Jayco AlUla Team Talk: Women’s teams combining forces to start anew

Last season, Jayco AlUla and Liv Racing TeqFind were two of the Women’s WorldTour teams who were in need of a boost. Both teams had talent, strong riders and, crucially, bicycles supplied by Liv. Nevertheless, the mixture was not quite right for either team to make an emphatic mark on the Women’s WorldTour.

In a way, it was as if both squads were missing pieces to make them both true contenders across the racing calendar. Thus, when news came out that the two teams would be merging under one unified banner for 2024, the prospective mixture made sense. With the strengths of the two teams melded together, the newly-formed Liv AlUla Jayco team has legs the way that neither of the previous iterations had in 2023, even if the team has lost a crucial piece of the puzzle in Kristen Falkner.

Nevertheless, with the merger, there are many questions over how the next season will go. Will the influence of a different team ethos bring new life out of veterans? Will riders with competing strengths cause tension amongst the team? Who will be the leaders with the shake-up in hierarchy that comes from a combination of two structures?

All of that is yet to be determined and will ultimately be decided on the road, but here are a couple of our predictions for the year ahead, as well as a look back at what worked in 2023.

GCN’s 2023 review

For Jayco AlUla, the team’s only win at the WorldTour level came early in the 2023 season with Alex Manly’s stage win at the Tour Down Under. Manly, who won stage 2 of the race, wasn't able to match that level the rest of the season but will be hoping to return to her winning ways in 2024. It wasn’t just about Manly in Australia, as Ruby Roseman-Gannon finished fourth overall and seventh at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

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Alex Manly wins stage 2 of the Tour Down Under

Beyond the Australian swing to start the year, the team’s season seemed to stall, with their spot on the podium at Strade Bianche erased after Kristen Faulkner was caught wearing a continuous glucose monitor on her arm during competition, which is not allowed. That disqualification took away what would have been the team’s best result of the season, as Faulkner was unable to regain that level and had to take most of the second half of the year away from racing after she was hit by a car in training.

One bright spot came in the form of Urška Žigart, who won the Slovenian time trial championship – the team’s only win besides the Tour Down Under stage – and a strong seventh place overall at the Tour de Suisse, but her summer was also disrupted after a heavy crash at the Giro. The rest of the team's success came in dribs and drabs, with a few top 10s in WorldTour races being the high points.

For Liv Racing TeqFind, the wins were even harder to come by, with Mavi García’s Spanish road race title the only notch in the team's win column. Nevertheless, that was not for a lack of trying. García, the team’s GC leader, was the most prolific, with numerous top-10s including overall at the Vuelta and the Giro. Likewise, in Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the team came agonisingly close to a shock victory, with Katia Ragusa coming in second. Beyond those two riders and those results, however, there was not much to write home with for the team.

GCN’s rating: 3/10

It was a season of some near misses for both teams, but largely a year to forget. Fortunately, the merger can provide that fresh start to build on the bright areas that do exist on the combined roster.

Ins & Outs

With the merger, the combined team has a whole new roster, for obvious reasons. Generally speaking, however, it is dominated by Jayco-AlUla riders.

While perhaps the strongest Jayco-AlUla rider is out, with Kristen Faulkner heading to EF Education-Cannondale, the main points of strength from the team are still in the line-up. The Australian pairing of Roseman-Gannon and Manly is back for the next year, as is Urška Žigart. So too is the Italian sprinter Letizia Paternoster. Paternoster is a track rider, so will have a split agenda in 2024 with the Olympics on the horizon, but has been rising slowly in the sprint ranks.

From Liv Racing TeqFind, most of the riders are out, including the Paris-Roubaix Femmes runner-up Ragusa. But, crucially, Mavi García has moved over to the new set-up and could be the key to the whole team's success. Not only does the Spaniard bring a wealth of experience, but she might have the race craft that could help the talents of Žigart, Rose-Gannon and Manly shine through.

Where Liv AlUla Jayco’s wins will come from in 2024

The five top riders on the team – Manly, Garcia, Roseman-Gannon, Žigart and Paternoster – have all been knocking on the door of a big win of late. For García, who will start the season at age 39, explosivity might be waning a tad, but for the other four riders who are all firmly in their prime, wins will be expected in 2024.

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Mavi García will be one of Liv AlUla Jayco's headline riders in 2024

Of all of them, Alex Manly seems the most likely to deliver a win or two. While Roseman-Gannon has yet to win an elite race as a pro, 2024 could be the year she gets over the hump. The same could be said for Paternoster, who might be able to parlay her track peak into road wins. Žigart will want to continue to progress as a climber and a prospective GC contender, which could hurt her chances to take more wins as the women’s GC battle gets more intensive every year.

Liv AlUla Jayco’s next breakout rider

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Ella Wyllie finished second in the young rider standings at the Tour de France Femmes

Ella Wyllie from New Zealand is the big hope for the future of the team. The 21-year-old from New Zealand has shown lots of promise in stage racing, including a second place in the youth classification at the Tour de France Femmes.

Wyllie has been a show of consistency at the highest level of cycling during her time at the Continental team Lifeplus Wahoo and will be making the step up to WorldTour level with the hopes of translating that consistency into an upward trajectory. With a strong group of riders building around her, Wyllie is in a great position to develop at her own pace and continue to show her strength as a GC rider for the future.

What did you think of Jayco AlUla and Liv Racing TeqFind's 2023 seasons? Can they step up to a new level together in 2024? Let us know your thoughts below!