Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / From Setbacks to Triumph: Carolyn Schiff's Unstoppable Gravel Journey with Canyon

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From Setbacks to Triumph: Carolyn Schiff's Unstoppable Gravel Journey with Canyon · Zone2Speak Podcast

• 0:00
  Music.
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  Now, let's get into the episode.
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  Welcome back to Zone to Speak. Today's guest is a powerhouse in the world of
• 3:25
  gravel racing, Carolyn Schiff.
• 3:27
  Based in Germany, Carolyn started her career in road cycling,
• 3:31
  but faced a series of challenges and setbacks that almost led her to step away from the sport.
• 3:37
  Just when it seemed like her cycling journey might be over, a new opportunity
• 3:41
  appeared, a chance to raise gravel with Canyon.
• 3:45
  What happened next was a complete transformation, from nearly quitting to becoming
• 3:49
  one of the most dominant riders on the gravel scene.
• 3:53
  In 2023, she stunned the cycling world by taking a solo victory at Unbound 200,
• 3:59
  and she since claimed national titles and made a name for herself on some of
• 4:04
  the toughest courses around the globe.
• 4:06
  In this episode, I will ask Carolyn what it took to rebuild after a difficult
• 4:12
  chapter, how she balances running a bike shop while racing at the highest level,
• 4:17
  and what she learned from throwing herself into downhill training to improve her technical edge.
• 4:24
  Let's dive in. Carolyn, welcome to Zone to Speak.
• 4:28
  Hi, nice to see you. It's so good to see you. I have followed your career.
• 4:34
  I am a fan. I really admire your grit and your journey.
• 4:40
  So, so happy to have you here to share you with all the listeners.
• 4:45
  Thank you for the invitation and thank you for the nice, nice introduction.
• 4:51
  Yeah, it's always crazy to hear something about, yeah, about myself and it makes
• 4:57
  me proud to hear that. So thank you for reminding me.
• 5:01
  Yeah it's good right when someone reads a little
• 5:04
  bit about you and you're like wow yeah that's me yeah exactly
• 5:10
  yeah so you had quite a
• 5:13
  journey in cycling from the road scene to gravel stardom and your story really
• 5:19
  took a turn when you look like you might walk away from the sport altogether
• 5:24
  can you take me back to that moment and what made you almost stop writing and
• 5:29
  what ultimately kept you in the sport.
• 5:33
  Yeah, it's a crazy way when I look back, because I was a road racer for such a long time.
• 5:41
  And I always raced on an amateur level.
• 5:46
  It's like, yeah, not professional, but yeah, we always had a good level.
• 5:50
  And I was in Germany national champion for mountain racing on the road.
• 5:57
  Yeah, it's a special discipline. and I
• 6:01
  won the national league and yeah I had a
• 6:04
  good good level but it was always not
• 6:07
  enough for making a very big
• 6:10
  step to to racing international on
• 6:13
  a in the professional team it was
• 6:16
  always my goal but I always did something
• 6:19
  like studying or yeah doing different
• 6:22
  things besides so it was not always
• 6:25
  easy and then I made the step into
• 6:28
  a small team a small team from Luxembourg the Andy Schleck team and I raced
• 6:34
  in that team I was so motivated and yeah I had a coach it was the first time
• 6:41
  I took a known coach for yeah getting better and it worked out really well.
• 6:48
  But yeah then it happened that i broke
• 6:51
  my collarbone in amsterdam gold race and it
• 6:54
  was quite a yeah not so
• 6:57
  yeah it was a bit yeah a bit
• 7:01
  uh i don't know how to say yeah the the
• 7:03
  injury was was slowly healing slow so
• 7:07
  yeah i took the whole season off or had
• 7:10
  to took the take the whole season off and then
• 7:13
  the team told me that they will also close and then it was for me impossible
• 7:21
  to get a contract where I can focus on cycling and miss the season yes I had no results.
• 7:31
  And I was thinking okay that makes no sense to go back to a smaller team and yeah,
• 7:41
  So I decided in my head that it's maybe like a sign that I now should stop and
• 7:51
  just focus on other things.
