Who is Sigrid Haugset? From racing Paris-Roubaix with a broken hip to making Tour de France Femmes history

"I was so dizzy at the finish, I couldn't lift my arms off the bike."

At the finish line of Stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset had nothing left.

The Norwegian spent some 85 kilometres off the front of the peloton solo, and reached the line in Poligny too exhausted to celebrate in style.

1. She comes from a tiny Norwegian village

Born on 1 March 1999, Haugset comes from Berkåk, a village of just 1,000 people in Trøndelag, central Norway.

2. She served in the military after high school

Haugset entered the Norwegian military after finishing high school.

Norway has mandatory conscription for men and women, although not every eligible citizen is selected to serve. Those chosen typically complete an initial 12-month period of military service before becoming part of the reserves.

3. She's a former runner

As a child, Haugset's passion had been football. She played throughout high school and later found success as a middle-distance runner.

Representing Rennebu IL and later Strindheim IL, her recorded personal bests include:

4min 49.10sec for 1,500 metres
10min 19.9sec for an indoor 3,000 metres
10min 27.05sec for an outdoor 3,000 metres
17min 40.46sec for 5,000 metres

4. Injuries changed the course of her career

"Where I come from, a small place in Norway, it was never an option to start cycling. Instead, we played football, handball, cross-country skiing, we went hiking and so on," says Haugset.

Instead, she came to cycling, as so many before her have, through injury.

Haugset has explained that two stress fractures in her lower back within six months forced her away from running. Looking for a way to stay fit, she spent countless hours on the indoor trainer before eventually buying a road bike to train outside.

Then she entered a Norwegian Cup race, and the rest, as they say, is history.

5. She only started racing bikes at 22

While many WorldTour riders have been racing since childhood, Haugset entered her first cycling race in 2021, at the age of 22.

She signed with Team Coop-Hitec Products later that year and raced with the programme through the end of 2025.

Her rise to the top level of the sport has been remarkably quick. Within five years of pinning on her first race number, she's now wearing the maillot jaune.

6. She's quietly become one of Norway's strongest time triallists

Haugset has collected four consecutive medals at the Norwegian elite national time trial championships between 2023 and 2026 —three bronze and one silver.

Other key career highlights include winning the Norwegian road race championships with a solo breakaway earlier this season, and a fourth place in the GC at the 2024 Vuelta a Extremadura Féminas.

Those performances highlighted the engine that powered her remarkable Tour solo today.

7. She raced Paris-Roubaix with a fractured hip

Paris-Roubaix Femmes is already one of cycling's toughest races, and in 2025, Haugset's ride was even more painful.

After crashing with 60 kilometres remaining in the race, Haugset climbed back on her bike to finish the race. Only afterwards did scans reveal she had fractured her hip.

She later admitted that, in hindsight, continuing probably wasn't the smartest decision, but in the middle of Paris-Roubaix, all she wanted to do was reach the velodrome.

“When you’re in a race, you want to finish,” she explained. She was subsequently sidelined for approximately two and a half months before returning later in the season and eventually earning a WorldTour contract with Uno-X Mobility.

8. She was originally selected as a climbing domestique

Haugset is currently on a two-year contract with Uno-X Mobility.

She was selected for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift roster (her second appearance) not for her yellow-jersey potential but rather as a climbing domestique.

The team had designated Katrine Aalerud as its GC leader, with a target of finishing in the top 10. Haugset’s published role was to provide support later in hilly stages, although the team explicitly left open the possibility of allowing her to pursue stage opportunities from different race situations.

9. A huge day for Norway

With her performance in Poligny, Haugset didn't just win the biggest race of her career; she won big for Norway.

Haugset became the first Norwegian to win a stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and the first Norwegian woman to wear the yellow jersey.

In doing so, she joins an elite list of Norwegians who have worn the Tour de France yellow jersey, which includes just three others: male riders Thor Hushovd, Alexander Kristoff and, most recently, Torstein Træen.

Explore More

Cycling Weekly's North American Editor, Anne-Marije Rook is old school. She holds a degree in journalism and started out as a newspaper reporter — in print! She can even be seen bringing a pen and notepad to the press conference.

Originally from the Netherlands, she grew up a bike commuter and didn't find bike racing until her early twenties when living in Seattle, Washington. Strengthened by the many miles spent darting around Seattle's hilly streets on a steel single speed, Rook's progression in the sport was a quick one. As she competed at the elite level, her journalism career followed, and soon, she became a full-time cycling journalist. She's now been a journalist for two decades, including 14 years in cycling.