Am I even fast yet?
​That questions bugged my mind a bit in the week leading into the race, because after so many months away from racing it’s hard no to let the anxiety creep up on you and start asking questions. But over the past few months I have worked really well and I felt confident in the work I had put in. Still, time for a test. ​

We (my team) arrived to the venue Friday evening, so we were ready to try out the track Saturday morning. We went together to check it out and figured that we arrived in a really cool mountain area. The track was great, natural, steep, good dirt and fun. 3 long steep climbs, followed by steep downhills and then a ‘long’ flat part to mix it up. ​

I spent a couple of hours riding it and trying out different tire options. Ended up riding a Michelin Jet in the back and a prototype with a bit more grip in the front. I hadn’t tapered coming into the race, so I was curios how my freshness would be. But as the start gun finally went off I completely forgot all the questions and there I was just racing my bike as I have done a million times (or at least it feels like that) before. I went to the front half way up the climb to make sure I was in the front for the downhill. ​

During the past week we have had 2 race cancellations of our World Cup. Which is our biggest series of races in xc mountainbike. that means we are down to only 2 rounds (both held in Nove Mesto Na Morave). This year sucks, honestly. There is still smaller races on the calendar here in Europe, but none of them is in the same league as the World Cup. Beside the races in Nove Mesto, we will also have the World Champs. Worlds is hosted by Leogang, which I had looked much forward to, but as the situtationen is developing it starts to feel strange. Are we going to have a world championship without the whole world able to compete? ​

​The other night I drove through Barcelona with Loic, we saw the statue of Columbus. And Loic was like ‘The Navigator!’ (in a prober french accent, hah). And it made me think. We have to be great ‘navigators’ this year. There are plenty of waves and obstacles on our way, but if we are smart, and keep on taking that, ‘step back’ to see the bigger picture, I’m sure we find our way. ​

​So what’s the plan this summer? 

Doing the quarantine I tried to free my mind a bit, keep fit and healthy, but with a more mentally relaxed approach. Because I know that if I had to be strong in September, October, where the season might start again, I shouldn't go too hard already. The quarantine also took me off the rails of the ‘fast life’ (training, travelling, bla bla) and gave me some time to think about my ‘set up’ or the village around me, so to say. I figured this would be the perfect time to find people that I can work closely with towards my Olympic dream. 

​Doing the month of May we got the new UCI calendar which will start with the World Cup in the first weekend of September. Great! New goals, new plan! After the announcement, we could start to build up the plan for the season. The first goal is to complete June, July and August, stronger, fitter, happier and ‘readier’ than ever.
Is this the biggest opportunity to get stronger than ever before? 3 months to build and find the fire to go hard. And not just for one race weekend, no the UCI plan is really busy and it’s gonna be a tough one. Starting on a new start-line 1-2 a week for multiple weeks in a row. More than ever you gotta keep the head in the game (Please tell me I’m not the only one hearing Zac Efron singing “U gotta - Get’cha get'cha head in the game - We gotta - Get our, get our, get our, get our head in the game” when I wrote that).