• 7:53
  And I also thought that gravel was a little bit coming up. It was in 2022.
• 8:01
  The first races were there and I was always looking at that and was thinking,
• 8:05
  I really like, I was a cyclocross racer all the time in the wintertime and really like going off-road.
• 8:13
  So I thought, maybe that it's cool and that's good for me.
• 8:17
  But I always had it in my mind, like doing that beside normal work and like a hobby.
• 8:23
  Because for me, it looked also a bit like just a hobby discipline.
• 8:29
  And then I thought okay maybe
• 8:32
  I can just walk doing a normal job
• 8:35
  and then do that beside that I just
• 8:39
  do something and look at where you are
• 8:41
  now yes it's crazy because then
• 8:45
  without thinking about doing it professional
• 8:48
  at all because I thought it's it's not
• 8:51
  possible also like as a woman i never earned any money for what i was doing
• 8:57
  on my bike then kenyan asked me or they told me that they are going to do more
• 9:04
  in gravel and if i would like to do or to ride for them.
• 9:11
  What was your mindset when Kenya offered you the opportunity to go all-in in gravel?
• 9:18
  Did you feel ready to jump into something new? Was there any hesitation?
• 9:22
  No, I was completely ready. For me, it was such a nice opportunity.
• 9:33
  Like I already said, I always wanted to make the step to go professional.
• 9:40
  And now that was a chance to do it. And I was like, okay, I had so much shit
• 9:46
  during my career, so many setbacks.
• 9:50
  And now this happens.
• 9:52
  Yeah, maybe it's just that everything was for something.
• 9:58
  Yeah, it was that, you know, like that now is the time to do that.
• 10:08
  It's a bit late, but yeah. Now is my time.
• 10:12
  Why do you think it was late?
• 10:15
  Yeah, I mean, I raced such a long time, non-professional.
• 10:22
  Okay, okay. Then this opportunity came and I did not think long about that.
• 10:29
  I was like, okay, yeah, I would really like to do that.
• 10:35
  Amazing. I'm glad everything worked out and continues to work out.
• 10:38
  Let's talk Unbound 200. Your solo win in 2023 was one of the most talked about
• 10:45
  gravel performance that year.
• 10:47
  Can you walk me through that day from your preparation to the moment you realized
• 10:51
  you were alone at the front?
• 10:54
  Yes, yeah, that was a crazy race. I mean, I started in 2023 with just victories before.
• 11:02
  Every race I entered, I won. So I knew that I'm really in good shape and that
• 11:08
  it's possible to have a good race, but I never thought that I would win it.
• 11:15
  And yeah, the funny thing is that my friend Paul Foss,
• 11:21
  he we were talking about the race
• 11:24
  a few weeks before and he i
• 11:27
  think he really yeah saw it
• 11:30
  coming that i i will win so but
• 11:33
  yeah i i i did not think that
• 11:36
  i i was thinking okay maybe a top five
• 11:39
  or top 10 would be really great that was what
• 11:42
  i was thinking and yeah then
• 11:45
  the day started i was really really nervous
• 11:48
  i was the night before i did not sleep
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  at all i was yeah i
• 11:54
  was lying in my bed and because i never
• 11:57
  did something like that i did not know what
• 11:59
  what will come what how the
• 12:02
  day will be and yeah then there
• 12:06
  was this race was that the muddy version
• 12:09
  so we had this peanut butter mud from oh
• 12:12
  wow yeah 10 or a mile i think
• 12:15
  it was yeah it was really early i think we were
• 12:18
  some minutes into the race and then we
• 12:21
  hit the the the peanut butter mud and all.
• 12:24
  Of us had to walk or to clean the bikes and
• 12:27
  and i was not prepared for this at all
• 12:30
  because i never saw such mud
• 12:33
  or this kind of mud yeah and i i was in that and my my bike was just like yeah
• 12:42
  it was not doing anything and yeah so i just had to handle that and make the
• 12:48
  best of it and then in this time my cyclocross skills were not.
