The snow is slowly disappearing from the ski slopes in Tyrol, Austria. Leila Gschwentner, rider of the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental Team, spent many hours out there last winter. Those mountains are the same ones she will be conquering on her lightweight EnviLiv road bike in the coming months.
It was close that Leila would not have become a cyclist, but a professional skier. Like her peers, that was once her ultimate goal. “In my childhood, I wanted to do everything to become a professional skier one day. I pursued this dream for many years until I suffered too many injuries,” she says.
As a skier, she was used to mountain biking in summer. “But when I got injured, I mainly cycled on-road, however on a MTB. One day my parents gave me a second-hand road bike as a present, and I immediately fell in love with it. My mother then came up with the idea of joining a taster session at the local club. At first, I didn’t want to go, but now I know it was my best decision ever.”
Leila enjoyed training a lot, so she decided to ride more often. “After a while, the trainers took me to the first local races. That provided so much fun! I knew then that I had found my passion,” she says.
Popularity
Over the years, a lot has changed in Austria and women’s cycling has gained more attention. “Cycling is still not the most popular sport here. Skiing and football are number one. But the sport has grown very quickly, partly thanks to the world championships in Innsbruck. And of course, in women’s cycling, we have the reigning Olympic Road champion.”
Development
Leila is extremely happy that she is now part of the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental Team. This way, the team creates a pathway for talented riders who are motivated to improve themselves. She feels confidence from the team and experiences a strong click with her teammates.
“Liv AlUla Jayco makes the step to the bigger races a lot smaller for youngsters. Thanks to good mentoring, we get better prepared for the WorldTour races we hope to compete in one day. Step by step I am getting better, not only physically and mentally but also strategically. If you want to be able to win, you obviously have to be smart too.”
Free time
When Leila is not on her Liv bike, she has plenty of other things to do. She prefers to be outdoors. “In wintertime, I do cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and ski mountaineering,” she says. “In summer, I love hiking in the mountains in my home area, or I go swimming in a lake nearby.”
Indoors, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen. “Other hobbies of mine are cooking and baking. I really love to create new recipes and get creative with decorating cakes and cookies,” says Leila, whose parents have similar hobbies and therefore spend a lot of time with her.
Austrian military
In 2023, Leila finished secondary school and graduated. Already since 2022, she has been part of the sports programme of the Austrian military. In this capacity, she gets all the space she needs to develop herself as a cyclist. “The military provides a financial support for us athletes and it is helping me a lot to chase my dreams.”
Setback
In her fledgling cycling career, Leila has already overcome setbacks too. Ahead of the world road cycling championships in Belgium two years ago, she collided with a public bus. She sustained a broken collarbone and concussion as a result.
“In the months that followed, I regularly thought back to that incident with anxiety. Physically, I have fully recovered and thanks to a psychologist, I have also recovered mentally. Improving safety in cycling is something that has certainly had my attention ever since.”
Winning Paris-Roubaix
These days, Leila is frequently in front of the television, missing nothing from the spring classics. One day she hopes to start in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. If she had to choose, she would prefer to win the last one. “This is a very special Monument. The brutality of the race appeals to me. It must be a great feeling when you enter the velodrome as the leader in the race on your way to victory.”
