Ella Harris is a professional cyclist from Dunedin who rides for the Women’s WorldTour team Canyon-SRAM. Now based in Europe Ella graduated Columba in 2016 and has her photo on our Wall of Fame in the Marsh Sports Centre.

She received her big break after participating in the Zwift Academy programme, where the top prize was a contract with a professional team.  Zwift is an online training and racing platform that allows riders to compete in a virtual world.

From winning the 2018 CANYON//SRAM Zwift Academy, Ella Harris has gone from strength to strength in her first two years as a professional cyclist. The New Zealander rider notched her first UCI win, won youth classifications and secured her first Women’s World Tour top ten in the 2020 season, further validating the Zwift Academy as an innovative talent identification program. Ella extended her contract with CANYON//SRAM Racing for an additional two years, through to 2022.

Fast-forward to 2022, Ella has been selected to compete in the NZ Road Cycling Team at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. 

There is considerable excitement at the number of UCI World Tour professional road riders who will be part of the time road race on 7 August.

The women’s road team Ella will be part of includes the world’s top-ranked young rider of 2021, Niamh Fisher-Black, fellow young kiwi star Mikayla Harvey, Gold Coast silver medallist, Georgia Williams and Henrietta Christie. Many of these riders are European-based professionals and have put up their hands which shows how much it means to wear the silver fern and to do the sport of cycling and our country proud.

Best of luck, Ella. The Columba College community is right behind you!