The reigning Polish time trial champion, Anna Plichta, has signed a two-year contract to join Lotto Soudal Ladies next season, the Belgian team announced on Thursday.
The 28-year-old has spent the past two seasons with Trek-Segafredo, finishing fourth at the Trophée des Grimpeuses in Belgium in September after defending her Polish TT title in late August. In 2018, she rode for Boels Dolmans, and for WM3 Energie in 2017, which operates today as CCC-Liv.
"This is going to be a new challenge for me," Plichta said in a press release from her new team. "At Lotto Soudal, I'll get the opportunity to have a go myself in the races, whereas in the past few years I've worked a lot for my teammates. I'm 28 years old now, and this is the moment to take this chance. This new role and new team gives me a lot of motivation to start working towards next year.
"The past two years, I've also focused more on time trialling, and I've really improved quite a lot in the discipline," she said. "I've won the Polish National Championships twice in a row, and I rode well at the European Time Trial Championships [in August], where I finished seventh, and last year I got fifth in the individual time trial at the Madrid Challenge. So I've already had some nice results on the time trial bike, and it's definitely a discipline I want to keep improving at."
Plichta said that she didn't hesitate when she received the offer to join Lotto Soudal.
"During the year, I spend a lot of time in Belgium as my fiancé is Belgian, and it has started to feel like my second home. Therefore it also feels very natural to choose a Belgian team," she said.
Plicha said that she'd now be able to enjoy the off-season and is hoping to then be able to hit the ground running with her new team in 2021.
"It's time for a break after what has been an unconventional season," she said. "A good rest, also mentally, will now be important to start the new year fresh and to build up some good shape ahead of the new season.
"I definitely want to be good at the Ardennes races next year and in stage races where a time trial is included," she said of her future goals. "I'm definitely looking forward to this new adventure with Lotto Soudal Ladies."