• 12:52
  Were really good because i was able to
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  like doing like jumping on and off the
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  bike and save time with this
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  and yeah then i
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  was far behind i think
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  when i started to chase and i
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  did not know anything where i am or how
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  far the front is blind yes i
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  was completely blind and yeah
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  then i then i collected one after the other
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  and in the end i also saw sofia
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  and i knew okay sofia that was one
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  i really knew this is strong if
• 13:32
  you caught her you knew you're in a you're probably in a good spot yeah then
• 13:37
  i then i knew okay that's good and then we were together and at one point And
• 13:43
  I was able to drop her because the speed was really high because of some men,
• 13:51
  elite men who were with us. Oh, okay.
• 13:55
  Yeah, then first we dropped Sophia and then they also dropped me.
• 14:00
  And then I was completely alone for the last 150k, I think.
• 14:05
  Wow. And just finished it with some running sections. and that was also good
• 14:11
  for me that it was running.
• 14:13
  And I'm not a bad runner, so I was able to do good pace in these sections, I think.
• 14:22
  And what went through your head on those final miles in such a long race?
• 14:26
  Was it survival, excitement, all of it?
• 14:31
  Yeah, I think at first survival because I was thinking until the last kilometer,
• 14:39
  okay, I have to push because everything can happen.
• 14:42
  Maybe yeah now a flat tire or
• 14:45
  also in a muddy section my my
• 14:49
  shifting won't work anymore so it
• 14:52
  was just I think just the last kilometer I
• 14:55
  was thinking okay now I'm really the
• 14:58
  winner of Unbound 2023 and then
• 15:01
  it was just exciting and I was just proud
• 15:05
  and yeah also so happy
• 15:08
  and yeah so happy for my sponsor
• 15:11
  Kenyon or my partner because we had
• 15:15
  a new bike that day it was not released
• 15:18
  and it was everything was so cool because yeah it was also really great for
• 15:25
  Kenyon to win on a not released bike yeah in the first real gravel year so yeah
• 15:33
  everything came together on this day. That was nice.
• 15:37
  Very nice. So happy for you. Yeah,
• 15:40
  I can imagine the feeling after everything that went through and then you finally
• 15:44
  get a sponsor and then you have this victory for you but also make your sponsor
• 15:49
  proud and such a special day with a new unreleased bike.
• 15:53
  You have raised many different conditions, terrains. What do you think makes
• 15:58
  Unbound so uniquely tough?
• 16:02
  Yeah, I think unbound you
• 16:05
  can't really say oh you you need the perfect
• 16:08
  day for winning it and everything can
• 16:11
  happen so that's a special and it's
• 16:15
  not that you can that you need to be a
• 16:19
  climber or yeah or good on flat
• 16:22
  turn you need to to be good in everything and you also you need to be very strong
• 16:28
  in your head to just finish this this race and to also if it's not a good race
• 16:36
  to keep on and to believe in yourself I think that's the most important thing.
• 16:42
  It makes sense. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
• 16:46
  Switching gears, you run a bike shop in Bremen, right? Bremen, yeah.
• 16:52
  Bremen, Bremen. And I don't think many people realize that you run this bike
• 16:56
  shop when you are not racing, which adds a whole layer of life balance.
• 17:02
  Most pros at least don't juggle.
• 17:04
  So how do you manage the demands of running a business with a full racing calendar?
• 17:09
  And is it grounding or is that
• 17:12
  just total chaos sometimes yeah yeah
• 17:16
  both actually i'm i'm doing that with together with my boyfriend so he's mostly
• 17:23
  responsible for everything and it's yeah we we started this bike shop together
• 17:29
  but since i was really really young when we started it,
• 17:33
  was always most his thing but
• 17:37
  yeah I'm always there when I'm in
• 17:40
  Bremen when I'm not racing when I'm not training I'm most of the time in the
• 17:44
  bike shop and yeah because I really like it I like doing something else besides
• 17:51
  just cycling and being a professional and yeah it's fun it's we do what we love.
• 17:59
  It's good to meet people there.
