Stina Kagevi about taking another big step up after a new cool season

Stina Kagevi was the promising MTB cyclist who left all competitors away already when she as a freshman junior tested line-SM on country road. Since then, she has steadily taken a leap. Now she faces two years at the highest level with the American World Tour team, EF Education-Oatly.

What does joining a WWT team mean to you?

"A big step, it feels cool to move on - that I have driven so well that I have been recognized and recruited by such a big team. "

Are there big differences towards the Norwegian Team Coop - Repsol, who have quite often been invited to larger races?

"In the Coop, there is a smaller group of people who work around the team. In EF Education-Oatly, everything will be much more planned; fewer competitions that fit my role in the team and more planned. "

What do you say about the season in Coop where, among other things, you hung out well in the mountains and finished 21st in Vueltan?

"I'm happy with the season. We’re not the team with the biggest budget, but we’ve shown that it’s not always what counts. We have had many nice races and results. It has been a very good group. I have enjoyed myself as much as I can in the Coop. I found the form well during the Ardennes classics. About the same feeling in the middle of the Vueltan. We do not have very many hills here at home in Sweden so it was a little different. But I got stronger during the winter training in the mountains, so to still perform so well on big hills is probably the biggest step I took this year. "

Still very strong in pace but also lost with one and a half minutes on the last lap of the World Cup line race, tell me how you thought in that situation!

"On the second to last lap, I ended up in the second group, but I knew that a lot could happen on the last lap with tactical play and two tough hills. When we figured out the first group, I decided: if I am going to have a chance to fight for the medals, I needed a head start. Then it stopped. I had given a lot to have a little better legs when I went into the penultimate hill in such a big lead, but it was at the same time a cool feeling to get a class of my own with only U23 cyclists at the start and get to travel about it. Maybe next time it will hold. "