Today, Clara Emond is one of cycling’s most-exciting rising stars, and a winner of one of the season’s most daring raids: a 40km solo attack at the Women’s Giro d’Italia. But only two years ago the Canadian was still being taught the very basics of bike racing.
“My first race in Europe was in June 2022 [the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic] and when we got to the first KOM during the race, I had no idea that it was the first one up the hill; I thought it was a Strava segment and the goal was to set the fastest time!” the EF-Oatly-Cannondale rider laughs. Nine days later, she raced up Mont Ventoux, finishing 14th. “All of my teammates were saying, ‘Marta Cavalli is here’, but I had no clue who she was. I was super naive as to how everything worked.”
The reason behind Emond’s blissful ignorance was that until 2021 she’d never raced a road bike. “I don’t even remember riding my bike to see my friends when I was a kid,” the 27-year-old says. Before that, she spent 12 years as an Alpine skier and has been studying Bachelor, Bar and Master’s degrees in law since 2016. Cycling was not meant to happen, but now it has, Emond has the grandest of ambitions. “I want to become one of the best and I’m convinced I can if I put all of my efforts in,” she confidently predicts.
Hailing from just outside of Québec City in the French-speaking part of Canada, Emond, like so many of her compatriots, grew up on a winter routine of skiing. “I ski raced from 5 to 17, and while in high school I was at an elite level,” she reveals. “My main goal was to get selected for the Olympics.” But one too many crashes and a slow disenchantment from the sport that she puts down to “probably starting too young in it” resulted in her hanging up her skis the year before she went to university. “My priority was skiing and then it switched completely: I wanted to become a lawyer,” she says, choosing the profession her father, Jeane-François, works in.
From 2016, she attended Québec’s Laval University, and in September 2020 she began a six-month internship with Fasken, one of the biggest law firms in Canada. “I wanted the best and biggest intern job and went to many dinners with different firms and had a lot of interviews. I was so excited when I got it,” she says. “But once she got her foot in the door, the reality was a lot different. “I ended up hating it really bad,” she sighs. “I really enjoyed law, especially law school, but the lifestyle of going to work at 7am until late at night and never having weekends… It was really bad. I don’t think I could go back into an office.”
By this point, Emond had been having some success in cross-country running despite little focused training, and in 2019 had also joined her university’s triathlon team. “But I didn’t own a bike and was doing spin classes with the older ladies!” she says. In the summer of 2020, she got herself a bike and met her partner, triathlete Charles Paquet who finished 13th for Canada at the Paris Olympics. “I’d do his easy rides which were an hour out to get some ice cream!” she laughs. Cycling arrived at a time when she needed an escape from mundane work. “The internship was so bad that all I looked forward to was riding my bike at night and getting some fresh air.”
When the intern finished, Emond considered a complete career change. “I thought about going into medicine,” she says. “But I do enjoy law so thought maybe being a law teacher would be the right option for me, but I needed to do a Master’s and PHD which meant another two years of university.” Back with her head stuck in law books, the plan was that she would enter triathlons, but Covid cancellations put paid to that. “I was super disappointed,” she remembers. But that is where cycle racing filled the void. “We found a bike race 45 minutes from my home so I signed up for it,” she says of the May 2021 GP Charlevoix race. “It was four stages in three days: a criterium, time trial, uphill finish and regular road race.” The three-year journey towards Grand Tour stage winner was beginning.
“I started crying on the startline because I couldn’t get the right gearing and I didn’t know how my bike worked. Everything was wrong,” Emond reflects. “I was super scared and super intimidated by the other teams.” But once racing commenced, Emond settled. “I became a bit crazy and didn’t see the risk anymore. I didn’t have any bike skills, but I forgot about it and had fun.” Incredibly, she won stage three’s 12.5km time trial. “I knew then I wanted to do more afterwards.” That alerted the small Continental outfit Emotional.fr-Tornatech-GSC Blagnac VS31 to her potential and after riding to eighth in the Canadian road race and time trial national championships, the team’s management were convinced by Emond’s raw talent.
Six one-day French races in the summer of 2022, including one eighth-placed finish, honed her practice and she subsequently earned a contract with Arkéa for 2023 – but she was instantly put in her place. “They were almost telling me: you’re the last rider we sign and you’ll be the helper of the helper.” During the winter training camp, however, Emond impressed. “They said, ‘ah, you’re not that bad, you’re actually pretty good’.” In her first race, March’s Vuelta Extremadura, she placed second on GC. More races followed, and she made her debut in the Tour de France Femmes, finishing 23rd overall. “I found that I improved every day and could recover well between stages,” she says. The newly-found EF made contact, and the part-time law student moved up to the American team for the 2024 season.
A positive spring was interrupted by small bouts of illness and injuries, but she was selected for the Giro in July, with the intention of supporting the team’s GC leader, Kim Cadzow. But when the young New Zealander fell out of contention after only a few days of racing, strategy changed. “The DSs said everyone would have a shot at going in breakaways for stage wins,” Emond remembers. On the morning of a mountainous stage four, the Canadian woke up irritated. “I’d slept super bad and was so grumpy,” she says. “I was impatient with everyone, getting so mad, and everytime someone made a sketchy move in the bunch, I was so pissed. I just wanted to get through the day.” She used that frustration positively. “I was on a mission and I just kept attacking,” she continues. “At one point, I knew it’d work, and finally it did.” Emond was part of a break of five, and at 40km from the finish she was alone and en-route to her first professional win. “I called my partner and even he said, ‘what the fuck has just happened!’ I was really confused, but super happy. The night after I found it so hard to sleep because I was on such a hype.”
Just four years after getting her first ever bike, Emond had introduced herself to world cycling. “People were saying I’d had the ride of my life, but it didn’t feel like that as I hadn’t done any crazy numbers. I was just happy that I could show what I could do,” she says. Now, she’s targeting bigger and better things on the bike, alongside finishing her law thesis by December before continuing to work on law research projects. “I used to have an imposter’s feeling, but the Giro win has given me more confidence,” she states. “I want to win more stages and eventually become more of a GC rider. I really enjoyed the Tour again this year [she was a DNS on stage four] and I’d really like to win one of those. I must improve my power, my positioning and in different aspects if I want to become one of the best, but when I want something, like in skiing and in law, I go full gas until I achieve it.”
