Change of Mindset
It's 10pm. I'm sitting on my bed, going through the things I need for tomorrows race day. My last race (the Gravel World Championships 2022) was more than six months ago and it feels like an eternity. Today is Saturday April 29th, 2023. In 10 hours I'll be doing my first race of the year and I'm looking excited for it. Yesterday on Friday I rode the W-Collective Ride together with about 30 other women. A social ride organized by Sami Sauri xx. What an enriching experience! There I didn't meet anyone who didn't have a smile on their face! Over 30 women, all with their gravel bikes and the same joy for riding. Even now it makes me happy when I think back...
-Review-
Roughly around this time two years ago I was at a point where cycling, especially racing, was more of a routine than something I really enjoyed. A bad crash mid-season had meant I had to take a few days off and rest. Basically nothing unusual. In the end, 3-4 days turned into several weeks. Physically I might have been fit again, but my head just wasn't. The double/triple burden of studying, working, training and racing took its toll. With the best weather outside, I lay in bed and lacked any motivation and energy to go out, meet people or get on my bike to "train". I also cried sometimes and didn't know what to do with myself. Luckily I had people around me who could motivate and psych me up. I realized it was seriously time for a change. Something like that just couldn't be healthy...
At the time a school friend of mine moved to Lübeck for her studies. I called her and asked if I could come visit her... by bike. She was happy about it, even though she thought the idea of me cycling from Cologne to Lübeck was crazy. For me it was an adventure that I looked forward to. I loaded my bike with bikebags, some of which had served my dad well already 30 years ago :D It was my first multi-day bikepacking tour ever. The first kilometres out of Cologne I was accompanied by a good friend. After he turned around, it was just my bike, me and my thoughts. I rode there for hours without headphones, without talking to other people. It felt good to be able to switch off and just enjoy the moment. Thanks to my gravel bike, I was able to spend most of the route off the main roads and on country lanes in nature. I felt the freedom and was grateful for the beautiful places my bike took me to. For the first time in a fairly while, actually since I started cycling and training more seriously as a teenager, I rode without the thought of needing to accomplish anything (in terms of training effectiveness). Instead just with joy for riding. Without any pressure, without the need to meet a certain wattage, speed or heart rate.
In retrospect, I rediscovered cycling for myself on this tour (although I've been on my bike almost every day for about ten years).
From the outside, not much has changed since then, but a lot has changed in my mind. I discovered gravel for myself and to be honest I don't know how I got along without it before ^^
It opened up a new world, off the road and enables regions to be explored in a completely different way, much closer to nature. Even the closest surroundings at home suddenly became unfamiliar territory. Every ride, every "training" with the gravel bike became a mini-adventure. In the following months also some shorter and longer bikepacking tours were added to the collection (feel free to check out my report on Israel :)
In my eyes it's just a fantastic way to travel and explore places from a very unique perspective.
I know all this isn't a particularly spectacular or "stand-out" story. While I don't know if anyone will actually read it, I wanted to share it. Everyone has probably had times when not everything went smoothly. Ups and downs are just part of life and I think it's important to share experiences with other people. Maybe it will help someone out there to take something positive for themselves and to benefit from each other.
Probably my biggest learning from this time was that it's important to compare yourself less to other people and instead to find your own way that makes you happy.
For me, cycling became more than a hobby or "just" a sport that you practice, it became a lifestyle.
A lifestyle that lives from sharing it with other people!
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Athough, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, "The Traka" is already locked in my heart. The organization around "Klassmark" managed to enchant the cycling city of Girona into a Graveltown for a week. The familiar relationship between the participants and with the organizers is simply unique. Even if the races are competitive, cooperation clearly beats rivalry. In my opinion, there is also a big difference here compared to road racing. Social rides before and after the race days, eating together after crossing the finish line, sharing accommodation with other individual athletes...
All this and much more makes up the Gravel community. How nice would it be if this was more established in the (cycling) world!
Over and out for now ❤️
Happy cycling xx
Cover picture by Niels Flemm
