Liv AlUla Jayco have concluded a brilliant 2024 season that brought with it 16 victories across four continents. Eight of the team’s riders have been on the top step this year and yet more have reached the podium with a total of 43 visits to the rostrum since January.
It has been a big year for the Australian outfit following a merger with fellow Women’s WorldTeam Liv Racing TeqFind that bolstered the squad. Since the opening races of the year, the team has continued to grow in strength with multiple riders earning landmark results in their careers.
Big wins for Roseman-Gannon & Paternoster
Good things come to those who wait and both Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Letizia Paternoster claimed hard-earned victories this season. The Australian endured a challenging spring before her big win, suffering a knee injury during the spring Classics that ruled her out of racing for two months.
The 25-year-old fought hard to come back and the work was well rewarded with her debut WorldTour victory on the final stage of the Tour of Britain in June. It was Roseman-Gannon’s first win in the green and gold of Aussie national champ after taking victory in the road race in January. She went on to notch up her first world title, winning the rainbow jersey with her Australian teammates in the Mixed Team Relay in Zurich in September.
Paternoster came close to earning her first win in Liv AlUla Jayco colours just a few days before Roseman-Gannon’s British success but was denied by a photo finish. The Italian kept pushing and she was soon able to throw her hands up in victory thanks to a dominant sprint at the Tour de Gatineau in Canada. She went on to win again the following day at the Tour de Gatineau criterium.
Smulders and Wyllie claim first pro victories
It was a year of firsts for several Liv AlUla Jayco riders, including 2024 recruits Ella Wyllie and Silke Smulders. Wyllie won on her first two outings in team colours with the U23 New Zealand time trial title followed by victory in the elite road race.
She later added her first win alongside her teammates during a dominant squad performance at the Vuelta a Andalucía in May. The Australian unit had its pick of the podium places in the four-day race in late spring. Smulders also found her debut pro victory on the opening stage, leading home Mavi García and Wyllie after a long-range attack to launch the trio to the top of the overall standings. The 23-year-old came achingly close to her second at the Simac Ladies Tour in October, only to be denied with less than 10 metres to go.
Andalucía could hardly have gone better for the team with García also winning a stage and the overall title. Smulders secured second in the GC, as well as the points jersey, while Wyllie rounded out the overall podium following her win on the third stage. The teamwork was on show again in early July when Liv AlUla Jayco claimed the team classification at the Giro d’Italia Women.
Ingvild Gåskjenn also showed off her growing talent in the spring when she took a surprise podium finish at the Amstel Gold Race alongside Marianne Vos and Lorena Wiebes.
National title doubles
Double national titles were a big theme for the squad in 2024 with four riders winning two this season. Roseman-Gannon kicked things off for the women with her second Australian Criterium championships win in January before adding the green and gold jersey in the road race a few days later.
Alex Manly made sure there were two Liv AlUla Jayco riders on the podium in both of those races, scoring third in the criterium and road race, while Georgia Baker claimed second in the criterium and Georgie Howe took bronze for the team in the time trial. The start of February then saw Wyllie add another double with success in the U23 national time trial championships in New Zealand before attacking to glory in the road race the very next day.
There was yet more to come in the summer as Teniel Campbell added yet two more national wins to her palmarès after already doing the same in 2022. Urška Žigart also claimed two Slovenian titles in style. The 27-year-old won the time trial by over four minutes before going on to take her first elite victory in the road race by a massive 10 minutes.
Letizia Paternoster
“I was really surprised about my improvement this year. I started really well in the Classics with a podium at Dwars door Vlaanderen, I was close to the podium at Ronde van Drenthe, and also in the top 10 at the Tour of Flanders, where I was only dropped on the last climb.
To win my first race with the team at the Tour de Gatineau was really special because this team really deserves the best results. To be able to arrive at the finish line with my arms up was really emotional. I owe a lot to this team, so I think every good performance is like a big thank you to everybody.
It was a really amazing season where I improved a lot, and I love being in this team. I’m really happy and proud, and I’m grateful to be part of this amazing family. Even though this year was really good, I think that next year will be hugely important for me to take another big step to be one of the best riders in the world on the road.”
Martin Vestby – Head Sport Director
“The 2024 season has really been a turnaround year for the team. The merger with Liv Racing TeqFind brought the best out in both teams. It created some depth in the riders’ group that gave us more opportunities in the races and I think we can be proud about how everyone stepped up, both riders and staff. We made some positive changes and adjustments after our evaluations of 2023.
We had some nice victories across the season, but to see us climbing the rankings – both in the Women’s UCI WorldTour and the UCI World Ranking – just shows that we have been competitive in different races and terrains, with multiple riders. Standout moments for me this season were the Tour of Britain and the Vuelta a Andalucía. They were both races with good results and wins, but they stand out mostly for the hard teamwork, the challenges the riders overcame, and the ability they had to put the team first. For me, it is a great honour to see the team growing and I’m sure that this is just the start of it.”
Liv AlUla Jayco 2024 Race Victories (8x riders)
Australia Criterium championships – Ruby Roseman-Gannon
Australia Road Race championships – Ruby Roseman-Gannon
New Zealand Time Trial championships (U23) – Ella Wyllie
New Zealand Road Race championships – Ella Wyllie
Grote Ronde van Gerwen – Quinty Ton
Vuelta a Andalucia overall – Mavi García
Vuelta a Andalucia stage 1 – Silke Smulders
Vuelta a Andalucia stage 2 – Mavi García
Vuelta a Andalucia stage 3 – Ella Wyllie
Tour of Britain stage 4 – Ruby Roseman-Gannon
Slovenia Time Trial championships – Urška Žigart
Slovenia Road Race championships – Urška Žigart
Trinidad & Tobago Time Trial championships – Teniel Campbell
Trinidad & Tobago Road Race championships – Teniel Campbell
Tour de Gatineau – Letizia Paternoster
Tour de Gatineau criterium – Letizia Paternoster
Lead photos: Sprint Cycling
