Megan Jastrab relishes role as 'bodyguard' for DSM leaders at Tour de France Femmes

A three-time junior world champion from across road and track disciplines, Megan Jastrab has arrived in Clermont-Ferrand to prepare for her freshman foray of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as part of the Team dsm-firmenich squad.

She says she’s “privileged” and “excited” to be part of the women’s Tour de France, where she’ll work in a support role for the two team leaders, Juliette Labous in the GC and Charlotte Kool for sprint stage wins.

Jastrab is only 21-years-old but is already used to the world stage. She never aspired to make a career in road cycling while growing up in southern California.

“I used to roll my eyes every summer when my dad bought the TV subscription and had the Tour playing every day. I had no perception of the road side of cycling. I understood that it was a hard effort, but just ride your bikes for hours upon hours, why?” she told Cyclingnews, explaining that her father was an active road cyclist but she and her brother Ryan took part in BMX, dirt biking, skiing and other sports.

“Now it’s really cool that if I say I am a professional cyclist to someone in the US, and they ask if I ride the Tour de France, I’m able to say ‘yes, I do ride the Tour de France.” I think that’s really exciting.”

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While Jastrab made light of her childhood days before converting completely to a one-sport focus in cycling, she is serious about her career.

She’s in her third full season with Team dsm-firmenich, with a contract carrying her through 2025.

It’s been a solid year on the road so far, finishing second at Gent-Wevelgem, fourth at Brugge-De Panne and making the podium on a stage at Valenciana stage race.

Jastrab says not to look for her in any breakaways at the Tour, and that if she is in a break it it is “to stop the breakaway”. Her role in France will be that of a “bodyguard” for the team leaders.

“Our team's goals are for stage wins with Charlotte [Kool] in the sprints and then also for GC with Juliet [Labous]. My role will be more of a bodyguard for both of them,” Jastrab told Cyclingnews.

“So for sprint days I’ll be Charlotte’s bodyguard to make sure she’s protected and has everything she needs. And when it comes to the lead out, that will be my job and Pfeiffer [Georgi]. Of course everyone has a role in the team on each day to perform, bit I'll be later in the lead outs, just making sure I'm there and then I'm putting her position for the sprint.

“Then on the other days, I'll just be making sure Juliet is safe, doing what I can to keep her in position for the climbs. So I'll just be riding to support both of them this week. The whole team is fully supporting them, and backing them. we have a very strong team that can achieve a lot.”

Labous comes into the Tour de France Femmes after riding to second overall at Giro d’Italia Donne, where Jastrab rode to a pair of top five finishes across the nine days of racing.

She said it was her target race of the season, but just five days before the bad-weather day in Chianciano, which washed out stage 1, a car pulled out in front of her as she finished a training ride and caused her to crash. She had knee pain afterwards, but managed to complete the Giro.

“Yeah, the Giro was supposed to be my target race this year. I was the sprint leader there. Last year there were four or five sprint days and this year there was one sprint day, the last day ended up being a sprint. It was disappointing. I was hoping to learn and improve to ride finals more, so every time I do it now, it's like relearning to be the lead in final.

“A lot of the days was just a lot of climbing, not my style of racing. But it was great training. I definitely gained a lot of experience helping with different teammates, They're so motivating. And then we had Juliet in the GC. I think I definitely grew as a rider, and in each stage race you do. You push new limits and boundaries and then you just grow out of them.  I've had enough time to recover, I think, so I'm hoping that fitness shows on the Tour.”