Category: Junior Women

Field size: 15

Place: 1st!

After a tough race at Monte Saint Anne I spent most of the week at Windham trying to rethink my mental approach to the race. I knew that at this point in the season I have put in all the work to be physically prepared, but especially at a world cup with hard

competition and a lot of added pressure it can be just as important to be prepared mentally. After a few pep talks and many laps on the course I felt ready to go.

I raced at the lovely time of 4:30 PM which is not optimal and made for a long day of sitting around waiting. I watched the boys race early in the morning and got pretty pumped up after watching my whole athlete teammates kill it! My race finally rolled around at the hottest part of the day, but I still felt ready to go. I went out for my warmup, trying to stay particularly focused and calm.

I was called up to the line 6th and stood shaking for a minute before the gun finally went off. I slid into second behind a new zelander that I had raced last weekend. When we hit the first climb, I passed her but was then passed by grace Alexander and a Canadian names frederique. We pushed the pace up the long climb and I stayed right with them. Half way up the climb I started to recover from the hard start effort and felt good enough to pass grace. Grace and I continued to leap frog for the rest of the lap and when we hit the climb for the second lap, she and the Canadian girl were right in front of me. I don't even really remember where I attacked (the whole race is a blur of just going as hard as I could) but grace dropped back and I passed the Canadian girl. In the lead I knew I had to dig deep and kept telling myself to fight for it. I came through for my last lap with a gap, but no one would give me a split so I had no idea how much time I had on 2nd place. I pushed myself as hard as I could up the long climb, forcing harder gears, drinking a lot of water and enjoying my chocolate raspberry rocktane. I definetely needed the caffeine at that point. I reached the top of the climb, turned around and couldn't see anyone. I went into the downhill forcing myself to stay focused as I knew that the race could be far from over. I rode slightly conservatively on the technical parts, knowing I couldn't afford a crash or mechanical. I descended the fire road to the finish, turned around and still couldnt see anyone behind me. I threw my arms up, enjoying that amazing moment. I can't describe how stoked I was! It was amazing to be able to win on American soil and stand on the podium listening to the national anthem. Thank you so much to all my teammates and to Dario and Julia for supporting me. You guys are the best and I couldn't have done it without you!