Karolina Migoń is now a two-time Traka 360 winner as she heads again for second bid for a prime end at Unbound Gravel 200. Even with a rising listing of victories and prime finishes, the Polish rider who makes Switzerland residence nonetheless juggles two careers – one involving bikes and the opposite with computer systems.
To push herself on a relatively-young gravel profession, Migoń began 2025 by including new tools sponsors and a coach, and labored out a plan together with her engineering employer so she might think about some races. Whereas she mentioned she actually likes her full-time job as a software program engineer, Migoń admitted, “I take pleasure in biking a bit extra”.
“Because of my superb employer, I’m taking 5 months off from my skilled job to completely deal with driving my bike. Grateful, excited, and prepared for the journey,” Migoń shared on social media as she ready for her US block of racing later in Could.
Final yr after profitable at The Traka 360 on her first try, she traveled to the US for a number of extra firsts – her first time within the US and her first Unbound Gravel 200. She rode within the entrance group the primary 40 miles or so, however two punctures and driving 78 miles between support stations with a mechanical made it “a very long time trial” for twenty first place within the elite girls’s race.
This yr she is now not the brand new child on the block, having completed prime 5 in eight gravel races after the Unbound journey, with wins at Gravel Suisse and Ranxo Gravel to wrap up the Gravel Earth Sequence girls’s total title.
“This yr I managed to get the sponsors [I needed] but in addition preserve working. I believe it is good on your coronary heart, mentality, to have one thing apart from biking. You will be injured, something can occur, biking is sport. It is good to have one thing safe, for example,” she informed Cyclingnews.
“Final yr I did not know that the PAS Racing undertaking can be that large. I did not have a coach. I used to be working, not having a coach, not having structured coaching plan. I used to be driving a motorcycle, it was not racing a motorcycle. So to start with, I work with a coach and have the structured plan.”
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Migoń added Rose Bikes and Schwalbe Tires as tools sponsors this season as effectively they usually’ve carried her to a second win at The Traka 360, in addition to second at Wörthersee Gravel and prime 10s at The Hills and Santa Vall. She is at the moment ranked second total within the Gravel Earth Sequence. Along with her new coach, she additionally started her coaching effectively earlier than spring.
“I am not residing excessive within the mountains. Usually it is sunny and we did not have a lot snow this yr within the metropolis, so I used to be capable of journey them. If not, then there may be Valias, additionally the mountain half, however it’s the sunniest a part of Switzerland. Possibly it isn’t the identical as in Spain, however I can nonetheless do it superb,” she defined about additional coaching within the low season.
Forward of Unbound Gravel, Migoń will participate in Gravel Locos in Texas on Could 24, to start her US swing of a full month. Final yr she needed to make two journeys to the US to finish the rides she needed to do – SBT GRVL and Gravel Worlds – which price her trip time from work.
“I’ll do Gravel Locos one week earlier than Unbound. I believe it is good for a legs opener,” she mentioned. “Misplaced and Discovered goes to be a pleasant one and enjoyable. I’ll end my block within the US in Steamboat doing SBT. That is a very good one. It is earlier this yr, usually I’d return residence, however this yr I simply keep for an even bigger block within the US.”
After the Emporia race she is going to compete in Misplaced and Discovered Gravel Pageant in California on June 14 then SBT GRVL in Colorado on June 29. The Misplaced and Discovered occasion is a brand new competitors for the Gravel Earth Sequence, which Migoń appears to be like for extra factors so as to add to The Traka victory for a repeat of the ladies’s total title. At SBT GRVL final yr, which was later in the summertime and on a unique course, Migoń completed fourth.
Now 29 years previous, Migoń’s earned expertise in her early 20s racing earlier than she was married as Karolina Sowa, with an Polish beginner highway staff and in mountain biking till 2020 when the worldwide pandemic struck. Then she stopped driving and simply targeted on full-time work as a software program engineer, and biking took a again seat. The transfer to Switzerland launched her to the enjoyment of driving gravel roads, that led to an introduction to PAS Racing which introduced her to a brand new balancing act between two jobs.
“I simply began to do my job and biking as a pastime,” the Polish rider informed Cyclingnews about her profession change 5 years in the past. “Then I moved to Switzerland, found gravel, found PAS. Then being a part of the staff was alleged to be like a undertaking, no expectations. I used to be like, ‘I can preserve my job, proper?’ I did not know that I’ll journey to the US, and journey nearly each weekend, and that it might be a bit tougher.”
This yr she hopes to convey residence {hardware} from Unbound, as her PAS Racing teammates Chad Haga and Tobias Mørch Köngstad completed on the boys’s podium, second and third, respectively.
“Whereas I used to be disenchanted with my very own consequence, I used to be thrilled for my teammates’ success in such an enormous race,” she mentioned after final yr’s Kansas battle. “I’m actually lucky to be a part of a staff the place a whole lot of the stress and logistics are taken care of for us. I’m by no means alone at races.”
