Anika Langvad signs with Specialized Off-Road at 40 years old in her return to professional cycling

The winner of 5 Cape Epic and 6 MTB World Championships (XCM, XCO, and XCR) has just announced by surprise that she will return to professional cycling with the Specialized Off Road team. At 40 years old, Danish rider Anika Langvad will resume her career after retiring in 2020.

Anika Langvad will return as a professional at 40 years old

With an enviable track record, Langvad left professional mountain biking in 2020 to start her career as a dentist. Since then, she has had time to become a mother, develop her profession, compete sporadically in gravel and mountain bike races, and finally realize that she had to return to cycling full time.

Through a post on her social media, Langvad announced that in 2025 she will return to competition and will do so with the Specialized Off-Road team:

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Back to full-time racing in 2025. After a few years away from racing at the highest level, the time has come to try again with the Specialized Off-Road team. Why? Because I can't stop doing it.

The Danish rider has been associated with Specialized for over 10 years and even after her retirement, she remained connected to the brand. While we are yet to know in which races we will see her compete, everything points to her returning to the long-distance disciplines where she has shone the most, such as stage mountain bike races, and now adding a vast calendar of gravel races where she can surely showcase her skills in a discipline that practically did not exist when she decided to hang up her bike in 2020.

Will we see Anika Langvad in the next Cape Epic 2025?