Aussie champ Nicole Frain to join Parkhotel Valkenburg and debut at Le Tour
Aussie champ Nicole Frain to join Parkhotel Valkenburg and debut at Le Tour
Reigning Australian road race champion Nicole Frain has joined Team Parkhotel Valkenburg in a mid-season transfer that will see the Tasmanian race with the Dutch outfit through to the end of 2023.
The 29-year-old spent the first half of 2022 racing for Australian Continental team Roxsolt Liv SRAM. During that time she became Australian road champion – beating her more-fancied WorldTour rivals with a late attack – before completing a bunch of race days in Europe. She was ninth overall at the Thüringen Ladies Tour in May after finishing sixth on the penultimate stage.
Frain will dive in the deep end with Parkhotel Valkenburg this month, making her debut at the long-awaited Tour de France Femmes.
“A start like that is super cool!” Frain said. “I hoped, but never expected to be selected. It was a big surprise to hear this from team leader Raymond Rol.”
Frain is grateful to be with the team through to the end of next year.
“I’m very happy with this contract,” she said. “It gives me the serenity to make mistakes and learn from them, [rather than] end up in a pressure cooker of stress. Now I have the time to settle down in Europe, without the constant pressure of performing and getting results.”
But in just her fourth season of competition, Frain comes to the team feeling ambitious and motivated.
“I am naturally very driven,” she said. “When someone says ‘You can’t’, I will show you how it’s done. That’s my motto.”
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