'Graduating riders into European teams would be a success' - First-ever Women's WorldTour champion Megan Guarnier teaching race tactics, teamwork and life balance at new US women's team

Megan Guarnier left her 10-year pro racing career behind in 2019 and turned her attention immediately to her family, having her first son in December that year. Away from the hectic travel and skirmishes of the new WorldTour for women, the road of retirement was anything but smooth. Guarnier faced a number of personal challenges, including the cancer diagnosis of her husband, Billy, who died in 2021.

Life is often called one big valley of tears, and Guarnier has endured many of those tears and emerged from the valley a victor.

Like her fast-charging style in bike races, she has regained balance and moved ahead, now refocused on new purposes with several growing families - caring for 11 riders on CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group, a group of coaching clients, and raising her two young sons.

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This year, she will be a mentor and co-director for the US-based women's domestic elite squad that relaunched from a merger of two teams five years ago, helping team founders Lauren LeClaire and Tim Mitchell. She'll be in the team car at a few races and mentor young riders to pursue opportunities with top-tier programmes, if that is their desire.

"After my retirement and the birth of our first son, we moved back to upstate New York to better care for my husband, Billy, who sadly passed away shortly thereafter. Navigating my new reality without Billy and raising our boys took up a lot of my time," Guarnier told Cyclingnews this week after returning from Spain with the CCB team camp.

"NBC contacted me in 2022 as an analyst for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and that has been a great challenge that has taken me completely out of my comfort zone. I began a coaching business in 2024, and I have really loved working with athletes of all levels.

"I think Tim and Lauren have created a great framework for the team: the majority of the athletes on CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group are still in school (high school, college or postgraduate education). Tim and Lauren insist that there must be a life balance. It is really wonderful sitting at the table with these young women and listening to their academic pursuits and interests outside of cycling."

Guarnier joined the CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group riders and staff in Calpe, Spain, last week for winter training. Ten of the 11 athletes compete on the under-23 level, with Katherine Rusch, 29, on the team for a fourth season, proving that development can still happen with a delayed start.

Many have had brief experiences already at European road and cyclo-cross races. Four CCB riders will represent Team USA at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships next week - Lizzy Gunsalus (the US elite women's CX national champion), Alyssa Sarkisov, Katherine Sarkisov and Lyllie Sonnemann.

"I think I was 23 years old on my first trip to Europe, and when I look at it with that perspective, they are getting wonderful experiences at a young age. They have a greater understanding around nutrition than we did even when I retired. This was visible every time we sat at the table for a meal. I am really happy to see a better understanding of fueling.

"Just being at the training camp this past month gave me a better perspective on what I would find truly rewarding at the end of the season. I know we are talking about a cycling team, but seeing these women succeed in their academics while still having a love for bike racing would be the most rewarding," Guarnier said about how she would gauge 2026 as a good year.

"Graduating riders into European teams would also be a success. Finally, seeing the riders better understand race tactics and teamwork, which might also have the side benefit of obtaining results, would also be a nice reward."

Lily Edwards, who won the US junior 17-18 time trial national championship, competed at three UCI Cyclo-cross World Cups this season, and she doesn't turn 18 until March 1. Sonnemann, who was fourth in the junior women's race at US cyclocross nationals, is just 18, and Jorja Bond, who won a bronze medal in the women's junior race three years ago at US nationals and Pan-American Championships, is 20 years old.

The team also includes Gunsalus and the Sarkisov sisters, Alyssa earning the junior road title at the 2025 US nationals last summer, and they are all 22 or younger.

"The level of the riders on the team really surprised me. They are very young and very strong and were excited to go out and get long hours on the bike. The beautiful weather in Alicante helped.

"Sometimes, I needed to remind myself that almost everyone at that camp was U23. Most of them have spent a good amount of time in Europe, which is great to see that they are getting these opportunities at a young age," she said.

"There is no recipe to follow on how to make the leap from a domestic racer into the European peloton. If I can be a resource for these athletes to help them succeed, this would be my way of helping the sport to grow. I see my role as providing access to first-hand experience of how to be successful in this environment and to live up to one’s potential."

Leading by example

Looking back on a decade of racing, half of that time with Dutch powerhouse Boels-Dolmans, Guarnier said it was difficult to reduce all her achievements to a top-3 list.

Between 2009, when she rode for the US National Team, and 2018 at Boels-Dolmans, she earned five medals at US road race nationals, three of them gold, and competed in the Giro d'Italia Femminile seven times, landing on stage podiums 11 times and in the GC top 5 four times, with the overall win in 2016.

In 2015, she showed her versatility by winning Strade Bianche Donne, Tour of Scandinavia and a bronze medal in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond. Her 2016 season was monumental, taking the inaugural UCI Women's WorldTour overall title with a huge haul of victories, including the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and GC at Amgen Tour of California to go along with the Giro GC.

"Stand out moments? Strade Bianche, the World Championship podium on home soil, and Giro Donne," Guarnier said.

One of her highly touted victories was the women's Philadelphia Cycling Classic in Pennsylvania, using the same course as the men's USPro road races for 20 years, including multiple ascents of the legendary Manayunk Wall climb (750 metres at 17% gradient) on Levering Street.

The US one-day races in Philadelphia for men and women ended a long run of success in 2016 due to a lack of funding, with Guarnier in the record books as the last women's champion. But now she can go back and perhaps see one of her protégées on the podium.

This year, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic p/b AmeriGas returns on August 30, with a second UCI race following the next weekend, and just two hours away, the Maryland Cycling Classic.

"I am really excited to see these UCI races back on the calendar. It is no secret that road racing in the USA has been suffering in the past few years, so seeing the classic American bike races like Philly come back is promising. In its inaugural year, all the women loved racing Maryland Classic," Guarnier said.

"Having UCI-level racing in the US is great as it will allow more domestic riders to have exposure to high-level racing. It is empowering to see the riders’ excitement around these races - these are the things that keep riders hungry throughout the season."

And it's not just the UCI racing re-emerging in the US, but former pros like Guarnier looking to help a new generation.

"We are so lucky to have her. It's so fantastic that she is at a point where she is reconnecting with the sport," said LeClaire, who called Guarnier one of the strongest people she knows.

Much of that strength came from personal tragedy, which she said gave her "resilience". Guarnier now has two children, the second son welcomed after Billy's death, and the two share the same birthday.

While Guarnier now nurtures her young boys full-time, she feels ready to return to cycling, focusing on developing young talent.

"CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group wants to stick with development," Guarnier added. "This is what really enticed me to come on board with CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group.

"Some teams are trying to do it all and grow their programs to big Conti teams, which leaves the development aspect of the sport behind. If we do not have development teams like CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group, riders will not gain the physical and mental strength and knowledge to move to the next level."