Written by 06:43 Pro Cycling Story

The highs and lows of sport

Clara Koppenburg

What can I say about this year so far? I’ve gone from the highest ever in my career to the lowest point. I was on top of the world after winning Valenciana, my first professional victory.

Then I developed some saddle sores after Strade Bianche. I had to take 10 days off the bike and after that the doctors decided I needed an operation. It was pretty painful. As a rider you have to sit on your ass, right? So this isn’t ideal haha.

Luckily I could do other sports like running and was always in the gym. It spent 3 weeks without sitting on any saddle and it was really tough for me mentally. I could see myself losing all my condition. I’m someone who just loves training. I love being outside riding my bike.

The days were suddenly so long. I had no idea days could be so long without cycling. The hard part was they couldn’t give me a date when I could start riding again. To live with that uncertainty drove me crazy.

When I was allowed to start training again, I suffered so much because I was so motivated. My team had been racing so well, I wanted to work very hard to join them and be part of it. I told my coach I was looking forward to suffering. In the gym you don’t suffer, it’s not the same as being on the bike when you can really challenge yourself and be out of breathe.

I’d been waiting for weeks to get this feeling back. 

My first race back was a prologue in Festival Elsy Jacobs. You can’t tell anything about your form coming back in a prologue because it’s just a 3 or 4-minute effort, but I went so deep. It was a shock to the system but it was nice to get a top 10 in my first race back.

Clara Koppenburg (GER) of WNT Rotor Pro Cycling rides in the prologue of 2019 Festival Elsy Jacobs, a 2.7 km time trial from Kahler to Garnich, Luxembourg on May 10, 2019. Photo by Balint Hamvas/velofocus.com

My motivation after the prologue result went from that high back to the lowest in stage 1.

It was so cold and rainy. On the start line it was 10 degrees but by the end it was 3. I could not handle it. After 2km’s I could feel my whole body didn’t want to move. After 20 kilometres I went to Lisa Brennauer and told her how cold I was. She told me to go back to the car and get warm clothes. I was so cold, I couldn’t even think straight. It didn’t cross my mind to go back to the car to get more clothes.  My sports director gave me a gel, but I couldn’t open it. My mouth was frozen. He had to open it and push it into my mouth for me.

I ended up in the groupetto and was in a trance. I was just counting the kilometres. I’ve never experienced something like this before. The great thing is I was riding with Asja Paladin. She broke her ankle in Strade Bianche so she was also recovering from injury at the same time as me. We would text each other while recovering and following the races. She was in the grupetto with me and kept encouraging me, “we can do this Clara, we can finish this.”

I’m in California now so I’m unsure of what to expect but I’m just so happy to be back racing. I’m enjoying every moment. I know like in life, cycling is up and down and I’m doing my best to be back on the up again.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.


Tags: , , Last modified: Jan 19, 2020
Close

Never miss a story

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This