Megan – the 2019 junior world champion – joined Team dsm-firmenich PostNL in 2021 and despite the fact that her debut with the team was postponed by the pandemic and the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, her development has been stormy since then.
“It was a bit of a shock for me to go straight to WorldTour. I think I performed well and helped the team, but I really needed to learn the basics.”
She quickly learned the basics and “things started to take off” for Megan in the second part of the 2022 season, after a roster change gave her the opportunity to become the team’s sprinter at the Tour of Scandinavia.
Megan seized the opportunity with both hands and sprinted to second place on the opening day and also took the lead in the youth classification. She then finished second at MerXem Classic, before racing even more fiercely in the apotheosis of the year.
“That race was a real turning point for me, also in my self-confidence. I thought, ‘I can do this; I deserve to be here’ and that was a great feeling.”
That feeling became even stronger in the 2023 season when Megan took the next step in her development with mega rides in De Panne – where she played an important role in completing Pfeiffer for the team – and Gent-Wevelgem where she achieved her first WorldTour podium achieved second place. Two top five finishes in the Giro Donne followed, before she ended the season with her first professional victory in the Tour de Gatineau.
Despite this, Megan – and her brother Ryan – did not come from a racing family. In their younger years, the two did everything together, especially in the outdoors: from cross cycling, skiing, skateboarding to riding a normal bicycle.
Her father raced sporadically while recovering from an American football injury in college, and when his children saw him competing in group rides, they immediately wanted to participate. They started BMX at a local circuit called High Dessert and had to negotiate with their parents for racing bikes, but around the age of eleven Megan started her adventure as a road cyclist.
“Things then went pretty quickly from racing some local events, to state championships, to national championships, then to Europe and the national team – and here we are now!”
Looking at herself, Megan would characterize herself as “extrovert”, “driven” and a “perfectionist”. With her lively personality, Megan likes to maintain the atmosphere within the team and ensures that the “mood is always good” by playing music or simply being cheerful before and after race day.
“Races are sometimes so tough that it is difficult to enjoy, but it is not self-evident that we are allowed to pursue this profession and so I always remember why I started cycling: because I enjoy competition, developing myself and having fun.”
Off the bike, Megan enjoys meeting up with friends, reading, cooking or baking – her favorite is a baklava, but “it would definitely be a dessert either way.” Despite the fact that she says she is not really interesting – “I study and cycle” – we found out that Megan also knows American Sign Language, which we think is quite unique!