Retirement for former WorldTour rider Leah Kirchmann lasted a brief few months, and it appears she never skipped a beat in the transition back to the peloton. The accomplished Canadian signed a lucrative contract to race for the Denver Disruptors, one of two US domestic elite squads formed by the National Cycling League organisation, providing her with an opportunity to remain in North America for the entire season.
She led the Disruptors with a huge points haul at the inaugural Miami Beach Invitational to boost the team to the top spot of the 10-team NCL Cup, 139 total points and a 44-point lead over second-placed Miami Nights. Two weeks later and back at a standard US-bred criterium competition, the start of the American Criterium Cup, Kirchmann helped her teammate Erica Zaveta reach the podium at the Athens Twilight Criterium, and finished fourth herself.
“It's been quite a while. But then this opportunity came up with the NCL, to come and race the new series, and then also come back to crit racing,” Kirchmann told Cyclingnews in Athens about her return to racing.
“You know, I actually got my start in crit racing. Way, way back a lot of years now, I started [BC] Super Week. And yeah, I raced a lot of the crits with Colavita, then Optum. I probably haven't done too many crits since 2015.“
It has indeed been eight years since Kirchmann showcased her speed on North American soil, riding four seasons with Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies. Back in 2015, she won the opening crit of the Gateway Cup, finishing second overall in the omnium, and sprinted to stage victories at Joe Martin Stage Race and Tour of California, finishing second in the GC at the latter.
She then took on a seven-year stint with the Team DSM programme, which saw her wear the first maglia rosa at the 2018 Giro d'Italia Donne when the team won the opening team time trial, and later that year was fourth overall at the Challenge by la Vuelta. She also finished second at La Course (2019), third overall at the Tour of Norway (2019) and second overall at Festival Elsy Jacobs (2021). A three-time Canadian National Champion in the time trial, Kirchmann competed at two Olympic Games: Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
“Last year, I decided that I had raced a lot of years in Europe. I made the Olympic team, raced in a lot of World Championships. You know, I've accomplished a lot in my career. I felt pretty satisfied with what I had accomplished with my career,” Kirchmann told Cyclingnews before she won her first crit of 2023 during Speed Week in LaGrange, Georgia. “So, yeah, I was ready to kind of spend more time [at home] in Canada and maybe transition to other things.
“I remembered how much I loved crit racing at the start of my career, so it was actually quite an appealing opportunity to take advantage of. I also chose to join the NCL because I really support what they're doing for equality in the sport, where the men and women are treated equally.”
The next NCL Cup resumes competition with back-to-back events in the summer, Denver, Colorado on August 13, followed by Atlanta, Georgia, on August 20. With the Disruptors winning the first round, they are the only team which can sweep all four events and earn the $700,000 NCL Quadruple Crown bonus.
“It was a great feeling to show up and win the first NCL race. There was a lot of hype leading into the first race. It was a new event, nobody really knew what was going to happen, so it was quite fun to race and then win that event,” Kirchmann added.
“To race here in Athens, the crowds were amazing. That was really incredible,” Kirchmann told Cyclingnews after she finished one spot off the podium. “I was just talking with a teammate that we could barely communicate in the race because the crowds were so loud around us. It is definitely an electric atmosphere here.”
The Athens, Georgia event, one of the granddaddies of crit racing with 43 years of four-corner chaos, is also the start of a regional series Speed Week, seven criteriums contested in a span of nine days across the southeastern US. In the first three races of Speed Week, Kirchmann has a victory and a pair of fourth-place finishes. Along with Zaveta, the Disruptors aim to win this series and grab points for the sprint classification as well.
“We're basically going for everything [at Speed Week]. We're coming off the high of the NCL win. “If it came to a bunch sprint, Leah and I, we're gonna work together. So yeah, we are looking for opportunities and trying to use everyone's strengths and get to know each other better,” Zaveta said, who finished third in Athens on Saturday and in Union City, Georgia, on Tuesday. She was also fifth on Sunday in helping Kirchmann to the win.
The Disruptors will compete at the four final Speed Week races from April 26-30 and then in the second of 10 stops of the American Criterium Cup on May 6 at the Sunny King Criterium in Alabama. The only stage race on the calendar for the women is the Joe Martin Stage Race, from May 18-21.
