In her eighth season in the pro peloton Niewiadoma has matured as a rider and as a person as well. She attributes some of that to her boyfriend Taylor Phinney, with whom she lives in Girona, Spain.

“Before I met Taylor, I was a bit more selfish, thinking of my career and not about the people around me. That made me unhappy, just being in my own little world. I missed the people. Taylor brought the happiness back and let me experience there is more in life than cycling. He taught me a different approach to a race. I don’t have to win everything. I just have to set one goal and believe in it. He taught me to take it one race at a time.”

Maturing from an 18-year old stagiaire with the Rabobank-Liv super team to one of the leaders of Canyon//SRAM at the age of 25 seems to be a natural development. She does occasionally long back to those anonymous times when she was younger.

“When I was an U23-rider I didn’t really have a lot of doubts. The older I got the more I started to think of results, of winning, of getting on a podium. Everything was already described in my head before the race.