Slovak top talent makes debut for Visma | Lease a Bike on Sunday

Viktoria Chladonova will compete for the first time on Sunday on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike. The 18-year-old Slovakian was already with her team at training camp in Spain, and the World Cup cyclo-cross in Benidorm is a logical extension of that. On Saturday, Chladonova showed off her Slovak champion's jersey during the recon on the Costa Blanca.

Chladonova, who turned 18 in November, is already the national champion of her country despite her young age. She won the national championship on November 24 with a difference of a whopping 4.59 minutes over compatriot Sofia Ungerová. A day later, she also rode a cyclo-cross race in her own country, which she won, but then Chladonova pulled out of cyclo-cross for a while around the end of the year.

In Benidorm, she will return and will not be the only Visma | Lease a Bike rider to do so. Sophie Von Berswordt will not be there, but two-time winner Fem van Empel, Marianne Vos, and the British Imogen Wolff will also compete on behalf of the yellow-black formation from the Netherlands.

Chladonova was introduced to the press on Tuesday at the Visma | Lease a Bike team presentation in La Nucia as one of the key riders for the coming years, along with Frenchwoman Marion Brunel. "My dream is to win a grand tour one day. I like the long climbs," explained the Slovakian there to the press.

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Chladonova not making choice between road and field for now

Chladonova doesn't want to choose between cyclo-cross and the road. Last year, Chladonova finished second at the World Junior Time Trial Championships in Zurich, third at the World Road Championships, and third at the World Junior Cyclo-Cross Championships in Tábor. "I like both," she said. "The team's development opportunities for young talents fit my future perfectly. It allows me to combine my favorite discipline, cyclo-cross, with road cycling."

Team manager Jan Boven doesn't expect a choice immediately either; he told this site earlier in Dublin. "She showed nice things at the Juniors so that we will support her. Then, we'll see how the process goes and which project we will go on. For example, Fem now also does 20 cyclo-cross races in the year," the team's cyclo-cross coach said.

Van Empel can win the cyclo-cross in Benidorm on Thursday for a third time, and she saw her biggest competitor, Puck Pieterse, drop out of the competition because of illness. For Vos, after Besançon and the Dutch Championships, it is only her third cyclo-cross race this winter. In Besançon, France, she finished fifth and fourth in the tough Dutch Championship last week. For both ladies, the World Cup in two weeks in Lievin is the big goal this winter.

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