A year of discovery awaits Irish breakout star Megan Armitage

2023 was a memorable season for 27-year-old Megan Armitage, riding for Arkéa, with a stage win and the overall victory at the Vuelta Extremadura Féminas kicking off what turned out to be her best season yet as a professional rider.

For a rider who only discovered the sport since the COVID pandemic in 2020, Armitage’s meteoric rise through the ranks has been nothing short of phenomenal, and it’s little wonder that she was sought after by several teams before EF Education-Cannondale won the race for her signature.

With a two-year contract under her belt, a new coach in Emma Trott, and hopes of racing the Ardennes, Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024, it’s little wonder that Armitage is excited about the upcoming season. If 2023 was a breakout year, the next season could be a year of even more success as she dives headfirst into a stacked and diverse racing programme.

“For next year I’ve been given a race calendar that’s insanely diverse because I don’t know what type of rider I am, and we’re still figuring all of that out. It’s going to be a big year of discovery for me. I’m looking forward to everything that’s coming up but I’m also keen to race in the same style as when I first started riding, when I was more opportunistic and aggressive. I want to be the animator. I want to be the female Ben Healy this year,” she told GCN at EF Education-Cannondale’s training camp in Girona this week.

“I’ll do all the higher level races next year, which was a bit daunting when I got my programme but I’ve had a year on the lower level races and for 2024 they want me to jump into the deep end and absorb it all. I’ll try and learn as much as I can. So I’ll start with UAE Tour and then do all the Classics, apart from Paris-Roubaix. Then I’ll do the Vuelta and the Tour, with the Ardennes before that.”

Read more: New team, new philosophy: how EF Education-Cannondale are plotting Tour de France Femmes success

To say that Armitage is excited about her new team and race programme would be an understatement. She’d almost lost her voice by the conclusion of the team camp after a series of meetings, training rides and social events with her teammates. It’s been a whirlwind ten days for the former Arkéa rider but she’s relished her introduction to her new surroundings with the same enthusiasm that she hopes to carry into her racing next year.

“It’s been really, really busy but an incredible experience getting to know everyone on the team, both from the men’s and women’s sides. I’m coming away tired but very happy. I can’t get over how organised and professional it’s all been. I’ve come away with more kit than I’ll ever need in my life, an amazing bike, and a new coach in Emma Trott,” she said.

Trott’s influence could turn out to be the most significant change and improvement in Armitage’s development. Until now the Irish rider has been coached by her boyfriend, and while few could claim that her progress in such a short period of time has been slow, Trott’s pedigree and full-time position within the team should help Armitage reach new levels of fitness and form. 

“My boyfriend was my coach until now but we decided it might be a good idea to have someone else take that on because I think I can be a bit of a handful. I was a bit nervous about it because it’s a big change for me and I was afraid that she’d have cut my volume and have me doing sprints every day - which I hate. But it’s been really good having a new training stimulus and I’ve already seen the benefits from when we started working together in November," Armitage said.

"Beforehand, I’d just be looking at volume and maybe I was going too easy at this point in the year, whereas now if I’m given five hours I don’t want to do an extra half hour, which I might have done in the past. You’re on the pedals all day and there’s a much bigger emphasis on nutrition while I’m on the bike, which is making a big difference."

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Megan Armitage is a rider who often sparks a race into life

After such a strong year at Arkéa in 2023, it’s little wonder that Armitage had options ahead of her. However, EF Education-Cannondale stood out above all others because of their attention to detail and management know-how, but also their desire to improve Armitage’s all-around skillset as a rider and athlete. She is a rider who has sometimes heaped too much pressure on her own shoulders, but EF has quickly cultivated an atmosphere in which the riders are encouraged to enjoy their passion just as much as the chase for the next result.

Read more:

• EF Education-Cannondale recruit Carmen Small as head sports director
• Alison Jackson signs for EF Education-Cannondale

“I started the sport during COVID so I didn’t know about the sport at all, other than the Tour de France. What brought me to the team was the fact that it’s so easy to focus on just numbers and results, and at the end of 2023 I’d put so much pressure on myself that I was nearly worried about, not falling out of love with the sport, but not enjoying racing anymore. And I wanted to go back to that. I wanted to look forward to arriving at the start line and not pigeonholing myself as one type of rider. I felt like I was putting so much pressure on myself and after every race, if I didn’t come out with a result that I was happy with then I’d feel like a failure,” Armitage told GCN.

“Here I’ve got riders like Alison Jackson and Nina Kessler who can tell me to give myself a pat on the back and appreciate how far I’ve come. They’ve told me that it’s okay when things don’t go perfectly and that learning is exciting. They’ve helped me reflect on the positive progress and over this week alone I think I’ve improved more than I had over the last few months, purely because I’ve been riding with people with so much experience.”

General manager, Esra Tromp, who joined in the summer from Jumbo-Visma, has been instrumental in creating the culture within the new women’s team.

“I spoke to Esra, and she explained the project. She said that the team obviously wanted results but they also wanted the riders to have fun and love what we’re doing. Out of all the teams that I spoke to, I knew that this was the one for me. Some people get nervous about joining a new team but I wanted to be here from the start. I’m really lucky and happy to be here for the next few years.”

Undaunted and unfazed, Armitage could be set for another blockbuster season on the road with Grand Tour debuts, and the Ardennes forming part of her season. Time will tell how far she can go but she’s certainly found the right home for the future.