Katrine Aalerud talks her start to the sport as well as time spent racing along Annemiek van Vleuten: "It was really nice because she’s a really nice person"

Katrine Aalerud’s path to professional cycling was a little different from most. Some find the bike at an early age, and others pick it up while trying to keep form for another sport. However, the 29-year-old Norwegian discovered competitive cycling as she tried to get fit again after partying hard in her early years at university.

"I did horse riding when I was small and then I stopped around 18. I didn’t have any other hobbies so I started partying and didn’t take care of my body," Aalerud told Velo with a laugh. "Then I felt not fit anymore. Just walking, I was heavy breathing. When I was riding, I was taking my bike back and forth to the stable and I did actually buy a race bike because I wanted to go as fast as possible to the stable. So that was the only reason I had a bike at home."

"I actually wanted to sprint in the beginning but I’m not good at positioning in a bunch sprint but I was saying to my coach, I want to be a sprinter. So I wasn’t looking to lose weight. But I was better at pushing myself for a longer time. That was my specialty and not the sprint. Watching television and seeing Alexander Kristoff or Thor Hushovd I was thinking maybe I can be like that, but no, I was more a climber."

Switching herself to becoming a climber rather than a sprinter put her on a path that would see her working with one of the sport’s most prolific riders, Annemiek van Vleuten. The Dutch rider joined Movistar in 2021 and the two forged a bond as they trained together and pushed each other as hard as they could. "It was really nice because she’s a really nice person," she said. "It was really a benefit to have her in the team because then you see how she works to gets to her best level."