Tayler Wiles confirms another season with Trek-Segafredo, aiming for Tour de France Femmes

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This article originally appeared on Velo News

Sidelined for several months this year due to an operation to correct iliac artery endofibrosis, Tayler Wiles has inked a new contract with Trek-Segafredo.

The American rider has been with the team since 2019 and recently praised the squad in an interview with VeloNews, saying that the team had been highly supportive while she struggled with the blood flow issue. It had affected her performance for the past two years, particularly this season.

"I am so excited to be extending my contract with Trek-Segafredo for another year," the 33-year-old said in a team announcement on Friday. "This season has been unbelievably difficult due to my injury and basically having to miss an entire calendar year of racing.

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"The team has been really supportive of me through this and that has helped a great deal with my recovery and motivation for the future. I know I am capable of so much more than I was able to show in recent years due to being held back by the external iliac artery endofibrosis and I am so excited to see what I can do now that I am on the other side of the surgery."

She has been back training in recent weeks and is doing specific physiotherapy daily to regain strength and balance.

Wiles told VeloNews that the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift is a major motivation for her, and gave her inspiration as she made her recovery.

"It was incredible to watch. It was hugely motivating,” Wiles said. “I was messaging my teammates during it just saying 'you guys are really helping me on my long really slow rides, to motivate, to remember that I will get back to that level. I'll be out there fighting with you next year.' So it was definitely motivating to watch.

"At the same time it was hard to miss it. There were a lot of tears, in between me cheering for my teammates, because it's something I've dreamed of since I started cycling. When you tell anybody that you ride a bike, they're like, 'oh, do you do the Tour de France?' And forever you had to say, 'well, not really, because there isn't one.' So it was pretty incredible to watch that."

Team Director Ina Teutenberg and the rest of the squad are showing faith in Wiles, but also believe she is more than capable of rewarding that trust in 2023.

"Tayler really struggled at the start of the year. She always gives 100 percent, but it was clear that there was an underlying problem and I think it was a relief for her when they worked out what that problem was," Teutenberg said Friday. "Now that she had surgery to fix it, she deserved a contract extension to show what she's capable of at full health.

"Tayler is a solid climber and likes to race aggressively. I'm sure we'll see more of that and hopefully she will achieve the results to match her efforts."

Wiles will be aiming to do exactly that, not least because she feels the team has been very understanding.

"They've been incredible," she told VeloNews. "I've been really lucky. I missed basically a whole year of racing.

"So many teams, I think, would just write you off and not support you. But they've been incredible."

Wiles will work hard in the months ahead, keen to show what she can do when fully fit. She'll also use the Tour de France Femmes as a motivation. She's excited to experience that firsthand in 2023, and also to witness the effect it will have on women's cycling.

"The crowds were huge. It looked incredibly well run," she said of this year's inaugural edition. "I was so happy to see that. And I really hope that it continues to grow every year, the base, like make it a little bit longer. And that it stays part of the men's Tour.

"I think it was great for spectators, because you always have the post-Tour blues. And you're like, 'oh, what am I gonna watch?' Because you've been following the Tour for so long. It was exciting, it gave people another week of racing to watch. And I think it was really exciting racing too. It's great."

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