Over the years road cycling has welcomed plenty of new riders from other sports as athletes, who often have found success in endurance-focussed events, make the switch to two wheels.
Possibly the most referenced example of this phenomenon is four-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič, a former ski jumper. Elsewhere, there's Michael Woods, a former elite long-distance runner; Maria Canins, the double Tour de France Féminin winner and top cross-country skier in Italy; and Clara Hughes, who won Olympic medals in both road cycling and speed skating.
There have been many more riders through the years, of course, and this year's Tour de France Femmes welcomed another multi-disciplinarian – Lotto-Intermarché's Sandrine Tas.
The 30-year-old Belgian is racing her first year at a professional level, having previously been part of the amateur Belco-Van Eyck, and she has impressed from the get go.
Highlights of the first six months with her new team include two stage wins and second overall at the Bretagne Ladies Tour in May, while she also finished on the podium at the Belgian National Championships, with second in the time trial and third in the road race.
So how did Tas end up here? As she prepared for the start of the Tour's second stage in Aigle, she explained the journey.
"It's actually my third sport because I came from inline speed skating, then I went to ice, and now it's on the bike," Tas told Cyclingnews.
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"[I switched] because I love cycling. Since I was a little girl, I would watch it with my grandfather, with my family on TV. He gifted me my first road bike.
"It's always been a part of training, and, very often, those rides were some of my favourite trainings. So yeah, that's basically it. I love cycling. That's why I'm here."
Tas was a junior world champion in inline, also racking up 17 European titles before switching to speed skating in 2018 with the Olympics in mind, as inline isn't an Olympic discipline.
Participations at both the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics followed and there was almost a medal in Milan this year, with Tas narrowly missing out on bronze in the 5,000 metres event by a mere 0.13 seconds.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Her commitments in that sport meant her 2026 road season was delayed, with her season debut coming at La Flèche Wallonne. The challenge of switching from a relatively intense sport to one focussed on all-day endurance must have been tough, but Tas has managed it swimmingly.
"Well, the similarities are obviously the discipline you need, the preparation, the focus. But the sports are very different," Tas said.
"My longest race was seven minutes, and now it's three or four hours. So the training changes a bit more towards endurance.
"But we're taking it step-by-step. We didn't want to do everything all at once, so we're building, and we're mainly just trying to learn and get stronger, both for the future and for next year. So that's the main focus right now."
The Tour debut marks a major step in her career, with Saturday's opening stage only the second day of Women's WorldTour racing to date. She got a first-hand experience of the madness of the biggest race of the year in Lausanne.
"I think the form was quite good yesterday. It was a bit crazy. The level is so high; it's chaotic," Tas said.
"Everyone wants to be in the front at the important moments, and unfortunately, yesterday at quite a crucial point in the race, I had a bit of bad luck with a mechanical that I had to change my front wheel.
"I tried everything to get back on the climbs, but at this level, it's not so easy, and I just missed out on the front group. Then it was just changing my mind and already starting to think about today."
Sadly, her Lotto-Intermarché team is already suffering at the race, with a trio of riders all crashing out on stage 2.
Tas and her three remaining teammates – Dina Boels, Romina Hinojosa, and Linda Riedmann – will battle on though, with the stage 4 time trial among her personal targets this week.
"We definitely want to show ourselves, try to get in some breakaways," she said.
"For me personally, I look more towards the sprint stages and the time trial, I want to just see how far I can come. Other than that, there are a lot of people in our team where it's their first time. We want to learn, we want to improve, and get stronger towards the future."
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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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