The End

It was never my plan to become a professional cyclist. When I finished school, I planned to become a physiotherapist. I went to university in Belgium, the country of kermes races so I ended up doing a lot of those races. 

Uni was always my priority and when I finished my Masters, I decided to take a chance, working halftime to see if it would be possible for me to become a cyclist. 

I got an opportunity with Lotto which ended up being the best team for me. I’ve ridden with the team from 2014 – 2019. 

In women’s cycling, it’s hard to earn a living, so I still had to work. 

Combining physiotherapy and cycling was hard. 

Working a job has an impact on your recovery, it’s not as good as if you were only focused on being an athlete. Luckily, I had an amazing boss at work who gave me the freedom I needed to pursue a cycling career. 

Missing weddings and family events were another thing I found hard during my career.

Most functions take place in spring and summer, so you miss a lot of them because you are away at the races and it’s not always easy for friends and family to understand why you have to miss these events. 

The Giro Rosa in 2014 and 2015 were some memories I will remember from my career. I just loved this race even though I am no climber. 

In the 2014 Giro, we went there with Emma Pooley to get a good general classification but after the first day, she had a bad crash so all hopes for a good GC were gone. 

Then unbelievably, she bounced back and won three stages, so all was good in the end. 

Everyone was always f*cked after every stage but Emma would go for a swim in the morning or evening 🙃

In 2015, Elena Cecchini also had a bad crash. The whole race got stopped so she climbed in the ambulance and got stitches on her chin. She came out and continued. I was so impressed with her.

It was a damn hot Giro with temperatures around 40 degrees every day. On one mountaintop finish I was so happy to be in the grupetto because we were so far back we got caught in some rain. I’ve never been so happy to be in the gruppetto. 

The Rio Olympics was one of my greatest experiences but also one of my hardest moments. I had an off day on the bike so personally, my race was a big disappointment but the good result from Christine Majerus (18th) and the atmosphere around the event made up for it.

If I could give myself advice five years ago, I would say try to worry less. Sometimes you worry about stupid things which aren’t important. 

Listen to your body. As a sportsperson, you’re always giving your maximum because that’s the way you improve but there are moments after crashes, illnesses or when you’re fatigued where the best thing is rest. Give your body time to recover.

Often, training is like a drug to sportspeople. You always feel like you need to train. 

When a session doesn’t go as planned or if you got sick and can’t train, we’re usually so afraid of losing shape. In the end it doesn’t t change much, you always have ups and downs and you’re not going to have a bad season because of one bad training session. 

The older I got, the more I learnt to relax about those things.

In German, there is a quote, “in der Ruhe liegt die Kraft”, loosely translated, “The strength is to be found in serenity.” Sometimes that’s important to remember.

Now the time has come to end my career. I always wanted to stop riding my bike while I still loved it. 

I didn’t want to stop when it became something that I had to do or because I hated it. 

The thought of retiring already crossed my mind last year but I was not ready for it.

I’m 31 years old and saw great riders in our team retiring between 28 – 32.

Retirement from professional sports will be a big change in my life but every chapter has an end and you need to write a new one.