• 18:04
  But it's also sometimes really hard and really exhausting to do that.
• 18:12
  And you have so many things you have to think about and to do.
• 18:16
  And it's not that I come home after long training and that I can go on the couch
• 18:22
  the rest of the day. Sometimes I really...
• 18:25
  Would love to have that because then maybe I would be a bit better also because
• 18:32
  recovery is also really important.
• 18:35
  But I don't know if it's good for the head to, for me to just have cycling.
• 18:44
  Yeah, that's a good point. It's all about balance, but I get it.
• 18:50
  Yeah, as a full-time athlete, it would be nice to have more time to recovery.
• 18:54
  But it's good to have that awareness that you might need this job as well.
• 19:00
  Are there sometimes people that come into the shop and they're like,
• 19:03
  oh, Carolyn Schiff? Yeah.
• 19:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is like, it started when I won Unbound after it.
• 19:12
  It started that some people, or my boyfriend was always like, yeah, she won Unbound.
• 19:18
  And I was always like, oh, don't say that. And then the people realize,
• 19:23
  oh, cool, we are buying in the shop from someone who is a real pro.
• 19:31
  But yeah, I mean, what a treat. I can't imagine walking to a shop and have you
• 19:35
  help me buy my bike. You know, what a treat. Yeah.
• 19:39
  But usually I don't want to that he tell people that for me it's easier if they don't know.
• 19:48
  Yeah, I get that. You're very humble. So I read that you did a lot of downhill training.
• 19:55
  Your downhill skills have been getting a lot of praise.
• 19:59
  What made you decide to focus on that side of the training? And what did you do to improve it?
• 20:05
  Yeah, it was last year when I was doing Santa Valle in Girona.
• 20:13
  I realized it was a really early race.
• 20:17
  And I realized that my downhill skills are not that good or not like the downhill
• 20:24
  skills of the girls who live in Girona.
• 20:27
  And that if I don't improve them, that they will drop me on the downhills.
• 20:34
  And that I will lose races in downhills.
• 20:38
  So I talked to Kenyon and told them that I have not the best downhill skills
• 20:46
  and that it's maybe good to work on that.
• 20:50
  And that was really crazy because immediately they were like,
• 20:54
  okay, we will organize the downhill training with you.
• 20:58
  We will get somebody who will teach you downhill.
• 21:03
  And yeah wait wait some weeks and
• 21:06
  we will do that wow i was like wow such a
• 21:08
  support i i did not expect expect
• 21:12
  that and then yeah we really made it
• 21:15
  and together with my teammate yada we had
• 21:18
  the best downhill coach from girona
• 21:21
  mate and yeah now
• 21:24
  we are also friends because it was such a
• 21:27
  good time and we booked him this year
• 21:31
  again and yeah he it
• 21:34
  was just just fun to to to go
• 21:37
  on the downhills in Girona with him and I yeah I started to to trust my bike
• 21:44
  also on gravel because on the road I was already a good downhiller I think but
• 21:51
  I did not I had the feeling on gravel was not there.
• 21:56
  And then I started to trust also the tires on gravel.
• 22:00
  And yeah, now it's really fun. Now in some races, I really think,
• 22:05
  okay, I wait for the downhills because that's where I'm good in and not so much in the uphills anymore.
• 22:13
  So maybe I need to train that again with the uphills.
• 22:17
  That's so funny. You know, I love when that happens, when we overcome a challenge
• 22:22
  and that becomes a strength. I also had a lot of fear going downhill,
• 22:27
  and I trained that over and over.
• 22:28
  And I remember, actually, a friend of mine, when I was starting,
• 22:32
  I was like, oh, I'm so afraid.
• 22:33
  I don't think I can, you know, she's like, just trust yourself,
• 22:36
  you know. And I was like, no, I don't think I can trust myself.
• 22:38
  And then she said, trust your tire then.
• 22:41
  And then that stuck with me. I'm like, I'm trusting my tire.
• 22:44
  And yeah, it's a good feeling to overcome. And then from fear,
• 22:50
  you start having fun. It's so good.
