2024 holds crucial importance for the KMC Ridley MTB Racing Team for several reasons. There are the UCI World Series taking us to three different continents, and the World Championships in Andorra. With the Olympic Games in Paris, the major goal marked in red on the calendar for three years, participation is deemed significant, but in sports, nothing is impossible. Nonetheless, the riders will give their all to be present at Elancourt Hill and make the most of this challenge.

The team consists of 7 riders aged between 18 and 34. Ukrainian Yana Belomoina has been in the game the longest, while Martins Blums is poised to become the first Latvian to participate in the Olympic mountain biking event. For Yana and Oleksandr 'Sacha' Hudyma, it's a challenging time as their homeland Ukraine is in conflict, yet they hold sporting ambitions and aim to perform their best for their country.

Gunnar Holmgren comes from a particularly athletic family, with two well-known sisters who also cycle. The team is further complemented by Dutch rider Lotte Koopmans, who balances her role as an emergency room physician with her sport, a unique combination.

Rens Teunissen van Manen and Freek Bouten are the two youngest riders on the team. Both talents harbor ambitions for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The path to Paris runs through various qualifications. This period started in the spring of 2022 and ends on May 26, 2024. UCI points of the top three riders from each country are tallied, forming a national ranking. The top eight countries receive two spots, the next eleven receive one, and the host country receives one (unless already among the top eight, in which case the spot goes to the twentieth-ranked country). The IOC also has one wildcard to award, while the remaining spots are distributed through continental championships and the World Championships. Accumulating points is crucial this year towards securing a spot for the Games.

The team's patron is Bart Brentjens, a man with a special connection to the Olympic Games. In 1996, this discipline was included in Atlanta for the first time. Brentjens rode to a gold medal, etching his name in history. Eight years later, he secured bronze in Athens. Now, he supports his riders in their quest for medals in Paris.

During this pivotal year of 2024, we will closely follow two riders. Yana Belomoina aims for her fourth Olympic appearance, but the former World Cup winner must navigate the ongoing conflict in her homeland of Ukraine. Martins Blums is set to become the very first Latvian to compete in the Olympic mountain biking event.

Photos: Matthias Thijsen - Vamos Studios