The Next Great American Cyclist

Greg Lemond...Lance Armstrong...Mara Abbott?

That's correct, the next great American cyclist could very well be a female. For those of you who have been following the development and cycling career of Mara Abbott (formerly of Webcor Builders) the idea of her carrying the "next" label, though lofty, is certainly within the realm of possibility for the precocious talent who recently completed her second year at the elite level [and her first with a professional team].

Image: Don Karle

A former collegiate swimmer at Division II Whitman College in Washington, Abbott didn't pick up competitive cycling until her freshman year. Amazingly, she won the US National Collegiate Road Race in that same season. Since then, the 21 year old senior is the proud owner of a closet full of stars & stripes jerseys.

This year Abbott finished on the podium at the Redlands Classic, the Nature Valley Grand Prix, and at the Montreal World Cup [her very first race against a world class peloton]. She followed up on those podium placings by besting USWCDF mentors Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben to claim the Elite Women's National Championship Road Race.

For all her accomplishments to date, she has been featured in Sports Illustrated's [August 27th edition] Faces in the Crowd [remember when that was a rare and prestigious honor, then came the internet], featured in Cyclingnews, and recently graced the cover of Velonews [as "The Next American World Champion?"].

Now comes the news that Abbott (image: PhotoSport International) has just inked a contract with the venerable T-Mobile Women's squad. She joins new additions German Road Champion Luise Keller and young talent Madeleine Sandig on a team that had 31 victories in 2007 and finished as the UCI #1 ranked women's professional team in the world.

How's that for a graduation present?

For the young woman whose stated goals [from the Webcor Builders website] this year were,

To learn…to become a complete cyclist, to understand what I am doing, and why I am doing it. And I want to climb up every mountain that I have ever climbed faster than I have climbed it before. I want to win a race that I get flowers for! And in the future? I want to return to the races I sampled last year, and I want to win them. I want to be one of the people I now look up to. I wish to attend the Olympics someday. I want to look at the view from various tops of podiums all across the world. I don’t know the specific goals yet. But they will come out. And while doing this, I want to learn about the world… I want to speak languages. I want to work with governments and activist groups. I want to be involved in the WORLD.

Mara Abbott is certainly more than on her way.

Although you'll probably have less of an opportunity to catch Abbott in person because of T-Mobile's heavily ladened European schedule, don't let that deter you from following the arch of America's latest rising star.

[I, for one, can't wait to see how she'll match up against Nicole Cooke [among others] in the Women's peloton].

Independent Thought
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