Up-and-coming New Zealander Ella Wyllie signs for two years

WORDS: REBECCA BLAND

The team is excited to announce that 20-year-old Ella Wyllie has signed for Le Col – Wahoo for two years beginning in 2023. She rode for Parkhotel for the latter half of the 2022 season and has continued to impress with results such as second overall at the Watersley Women’s Challenge and medals across team pursuit and Madison on the track. General manager Tom Varney shares his feelings on signing Ella.

“Ella has proven herself at U23 level across the road and track, so we’re excited to bring her into the fold and help her continue her development. Her positivity and work ethic assured us she’ll be a great asset to the team as she gains experience in the European peloton and we’re sure she’s going to be a great fit.”

Ella is equally positive about the move.

“I really want to continue my development and build strength and get better, and seeing the setup Le Col – Wahoo has and team culture was a priority in me choosing a team. It looks like the team has great support and works well together, so I thought, ‘Yeah, sounds pretty good!”

We’re sure it’ll be more than pretty good as she makes the move over to Europe from her native New Zealand, and enjoys an almost year-round summer. She’s also keen to understand what type of rider she could become.

“I’m still figuring it out a little bit,” she continued. “But I do really enjoy time trialling and hills and then obviously I do a bit of track too, so that’s in there. I like hard races, but they can all be hard. I’m really keen to do some of the longer stage races and improve on my results from this world champs as an U23 for the next few years.”

Whether it’s time trialling, endurance track riding or climbing, Ella has shown bucketfuls of promise so far and the team looks forward to welcoming her in January.