Introduction
Mara Katherine Abbott (born November 14, 1985) is a U.S. professional women's bicycle racer who rides on the Wiggle High5 team. In 2010, Abbott became the first U.S. cyclist ever to win the Giro Donne, one of the Grand Tours of women's bicycle racing. Abbott retired after the 2016 Olympic Games road race.
Early life and amateur career
Abbott was born in and, as of 2016, still lives in Boulder, Colorado. She was a competitive swimmer, primarily specializing in distance freestyle races, at Whitman College, which is where she took up road bicycle racing as a springtime activity.After competing for Whitman in two straight National College Cycling Association Division II championships, where the team won back-to-back championships in both the team time trial and the team omnium, and Abbott won back-to-back championships in the road race and also won the criterium and the individual omnium in 2006, Abbott placed fifth in the USA National Championship Women's Road Race.She also won back-to-back championships in the Mount Evans Hill Climb in 2005 and 2006.
Professional career
Abbott turned professional in 2007 and joined the Webcor Builders team.In addition to a repeat of her college successes, she won one stage and the overall title in the Tour of the Gila and the 2007 National Cycling Championships women's road race championship, defeating former champions Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben in a sprint to the finish.She also continued to swim for Whitman in the fall and graduated with a degree in economics from Whitman.
Abbott joined the HTC-Columbia Women's Team in 2008 and began to excel in European races, winning a mountain stage in the Giro della Toscana.The next year, she won stage 3 and the King of the Mountains jersey in the Giro Donne, finishing second overall.In 2010, Abbott joined the Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 team and repeated her victories at the Tour of the Gila and the USA National Championship Women's Road Race.She won two more stages and the overall championship at the Giro Donne, which was the only women's Grand Tour event held in 2010.That same month, she won one stage and the overall title at the Cascade Cycling Classic.She also won one stage and finished second in the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin.
For 2011, Abbott moved to the Diadora-Pasta Zara-Manhattan team.She won one stage and finished second overall in the Tour of the Gila, behind 1996 Canadian Olympic medalist Clara Hughes.
In 2013, Abbott won her second Giro Rosa. Later that season it was announced that she would join the new UnitedHealthcare Women’s Team in 2014.
On October 7, 2014, Wiggle High5 announced that Abbott had signed with them for the 2015 season.
Off the bike
In addition to cycling, Abbott is a yoga instructor. She is a freelance writer published in the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado as well as the Wall Street Journal and espnW.
Palmares
Source:
- 2008
- 1st Stage 4 Mount Hood Classic
- 1st Stage 1 Krasna Lipa Tour Féminine
- 1st Stage 1 (TTT) & 3 Giro della Toscana
- 2nd Overall Redlands Bicycle Classic
- 1st Prologue
- 2nd Overall Giro del Trentino
- 2nd National Time Trial Championships
- 3rd Overall San Dimas Stage Race
- 1st Stage 1
