Hello everyone!
I am currently still enjoying my time off the bike, which means having no schedule to follow, no obligation, no diet and no alarm in the morning. My offseason is something I can’t renounce, is consecrated.
Simply because is the only time in the year when I can spend a lot of time with family and friends, enjoy doing something else like long walks or nice swims and indulge some treats which are always important for my mind.
I just love offseason because I am allowed to follow the natural flow of things, not having to worry to be on time or to be fast, as it is required during the most time of my life.
This year I went into my off season with a really light and happy soul after a successful end of my racing season.
Winning Team Time Trial in Innsbruck with my team mates emptied myself. Do you ever experienced being so focused and so much into something that when it’s over you feel exhausted? It did happen to me after our TTT. The day after (and for many more days actually) I felt in hangover, like if I left everything, not only the power but also my focus, on the road that Sunday.
I didn’t mind about it though because what I experienced that day is something I will never forget. I think I never cried so much after a bike race like I did that Sunday, which is very strange as in my life I just cried for beloved people or extreme pain.
Winning a Team Time Trial World Championships was on my dreams list and having put a “tick” on it now makes me feel so good.
Because actually I really started to believe that that win in that discipline was not going to happen.
We chased this win for three years and this time felt really long. Who knows…maybe is because of that hunger that we went so fast.
I will be for ever grateful to my team mates for sharing the pain and the will to win with me in Innsbruck. We were a unit.
But one thing is sure: us girls were 100% committed to our goal and totally trusted each other, but the confidence…. Well, the confidence came from our staff. Attention and care to details, both addressed to our bikes and our legs from our mechanics and soigneurs combined with a lot of hard work and tones of experience from our management allowed us to stand at the start line with one thought in our mind : “Today is going to be a great day”. And it was.
Apart from the gold medal, the emotions and the celebrations, I learnt a big lesson from our TTT win which I will bring with me for the rest of my life: NEVER NEVER NEVER STOP BELIEVING IN YOUR DREAMS!!! It’s the only way to make them true.
Ciao, Elena!
