Silver City, New Mexico, has become the favorite training destination for yet another pro cyclist.
After two weeks of preparations in southwest New Mexico, Cécile Lejeune (CCB p/b Levine Law Group Cycling) won the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder overall on Sunday, June 30, 2024.
The native of France raced Tour of the Gila as part of the Steve Tilford Foundation Racing team in April.
As a Tucson resident, Lejeune first used Silver City as a retreat leading into the nation’s only UCI stage race. She came to New Mexico straight off her Redlands Bicycle Classic performance, which earned her the Best Amateur jersey. Using the gap between the two stage races to get acclimated and familiarize herself with the Tour of the Gila’s five challenging race courses, Lejeune found an approach that worked. During Tour of the Gila 2024, Lejeune most notably took third in the Tyrone Individual Time Trial and landed just outside the Top 10 on the General Classification, only 7:49 behind overall winner Lauren Stephens.
The town on the outskirts of the Gila Wilderness proved to be such a comfortable and laidback place to complete a pre-race training block that Lejeune returned to fine tune her fitness before the Gravel Earth Series’ five-day stage race in the Cascades. That’s how Silver City came to be Lejeune’s last stop on her journey to victory at the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder.
Keep an eye out for New Mexico scenes making cameos on Lejeune’s Instagram feed where she schools followers in French cycling vocabulary.
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