Professional cyclist Mikayla Harvey has bounced back from an end-of-season crash in Holland and is now gunning for a New Zealand jersey to wear on the European roads with her Bigla-Katusha team next year. Reporter MARJORIE COOK caught up with Mikayla at home in Albert Town.

If you blink, you could miss that blonde cyclist who’s been tearing up local roads and tracks since September.

It’s just 21-year-old Mikayla Harvey, taking a rest and recreation break.

Mikayla was a young teenager at Mount Aspiring College when she began dreaming of becoming a professional road cyclist.

She joined a women’s development team, Team Illuminate, based in the United States, straight after leaving college and is now one of the top New Zealand female elite riders, while still racing under-23.

Mikayla completed her first season as a domestique for Bigla-Katusha in September and returns to the Bigla fold immediately after the New Zealand National Championships in mid-February.

“I’m hoping to come away with a win in the open [women’s] category at the nationals so I can wear New Zealand’s colours on the Bigla team jersey in 2020,’’ she said.

Mikayla’s 2019 season was her first real taste of racing the professional circuit in Europe.

Mikayla competing.

The two previous seasons, she’d been finding her way in high end, smaller races, but until she joined Bigla, she’d not been paid to race.

“Now cycling is my job. I am self-employed for cycling,’’ Mikayla said.

Bigla is a Swiss-based furniture manufacturer, which has partnered with cycling kit manufacturer Katusha for 2020.

There are at least a dozen women in the 2020 squad, mostly aged between 20 and 30-years-old, with the focus on development.

Clara Koppenburg, of Germany, has been signed as a team leader for 2020, with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, of Denmark, moving to FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope.

Bigla-Katusha is not one of the eight women's teams that have applied for WorldTour status for 2020.

Mikayla’s parents, Patrick and Tammy Harvey, remain Mikayla’s key “sponsors’’ during her New Zealand summer break, but Bigla pays Mikayla an allowance and expenses for the nine months she is on the road.

The young cyclist is a member of the Bigla fold.

Mikayla’s 2019 season high was an unexpected time trial win in the Tour of Bretagne in France, while her low was concussion suffered in a crash during the Boels Ladies Tour in Holland about three months ago, just before the World Championships in Yorkshire, UK.

Mikayla is known for her time trial abilities but did not expect to win in the Bretagne tour because she wasn’t seeded highly and was focused on her job as a domestique. She had to wait until all other riders had finished to find out she had won.

“It was quite a shock. I was never expecting to make it onto the podium during the season. [The Tour of Bretagne] was a really cool tour of five days and the time trial was the middle stage. It was a shot to go out and show how strong you are. I was one of the first riders off and wasn’t expecting to beat world class athletes,’’ she said.

Mikayla found the road conditions in Europe technically challenging and early in the season had a few minor crashes.

She was grateful to have recovered quickly from her early season scrapes but found it harder to recover from the concussion.

“I tried pushing into it too soon, because I wanted to compete at the World Championships [in Britain]. Then I got sick. I still went to the world champs but I had to pull out of the time trial, and I started a road race, but got pulled out too. Lots of people did. It was disappointing, but I should not have been racing. But crashes are also part of the sport,’’ Mikayla said.

This summer, Mikayla is focusing on base fitness. She’s had a few weeks off, just for a mental break, and is now building up kilometres and endurance on the bike.

A typical week for Mikayla at the moment is three gym sessions to build strength, with a short run before each session to wake up her legs.

She’s also biking between five or six times a week. She’ll do two easy rides and at least one mid-distance ride of about three and a half hours, plus a longer ride of up to five hours.

“At the moment, my efforts are long and slow but before the nationals, everything gets shorter and harder.”

At a recent training camp coached by her parents at Alexandra, Mikayla clocked up 200km in one ride, which is not something she would usually do.

She also did the “Three Peaks’’ ride, comprising consecutive hill climbs up the Coronet and Remarkables ski field access roads, followed by an ascent of the Crown Range between Queenstown and Wanaka.

“I love training. I love feeling fit. Even if I am not on my bike, I love going out and having little adventures,’’ Mikayla said.

After the New Zealand National Championships, Mikayla will fly to Spain for a Bigla preseason camp.

The camp is an important start to her year on the road and Mikayla does not want to miss one moment of it, but will have to miss the start of camp because of the clash with the NZ nationals.

Bigla Katusha’s 2020 campaign will be similar to the 2019 campaign. The season starts in Belgium with two months of “spring classic’’ one day races over cobbles. Mikayla also has early races in Northern Italy.

If 2019 is anything to go by, Mikayla expects to be moving around a lot. “I probably saw over 100 hotels, all three star,’’ she said.

“My main base was Gerona, for about a month, but I also spent a lot of time on the road, going from race to race, doing training camps and travelling. I really enjoyed it. Part of the thrill of the sport is moving around all the time.”

In 2020, Mikayla and a teammate hope to share an apartment at Lago Majore in Northern Italy, which would allow them to be more settled, although they will be competing in 50 to 60 races over nine months.

Mikayla’s main goal is to be selected again for the Giro Rosa in Italy, a ten day grand tour for women. She raced the Giro Rosa this year and spent a day as best young rider. 

Although the young Bigla team did not make the top ten, Harvey helped Bigla to second overall in the team time trial and the Bigla team had four podium finishes.

“It was a highlight, a beautiful course, in the top part of Italy, following the mountains. Every stage was mountainous. That was the most challenging time of my life,’’ she said.

The 2020 season will be Mikayla’s last as an under-23 rider, so she is hoping for more opportunities to go for Young Rider points.

She’s also expecting to work as domestique, which involves going back to the team car, picking up bottles and sprinting like hell back up to the peloton.

“In the Giro, I got ten extra bottles and when I pushed off from the car, I literally thought I would never see the peloton again. It was so hard to catch up and feed all my team mates,’’ she said.

After spending almost a year in a “race bubble’’, Mikayla is enjoying normal life in Wanaka and the chance to relax.

“But I do miss it. I am already excited to go back and do it all again.’’ 

PHOTOS: Supplied