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Promising American star Natalie Quinn will turn professional next season after securing a contract with the EF Education-Cannondale squad.
Quinn, who won the U23 road race title in Knoxville earlier this year, is the 15th rider signed to the new American Continental squad.
The 21-year-old will join the likes of Veronica Ewers, Alison Jackson, Coryn Labecki, and Kristen Faulkner on the North America-dominated roster.
“When I first heard from Esra [Tromp — general manager], it almost seemed too good to be true,” Quinn said. “Then I talked with Tim, my director from my current team, CCB, and then my personal coach and it began to sink in that this was real and I started getting really excited. This roster has some pretty amazing people that I’ve watched race and it’s super exciting that I will be working with them this year.
“I’ve followed EF Pro Cycling for a long time, and I’ve really enjoyed being a fan. I also love Cannondale bikes and being on an American team as an American is really awesome. I think it’s really great that the women’s and men’s teams are among the few American teams still going so it’s exciting to get to be part of this.”
Also read:
- EF Education-Cannondale boss Esra Tromp and Her Two Projects: Creating a Team, Becoming a New Mom
- From the Ground Up: Esra Tromp on Building an EF Education-Cannondale Team That Wants to Disrupt
- Kristen Faulkner Joins Veronica Ewers, Alison Jackson at New EF Education-Cannondale Squad
Like many in the women’s peloton, Quinn is combining her racing with studying. Even as she steps into pro racing, she will continue her bachelor’s degree in environmental conservation and management.
Racing is her main focus, for now, but she’d like to use her degree when she starts looking for a job outside of cycling.
“It’s a pretty broad degree but I’ve found myself focusing more on food accessibility and sustainable agriculture because a lot of the biggest problems related to climate change are agricultural related,” she said.
“If and when I decide to focus professionally on something other than cycling, I’d really like to work either in a legal capacity to help create protections and policies related to creating a more sustainable agricultural system or just going straight to the source and having some interaction with a farm, whether it’s working with one or starting one.”
U23 Women’s Road Race National Championship Results:
Natalie Quinn
Betty Hasse
Cassidy Hickey pic.twitter.com/DgiQCJI25z— USA Cycling (@usacycling) June 25, 2023
Looking to the future
Quinn’s first sporting passion was downhill skiing after her parents taught her and her sister how to ski as children. As a teenager, she came close to going pro but decided against it and started searching for a new sport to get stuck into.
After failing to make her high school softball team, she joined its mountain bike team instead and ultimately went to Fort Lewis College as a scholarship athlete on its varsity cycling program. That gave her a taste of multiple disciplines and fell in love with racing.
She took part in several national championships with her college team and showed her promise with sixth in the U23 national cyclocross championships in 2021.
This year, she signed with the CCB p/b Levine Law Group squad, giving her a taste of some much bigger events. She also got a taste of some European racing with the national team and finished 11th in the youth classification at the Tour de l’Ardèche.
Last weekend, she just missed out on the podium in the elite race at the US cyclocross championships, which was won by Clara Honsinger. Quinn doesn’t yet know what kind of rider she’d like to be, but the move to EF Education-Cannondale will give her an opportunity to refine her talents.
“I’m figuring it out a little bit. I love cobbles and punchy climbs. I consider myself a really solid descender and technical handler. But what I’ve found out about myself is that I’m pretty aggressive and I’m not afraid to take risks. I’m not afraid to chase down attacks or to go on the attack myself. I’m not afraid to get into a breakaway and then go as far as I can with it,” Quinn said.
Quinn’s name was high on the list when EF Education-Cannondale started searching for a young rider that it could develop in-house. Tromp, her new team manager, believes that Quinn’s history of skiing will help when it comes to the hustle and bustle of a WorldTour peloton.
“In the team, we had a spot for a rider who was young, new to the sport, and would benefit from gaining experience racing in Europe. It’s important that we are creating an opportunity for the sport to grow by seeking out new riders,” Tromp said. “We are also an American team, so I was searching and Natalie popped up. She is the current U23 national champion which is interesting, but especially when we spoke to each other and she talked about how she sees her future and development both as a rider and as a person, that’s when I knew she would be a good combination with the team.
“She comes from CCB which is a super development team in the US but the racing there is limited. She wants to develop but she wants to take it slowly which I think is really important. She’s from alpine skiing so this is really cool because she’s not scared at all which is helpful in an intense sport like cycling. And she’s going to inspire a lot of girls and women in the U.S. to jump on the bike.”
