Co-leader of the Swiss team in the World Championship road race on Saturday: Noemi Rüegg
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg is one of the big climbers this year
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg achieved her first professional victory in Mallorca in January
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg feels at home in her new team EF-Cannondale
Image: Keystone
The 23-year-old no longer has to be content with just a helper role
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg, here still in Jumbo-Visma kit. She was one of the busy worker bees at her last employer
Image: Keystone
Co-leader of the Swiss team in the World Championship road race on Saturday: Noemi Rüegg
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg is one of the big climbers this year
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg achieved her first professional victory in Mallorca in January
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg feels at home in her new team EF-Cannondale
Image: Keystone
The 23-year-old no longer has to be content with just a helper role
Image: Keystone
Noemi Rüegg, here still in Jumbo-Visma kit. She was one of the busy worker bees at her last employer
Image: Keystone
Zurich's Noemi Rüegg is among the extended circle of medal contenders in the women's road race at the World Championships on Saturday. Hardly anyone would have thought this possible a year ago.
In recent years, Swiss women's cycling has often been reduced to the duo of Marlen Reusser/Elise Chabbey. This is not surprising, as the Bernese and Geneva-based riders are among the world's best and logically attract the most attention.
But the year 2024 did not mean well for them. While Reusser was forced to end her season prematurely due to post-Covid syndrome, Chabbey was repeatedly plagued by bad luck. Fortunately for Switzerland, Noemi Rüegg, a young athlete, took the opportunity to step into the breach. And how she did.
In her very first race of the season, Rüegg raced to her first victory as a professional in Mallorca in January. The 23-year-old was only scheduled to be the last racer in her team's sprint train.
From worker bee to lady in pink
This story fits perfectly with the image of a young woman who has been fully committed to cycling since 2022. Noemi Rüegg comes from a cycling-mad family; her eldest brother Timon is a multiple national cyclo-cross champion.
In her first two years as a professional, Noemi Rüegg was destined for a smaller role in the Dutch team Jumbo-Visma. For her, it was mainly about learning and helping others so that they could shine. But Rüegg realized at some point: "I can do more."
She decided on a change of scenery and joined the newly founded EF Education-Cannondale women's team for this season. The American team pursues a completely different philosophy, keeping the hierarchies in the team flat and the pressure on its riders low. The environment is more informal. For Noemi Rüegg, who was often afraid of making mistakes in the past, this is the perfect environment in which to take the next step in her career.
Slaving away in the gym
To achieve this, she invested a lot in the winter with her new trainer. "I increased my training volume and also the intensity of the sessions," she tells Keystone-SDA. She spends many hours in the gym to be ready for the new adventure. "That helped me a lot physically," says Rüegg.
The hard work paid off. The diligent worker bee in black and yellow has become a rider who regularly causes a stir in her team's cheeky pink kit. Since June and her victory in the road race of the Swiss championships, her jersey has been given a slightly red touch with a Swiss cross on the chest, but from then on her season really took off.
Participating in the Olympics was a dream, but few would have believed that she could achieve such a strong result in Paris with 7th place. Since then, Noemi Rüegg has gone from strength to strength: Tour de France, Tour de Romandie and most recently the European Championships in Belgium. And she has impressed everywhere. Sometimes as a strong all-rounder, sometimes because she sprinted to the front on the back wheel of world champion Lotte Kopecky.
What stands out: Rüegg can shine on different terrains. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Namely when it comes to deciding to specialize in a certain direction. "I actually find that difficult. I'm still in the discovery phase," says Rüegg. She describes herself as an all-rounder who wants to focus on the classic races in the future. "The short, crisp climbs suit me very well." She doesn't mind riding uphill, "as long as it's not a long pass." She recently proved that she can also sprint.
A case for two
The home World Championships in her own canton will be the last highlight of a long season for the Zurich native. Her form is about the same as in Paris, Rüegg reveals. She was already able to race one lap of the city circuit, which the women have to complete five times in the road race on Saturday, in the mixed team time trial on Wednesday. The course suits her: "I like the short, recurring climbs with little recovery time."
However, she does not see herself as the sole entertainer in the Swiss team. Together with Elise Chabbey, she wants to take on a co-leading role. "We are similar types of riders. Elise can certainly try to attack and get into an escape group." She herself will try to "stay with the first group for as long as possible. It will certainly be tough. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with the absolute top riders when they're going full throttle up the climbs. The aim is to stay with them for as long as possible and finish with a small group."
Then she can trust her sprinting abilities, as she did in Mallorca in January, when the rising star of the year began her high-flying career.
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