Harvey goes up a gear as WorldTour looms into view
From the scenic backblocks of Wanaka, Mikayla Harvey’s cycling career has gathered pace. Phillip Rollo reports.
MIKAYLA Harvey’s father formed a cycling team for her to ride with when she was a teenager, and now she’s one of the most exciting young prospects in the pro peloton.
The Wanaka rider has made the step up to the Women’s WorldTour after being snapped up by Canyon-SRAM on the back of her breakout season with Equipe Paule Ka in 2020.
The 22-year-old was named Cycling New Zealand’s female rider of the year after finishing fifth overall and winning the young rider’s classification at the Giro Rosa in Italy last year.
‘‘My first season in Europe was really tough. I was lucky that I was able to do a lot of races but I spent a lot of time crashing and I was learning the ropes the hard way, and I had to be really resilient. But I think to make it in Europe you have to be really ambitious. You can’t give up. I’ve had this dream of becoming a cyclist for so long and I’ve just been so determined and I can finally say I’ve made it as a professional.’’
Harvey fell in love with road cycling when she was at St Kentigern College in Auckland, and that passion only grew stronger when her family moved to Wanaka when she was 15.
She started out riding for Mike Greer
Homes, a women’s team set up and run by her father
Patrick to give some of the
South Island’s most promising female cyclists a taste of competing in a team in New
Zealand and Australia.
WorldTour professionals Niamh Fisher-Black and Ella
Harris were also products of Mike Greer
Homes and Harvey said she would hate to think where her career would be without the support from her parents from a young age.
‘‘There was me and a few other girls who were really keen to do more and wanted to race in Australia and do the Calder Stewart Cycle Series,’’ she said.
‘‘So my dad ended up getting in touch with sponsors around the South Island to create this team for us girls and it really just took off for quite a few years.
‘‘It really helped mould me into the cyclist that I am today and gave me so many opportunities, and I fell in love with racing. It’s kind of scary what would have happened if my parents didn’t put in that much effort. I don’t know if I would’ve made it.’’
Harvey rode with FisherBlack on Equipe Paule Ka last year and had signed a two-year extension with the team before they folded due to financial difficulties in late 2020. But thanks to her impressive overall result at the Giro
Rosa, regarded as the biggest race in women’s cycling, Harvey had no shortage of offers when she became a free agent and elected to join Harris on her ‘‘dream’’ WorldTour team Canyon-SRAM.
Harvey admitted she was a Canyon-SRAM ‘‘megafan’’ in her youth and said it was extra special to team up with Harris, who she had competed with and against for the best part of a decade.
‘‘Me and Ella are the exact same age and I’ve raced against her since I was 11 or 12 years old. We both did triathlon when we were younger and were like little rivals back then,’’ she said. ‘‘We’ve gone up through the ranks together and now to be racing on the same team is pretty cool. We’re both on a WorldTour women’s team, which is insane because not many women from New Zealand even make it to WorldTour level, so to have gone through racing as a junior with her to both make it professionally is really special.’’
Harvey described herself as an ambitious rider and said she had big goals for 2021 after announcing herself as one of the most exciting young prospects in women’s cycling last year.
She will get plenty of opportunities to lead CanyonSRAM in her first season with the team but is also expected to juggle domestique duties for last year’s Giro Rosa runner-up, Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma.
‘‘I had a really, really good year last year and it has just given me more confidence leading into this year,’’ she said. ‘‘I know I do have the ability to perform at the highest level so it’s nice knowing that I do have that in me, and it’s exciting.
‘‘I know with some more hard training I can keep on developing and I do have the potential to be up there with the best girls.
‘‘I just have to take it step by step but I do feel like now with my new team of CanyonSRAM, it’s such a nice environment and it’s the perfect place for me to continue to learn and also have opportunities to perform.’’
Harvey will begin the season at Strade-Bianche in Italy next Sunday (NZT) after last week’s Tour of Valencia was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.