I had high hopes for World Champs and coming in I felt I had a realistic chance of a medal. Although I hadn’t felt the freshest in La Bresse 2 weeks prior I was content with my 7th place there and felt with a bit of rest and some shorter more intense efforts to sharpen up I would be firing on all cylinders for World’s.
I arrived in Lenzerheide around 10 days before the race and felt very flat for the first 5 or 6 days as my body tried to adjust to the high altitude. I felt I perked up a bit closer to the race, or maybe it was just the excitement of World Champs week and me trying to be positive!
In the race I had a great start and felt completely fine for the first 10mins of the race. Cautious not to push too hard early on I backed off towards the end of the first lap / start of the second with the intention of riding solidly somewhere in the top 10 for a few laps before coming home strong over the last laps. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up my usual pace and dropped further and further back although I was pushing my max. Eventually I finished in 31st place which was very disappointing but at least I can be satisfied that I gave it my everything on the day even though it felt like a disaster! I’ve tried not to think too much about why it went so wrong but hopefully those answers come to me soon and I can try and buck the trend of performing poorly at altitude. Not everyone’s body can adapt the same way or as quickly but hopefully I can figure out some ways to maximise my performance at altitude over the off season!
Photo credit: Matt DeLorme