'We want to show how beautiful cycling is' - Marta Cavalli on looming Tour de France Femmes

After almost a decade of Anna van der Breggen dominance, April 2022 saw the coronation of a new Queen of the Ardennes. Before smashing her way through it, Marta Cavalli of FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope had been tapping politely at the door of success for some time. In 2020 and 2021 she seemed to collect top 10 finishes like they were Pokemon cards, but a podium’s top step always eluded her.

Ad/> Then came Amstel Gold Race. It was a victory the team had targeted and worked for. Tour de France'Can’t trump talent with money' — Wiggins fires Ineos warning29/03/2022 AT 16:06 “Our goal was to achieve as much as we could in the first races,” she tells The Cycling Show this week, available to watch on discovery+.

“My motivation was really high.” Cavalli attributes her breakthrough to a recalibration of her approach: “I worked all the winter with this focus in my mind,” she says. “I did more quality training. Less, but more focused on specific efforts.

To be able to react, for example, to big attacks like Annemiek [van Vleuten] or [Elisa] Longo Borghini and be ready to attack these riders.” It was certainly effective at Amstel Gold Race. In the closing kilometres, having made it into a select group of seven, the Italian sprung a surprise attack over the top of the Cauberg. Cavalli rode solo to the Valkenburg finish line to claim her first victory at WorldTour level and her team’s first of the season of any kind.

Last week, at Fleche Wallonne Feminine, she doubled up. Making it to the top of the Mur de Huy with only Van Vleuten for company, Cavalli had enough left in the legs to punch the pedals and pull past the Dutch star for a famous victory. Although unable to make it an Ardennes hat trick at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Cavalli