• 22:52
  Exactly. Exactly. Sometimes it's just like switching something in the head. Yeah.
• 22:58
  For me, it's always like that. It's also, for example, in cyclocross, jumping on my bike.
• 23:05
  I was struggling with this so many years. And one point, it was just like somebody
• 23:12
  switched something in my head, and then I was able to jump on my bike.
• 23:16
  And now I really enjoy that.
• 23:18
  And that's the same now with going downhill on gravel.
• 23:22
  Yeah. yeah yeah i
• 23:26
  i mean of course i'm not close to your
• 23:30
  level anyone's level but i really enjoy downhill and sometimes when i'm going
• 23:33
  downhill i see someone breaking like crazy and i'm like oh my gosh i'm so happy
• 23:37
  i'm not that person anymore yeah yeah it feels good to have fun and yeah and
• 23:44
  gravel isn't just about performance it's big it's become this culture community.
• 23:49
  Almost a movement how do
• 23:52
  you mentally prepare for events do you have any tools
• 23:55
  rituals mindset shift that
• 23:59
  you rely on usually i'm
• 24:03
  just excited to go to gravel events
• 24:06
  because i go there with with my crew
• 24:09
  from canyon and they are also like friends so
• 24:13
  i always say it's like going to holidays with
• 24:16
  my friends that's true going to yeah that's your
• 24:19
  job race yeah and i'm
• 24:22
  so yeah so happy that this is my job
• 24:25
  and yeah rituals yeah i i always have my pre-race program from my coach like
• 24:33
  always nearly the same so i i know what to do and yeah focusing on nutrition
• 24:41
  and relaxing, recovering.
• 24:44
  So that's what I usually do before a race.
• 24:48
  And then also like studying the course and preparing for what's coming on the course.
• 24:56
  And have you found any difference in the atmosphere between European gravel races and U.S.
• 25:02
  Events like Unbound, Big Sugar, to Traka?
• 25:07
  Yeah, in the U.S., Traka is also really like a big one.
• 25:14
  And yeah, there are so many fans and people who enjoy that.
• 25:18
  And that's the same in the U.S., I think. But we have some smaller gravel races
• 25:23
  here in Europe where there's not so much with fans and things like that.
• 25:30
  So in the U.S. you always have people there because they want to watch the race.
• 25:35
  And that was in 2023.
• 25:38
  It was really new for me that people just are like fans.
• 25:43
  In Europe, the great race were just we as racer, then the staff but no,
• 25:51
  spectators or no one who just wanted to watch the race so that's in the US it's
• 25:58
  more you have a lot of people also when I won Unbound there were people on the
• 26:04
  airport who were just like fans and I was like, what?
• 26:10
  Okay, I did not know that from Germany yeah
• 26:14
  that's true i haven't raced in the u.s but i
• 26:16
  come from triathlon and triathlon has a lot of expectations
• 26:20
  and it it's so helpful as
• 26:23
  an athlete when you are out there and someone sees the name on
• 26:25
  your number you know and it just
• 26:29
  gives such a like a boost or there are parts of
• 26:32
  course there are no expectations and then when they're and then when you see
• 26:34
  their expectations ahead you're just like okay i better
• 26:37
  start running or look a little bit more in form
• 26:40
  it helps yeah it helps to push yeah yeah
• 26:44
  and also in trucker there it is it's really big on the climbs there are people
• 26:51
  they screaming on you they know my name and they yeah they push you up the hill
• 26:58
  and that's so cool That's why I really love trucker. It's a great race.
• 27:04
  And women's gravel racing has exploded, and you have been part of this growth,
• 27:10
  both through performance and visibility.
• 27:13
  What's one change you would like to see in women's gravel racing in the next few years?
• 27:20
  Yeah, it would be great to see also girls, like children, that we have something like a development.
• 27:31
  On road, we have kids racing or kids races.
