” she says. “Mountain biking and cross, you know you’re going full gas for an hour. But the road is so different: it involves teamwork, not always riding for yourself, and tactics are way more important.”
Happy sisters: Twins Bella and Ava celebrate another win at last year's Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra. Photo by: Javier Martínez/SWpix.com
She jokes that she learned from her swimming days she wasn’t a sprinter, and her forte on the bike is clearly going uphill. “I like climbing, but to be one of the best riders you have to be good at everything, so I want to develop everything,” she says. “I think the GC is a nice ambition to target, but for now I’m focused on learning.” Her first standout result was last August’s Tour de l’Avenir, where she finished second on two stages and on GC, and won the mountains classification. “That was a surprise because it was the only U23 road race I’d ever done, and I didn’t know where I was going to be compared to the other girls. If I go back this year, I’d like to do well again.”
In the interim, Holmgren will be one of Lidl-Trek’s support riders at July’s Giro d’Italia, before she’ll then switch back and forth between the road and mountain bike. “The MTB Worlds in September are a big goal of mine,” she states. Cyclocross, for now, is being put on the backburner, but mountain biking is not. “I’ve got a skills coach which has been super helpful and that work paid off in the spring in Brazil [when she won four successive races]. I can always get better and faster.”
Would she describe herself as a winner? “I don’t know, maybe,” she answers, modestly. “It’s a tough question, but I suppose I have won some races.” More than some – a lot. “I’ve said it 10 times already, but at the moment I just want to be a good teammate, and in the future I’d like to be a good GC rider and win some races.” She pauses, and smiles. “I do enjoy winning, yeah.” The scary thing is she’s just getting started.
Cover picture by Sam Needham/LidlTrek
