This was a tough race for me. It was a suffer fest, with temperatures in the high 20’s and a difficult course that required lots of concentration and smooth pedaling. We did seven laps of a 4.2-kilometre course with 150 vertical metres of climbing each lap and several BMX-style sections (rollers, berms, drops and slalom) that were fun the first few times, but got tougher as the race wore on.

I went into the race with the same strategy as I’ve been practicing lately – fast start and hold it for as long as possible. There was a lot of strong competition, including Petra Henzi, Esther Süss and Annika Smail, so the start was quite quick. Martina went off like a rocket, getting into a good position. I was also among the top 10 at the beginning and felt quite good for the first 2.5 laps. The “going out hard” strategy may not have been such a good idea considering the heat, however. A lot of the time, if you go out too hard in the heat, you blow up hard, which is exactly what happened to me. Instead of staying steady, I steadily faded until I was in 15 th spot at the end. I didn’t get lapped, however, although I was close. The moto followed me all the way to the finish on the last lap. It was nice to have some company!

I’m a little disappointed with how it turned out, but we all have good races and bad races and I really gave it all I had. Thanks to my big cheering squad for helping me pull though: Sepp, Sonya, Sile, Wale, Mom, Dad, Andrea and Martina. Thanks, of course, to the ever-supportive Andri for feeding and motivating me.

I’m looking forward to redeeming myself this Saturday in Grächen, VS. Bring it on!