Thirteen years ago, Imogen Wolff stood at the start line of Paris-Roubaix with her family. She was six years old at the time, smaller than half the size of the riders competing, and in awe of her first taste of bike racing abroad. Keen to remember the moment, she set out collecting as many souvenirs as she could.
“It was all so new, so exciting, and so special. We went to the team buses to see all the bikes and the mechanics, and try and get free bidons,” she laughs. “It all just seemed so big and so professional.”
Now, just months into her first year as a pro, Wolff is set to return to the cobbled Monument. She won’t be hunting for freebies this time, though; instead, the 19-year-old will line up among the best riders in the world, competing in the yellow of Visma-Lease a Bike.
How does she feel on the eve of her Paris-Roubaix debut? “The nerves haven’t quite kicked in yet, so I’m just super excited and looking forward to it,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “It’s really surreal that now I’m part of it.”
Wolff was just two years old when she began cycling, brought up in a village in South Yorkshire. She did cyclo-cross, road, and track throughout her childhood, and remembers one race in particular that made her “fall in love” with the sport.
“I can pinpoint the moment,” she says. “It was watching Lizzie Deignan win the inaugural edition [of Paris-Roubaix Femmes]. I can still remember everything about that race, her long-range attack, somehow keeping it up over the cobbles. That was the moment that I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ It was only four years ago, so to be here now is really, really cool.”
On Saturday, the teenager will ride in support of her Visma-Lease a Bike teammates Marianne Vos and Pauline-Ferrand Prévot. She did the same last weekend at the Tour of Flanders, her second Monument, where she ended up finishing an impressive 22nd.
What’s her goal for her first Paris-Roubaix? “I really just want to make it to the velodrome,” she says, the determination clear in her voice. “Even in the recon, riding around it was just a really crazy feeling. I think in the race that will be tenfold.”
Wolff will also have an added motivation to make it across the cobbles. At the finish, her mum and a group of her friends will be waiting to cheer her home. “If I can get there, I think that would be a really special moment,” the teenager says.
Thirteen years on from her first trip, it’s time to make new family memories at Paris-Roubaix.
