- Oct 11, 2022

Gravel-Worlds in Veneto

Updated: Apr 3, 2023

Just got back home from Italy and I'm still trying to sort my feelings and emotions for what happened this weekend.

Of course there is lots of happiness, proud and thankfulness but also bit of bittersweet feelings.

I'll start with the preparation for the race.

After a long drive with the camper we finally arrived in Vicenca, Italy. As the time before the race was too short we just had a closer look at the first and the final few kilometres. Not ideal but at least it covered the sections what were expected to be the most important ones.

140km in total, the course was mainly flat. Only the first 15km included two hills with especially one decent being quite technical. But "only the first 15km" also meant that this would be the most crucial part, especially the first climb starting straight away from KM 0.

I started the race in my age group (19-34), together with the other age-groups we were approx. 60-70 riders. Of course everyone was going full-gas on the first climb knowing there is a technical decent with lots of twists and turns coming up. After the decent I found myself in a group of ca. 10 riders. Noone was to be seen in front of us so it seemed like we were the first group. After the second climb we were still all together and I went into the decent in first position. Coming out of the downhill I looked back and saw there was a gap of about 50m. Now I had to make a quick decision... shall I continue or wait for the others? It was still 125km to go at that point. I decided to continue, just with a steady pace I could hold for a while. Surprisingly the gap didn't get smaller but grew slowly but surely.

I caught up with some men-groups who started a few minutes before us. After around 40km I closed the gap to a bigger group, including two women from Italy. That meant we weren't the first group back then. They assured me that we now were the leaders of the women race.

Until the finish we managed to keep the other riders at distance, going into the final kilometre with one against one (the third rider was belonging to another age goup). I still felt strong and my plan was to attack in the final kilometre just before a quite technical 180° corner with loose gravel. Unfortunately exactly this corner costed me the possible victory as I made technical mistake there.

I crossed the finish line in second position and my first feeling was disappointment and anger about myself because I missed the victory so closely. But soon this feeling was replaced by joy. Joy about the fact that it is the f*cking second place at Worlds!!