• 27:37
  That's true. Good point. They can develop into the race. and
• 27:40
  in gravel they just start with 25 or
• 27:44
  something like that because they come from yeah on
• 27:47
  in some cases they just started with cycling or
• 27:51
  in some cases they come from the road but not
• 27:54
  in gravel so i think it would be great if we have something
• 27:57
  like like kids league that would be
• 27:59
  cool because i think gravel is so
• 28:03
  so much more fun for kids like as
• 28:06
  a road because i think kids just would
• 28:09
  like to or just like to go yeah just
• 28:12
  shredding they just want to send it so yeah
• 28:16
  that's a great idea yeah nobody has i
• 28:19
  haven't heard anybody in the podcast when we talk about women and
• 28:22
  getting more women to sport talking about that so that's a
• 28:25
  yeah that would be a great initiative if we could have some yeah youth
• 28:29
  programs yeah and then we also get
• 28:33
  small small girls to
• 28:36
  gravel because i think most of the time
• 28:39
  they just don't think that they can can
• 28:42
  race it's just not in their mind i agree yeah a lot of people coming to gravel
• 28:49
  are people like you and me you know from road cycling or from triathlon or started
• 28:55
  biking somewhere and then heard about gravel and then coming to the scene yeah
• 28:58
  exactly and do you think gravel still has that adventure.
• 29:03
  Feeling, or do you think it has become too polished and commercial?
• 29:09
  I think it still has an adventure feeling because there are so many races somewhere
• 29:16
  where you just go because you want to go there, because it's a nice region.
• 29:23
  That's for me that I think, oh, this race looks nice. I've never been there before.
• 29:28
  So that's why I go there and not because there's big prize money or that it's good for sponsors.
• 29:35
  And I think that's still the case in gravel. For sure, it gets more and more
• 29:40
  commercial and every race also, you see it in Trucker.
• 29:45
  I mean, I did it now the third year in a row and for sure it gets more and more
• 29:51
  commercial and winning it or having a good race is always,
• 29:57
  yeah, it's always, yeah, gives you more also like money-wise.
• 30:02
  But I think they're still the adventure character.
• 30:07
  And I hope that it will be also the next years.
• 30:11
  I hope so, too. For me, the amateurs, the adventure likes.
• 30:16
  Yeah. I just have some quick hits now. What's your favorite training ride back home in Brahman?
• 30:24
  Yeah, I really like training, long training rides together with friends.
• 30:30
  But yeah I also really like hard interval sessions so both of that I can't decide
• 30:39
  so both is nice I think coming home after interval session you always feel like you have to.
• 30:47
  Really you really did your work that's
• 30:50
  true and having a great ride with your
• 30:53
  friends is nice for the soul so both
• 30:56
  is really great very I can relate
• 30:59
  more to the answer is like physical and you know and so emotional like both
• 31:04
  yeah yeah one piece of gear you can't race without uh my my more nutrition if
• 31:12
  they if this also count as a gear i think so,
• 31:17
  that became so elementary i think in racing and it developed so much over the
• 31:25
  last two years that when I started with racing on the road,
• 31:33
  nutrition was something you did not think about.
• 31:37
  And now it's such a big thing. So yeah, it's really helpful.
• 31:42
  You can have everything, the best equipment, the best training, the best form.
• 31:46
  And if you get your nutrition wrong, it might cost you the race. You are done.
• 31:52
  What's your pre-race breakfast? What's on the menu?
• 31:56
  Yeah, that's a good question because I still figure it out.
• 32:00
  I changed something this year because usually it was always oats.
• 32:06
  And I had a lot races because our gravel races always start so early.
• 32:13
  That's something I really don't enjoy.
• 32:16
  And then if you eat a big bowl of oats, it happened sometimes to me that I ate them twice.
• 32:27
  So that I felt really full during the race or in the beginning of the race.
• 32:35
  So I thought maybe changing that and then I went to eating just baguette with
• 32:42
  honey or something sweet.
• 32:46
  But this was also not ideal.
• 32:49
  So now I'm with rice. So I think that's perfect. So just rice with honey.
• 32:57
  Yeah, you don't feel so full during the first few hours of the race.
• 33:04
  But you have enough of cups.
