World junior champion Megan Jastrab signs with Team Subweb

American Megan Jastrab is headed for the Women’s WorldTour with Team Sunweb in 2021.

The current world junior champion on the track and the road has signed a two-year contract with the German squad, where she joins fellow decorated American champion Coryn Rivera.

Related:

• Day in the Life: Megan Jastrab
• Q&A: Megan Jastrab breaks down her world championship win in Yorkshire

“I have always thought of Team Sunweb as one of the best women’s teams and I’ve always had the dream of racing WorldTour,” Jastrab said. “I’m extremely excited and motivated to start racing here. I think Team Sunweb has a great program set up with a clear support structure to help riders reach their goals. They have a great mix of riders and I’m excited to learn from each of them. I am also looking forward to improving and learning from racing at the WorldTour level. It has always been a dream to race at this level, so I’m extremely thankful and excited to be given this opportunity.”

Although Jastrab didn’t have racing opportunities in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2019 saw a breakout year for the young American.

At the start of the 2019 season, she took home the win for her Rally Cycling team at Italy’s Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Then, Jastrab would go on to finish second at Gent Wevelgem, win the Healthy Ageing Tour overall including two stage victories, and finish as runner up in the U.S. national time trial championships before going on to win both the road race and criterium.

In September of 2019, Jastrab’s performance at world junior championships in Yorkshire last year was viewed as a ‘tactical masterclass.’

Anyone familiar with the 18-year old’s trajectory as a professional cyclist knows that she is fully capable of entering the world stage of racing. During the months of the coronavirus lockdown, Jastrab opted to stay in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center and focus on the track rather than return home to California.

Sunweb’s coach Hans Timmerman says that she’ll join the squad as a sprinter; however, Jastrab has plenty of time to develop into much more.

“Making the step up to juniors in 2019, Megan showed how strong she was with impressive wins throughout the year and then becoming world champion in Yorkshire – which is very impressive for a first-year junior,” he said. “Despite not racing on the road this year, she’s continued her development and has been selected for the USA Olympic Long Team. We see Megan mainly as a sprinter but she has a lot of qualities to become a strong classics rider in the future. Our initial focus will be to develop all of her qualities and make her transition into WorldTour racing as smooth as possible, but also focus on her sprints where she’ll get her chances too.”