Amanda Spratt signs with Trek-Segafredo through 2024

This article originally appeared on Velo News

Amanda Spratt will change up teams for the first time in her career after signing a two-year deal with Trek Segafredo.

The 34-year-old has been racing with the GreenEdge franchise, currently racing under the name BikeExchange-Jayco, since 2012. However, rumors about her departure began popping up over the summer and VeloNews confirmed last month that she would be leaving for a new team.

Trek-Segafredo confirmed Wednesday that it had signed up the Australian through 2024. She is the first confirmed signing for the American-registered squad for next season.

"I've spent 11 years with GreenEdge and I'm so grateful for these years, but I just felt ready for a new challenge and a different environment," Spratt said. "I may be one of the older riders now, but I still feel young at heart and my move to Trek-Segafredo has me feeling like a kid in a candy store – and I like candy a lot.

"Trek-Segafredo has always been a team I've admired so much. From the first year of the women's team, I really felt they were a team that raised the level of professionalism and support for women. I love that the Team has such a strong vision and values and for this reason it feels like a dream for me to become part of such a special team."

Also read: Amanda Spratt set to leave BikeExchange-Jayco at the end of the season

Spratt has endured a difficult few seasons after struggling to find her form through much of 2021. She was diagnosed with an iliac artery endofibrosis and underwent surgery to correct it at the end of last season.

After months of recovery, she was able to return to racing in January at the Santos Festival of Cycling. She had been showing signs of returning to her top form towards the summer but caught COVID at the end of the Giro d'Italia Donne at the start of July and was forced to abandon the Tour de France Femmes after getting caught up in a high-speed crash on stage 3.

Spratt has been in the peloton for over a decade, but she still believes that she has more to give to the sport.

"Personally, I still feel like I have a lot of areas to improve on so I'm excited to keep learning and getting stronger in every race,” Spratt said. “It will be my first normal off-season since 2019 after coming back from injury and having a European winter so I'm looking forward to making the most of that and would love to kick off 2023 well at the Australian races. After that, I'm just feeling so excited and motivated to get to Europe and start kicking goals with the team. I can't wait.”

Spratt will be on a team with several big-name riders that will likely mean that she has to share leadership duties much more often than at BikeExchange-Jayco. However, she says that she is looking forward to working for others’ goals as well as her own.

"I feel ambitious for the next two seasons. I know that on this team I will have a good balance between going for results and working hard for my teammates. When a teammate wins it feels just as good as any of my own wins and this is something special about cycling. That's also why I'm not worried at all to be on a team with so many strong riders,” she said.

"One of my favorite things about racing is how we can work together as a team and use our numbers well tactically in the final too. I think we will have a really strong climbing group next season so I'm already smiling at the thought of some of the toughest one-day races and tours and what we can achieve together there."

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