• 33:07
  So, yeah, that's good. That sounds good. I'll try that.
• 33:10
  I love, rice is one of my favorite carb fuels and I like to cook sushi grain
• 33:16
  or rice pudding grain with coconut milk.
• 33:19
  Oh, sounds great. I like to, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm also, I really love rice.
• 33:24
  I always eat rice. My friends always also eat pasta but I'm always with rice.
• 33:30
  Yeah, I like rice better. It's just, it's a grain. It's much more natural.
• 33:33
  I mean pasta if it works for you great but it is processed unless you buy something
• 33:39
  fresh yeah usually it's yeah one race is still sorry what's one race that is
• 33:47
  still on your bucket list.
• 33:49
  Is there any? Sure. For example, this year and also last year,
• 33:56
  I followed Oregon, the stage race. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 34:00
  And this looks so cool. Yeah.
• 34:03
  And also, yeah, I think the people always call it like the holiday camp or something like that.
• 34:11
  Okay. So, yeah, it looks nice. And also the thing now with the stage races in
• 34:17
  gravel sounds really cool.
• 34:20
  I love stage races on the road.
• 34:22
  So I'm really excited to do it on gravel.
• 34:25
  So yeah, this would be something. I love stage races.
• 34:29
  It's really, really fun. Because then you just get to know people more because
• 34:33
  you're getting, you know, every night dinner with them.
• 34:36
  And you hang out a little bit more. It's a different experience.
• 34:39
  Yeah. And you share the emotions. And yeah, one person is not so good.
• 34:43
  The one day and the next day the other person
• 34:46
  is good and yeah yeah it's just just
• 34:49
  nice yeah and what's next for you i
• 34:52
  know unfortunately you took a tumble and
• 34:55
  you broke your collarbone had to go through another surgeon right you had to
• 34:58
  replace where was already a plate there yes so are you taking the entire season
• 35:04
  off do you know yeah i still not don't know yet how it is healing because as you said,
• 35:15
  I had a plate on the collarbone and it had to get removed and they needed to
• 35:22
  get some bone to fill it and to get a new plate so it's not so easy.
• 35:29
  So I really, really need to focus on recovering now and to give my body a lot
• 35:36
  of time so we will see how it goes.
• 35:41
  For me it can't go fast enough but I know that it's,
• 35:47
  I still want to race the next year, so I need to really heal that and make sure
• 35:53
  that my body is ready to perform again.
• 35:56
  And that's something I learned over the last years, that sometimes it's not
• 36:03
  about getting as fast as possible back on the bike, just getting as healthy
• 36:08
  as possible back on the bike.
• 36:11
  I mean, for me, it took some time that I learned that, but I think now I'm there.
• 36:18
  Good yeah we shouldn't be rushing the
• 36:21
  healing process because no it's just
• 36:24
  it could be a big step back if you rush it so yes
• 36:27
  that makes no sense but it's
• 36:30
  hard for people or for a person who always want to move and want to be outside
• 36:36
  and also my whole life is around cycling my friends are mostly cyclists so they
• 36:44
  enjoy the summer and I just join the afterwards the coffee.
• 36:50
  But yeah I do the best out of it,
• 36:54
  yeah I'm sure it's tough I'm sure it's tough and I really hope you have some
• 36:59
  tools that help you cope with this slower days ahead,
• 37:04
  and I want to thank you for joining me on Zone to Speak it's been such a pleasure
• 37:10
  hearing your journey and I really wish you a full and speedy recovery.
• 37:17
  Thank you. Thank you for having me. And yeah, we will see how it goes this season.
• 37:24
  Yeah, I can't wait to see you back on your bike and racing.
• 37:28
  Yeah, you're such an inspiration to many of us and I really hope you can get
• 37:33
  back on your bike, but do take your time to heal 100%. I will. Thank you. Thanks.
• 37:43
  And that's all for today's episode. I want to thank the listeners for tuning in.
• 37:48
  Your support means everything. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider
• 37:52
  following, leaving a review, and sharing it with your friends.
• 37:58
  Music.