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Rachel Atherton to race at Leogang in the second round of the UCI Downhill World Cup
“The World’s fastest Mum” who took her 40th World Cup at Round 1 in Lenzerheide will take to the track again this weekend in Leogang.
Rachel admits that her victory hasn’t yet sunk in saying that the last 72 hours have been completely surreal.
Initial plans were that she would spend a couple of days in Lenzerheide on a family holiday before returning home to Wales to focus on her fitness prior to August’s World Championships at Fort William this August but the temptation to race again proved too strong!
Rachel acknowledges that she isn’t yet racing on top form and that two weekends back to back racing will be tough. She said:
I don’t want to be stupid and take risks, racing back to back is hard enough when you’re fully fit and strong and I don’t want to get hurt, I have a baby to take care of.
But spending time with the Continental Atherton race team and on board the bike that she co-designed with her two brothers is proving too much fun to resist.
I’m loving my time with the team, being a racer again, and riding the Atherton bike, showing the world just how great this bike rides and seeing my team-mates Andreas and Charlie doing so well – we talked about it all day Sunday, weighing up the pros and cons, trying to decide WHY I’m doing this. Part of me wants to stop now, no more racing, my last race a win, that was always the dream, but now I’m here I don’t want to stop…so it is decided.. I will go and race at Leogang and just see what happens.
A small part of me wishes I didn’t win, because I don’t want any more pressure, I don’t want people to expect me to win or to go well again, I just want to race and ride and be there!
Rachel’s 40th World Cup win means that she is within one victory of equalling Anne Caro Chausson’s record for the most Downhill wins ever.
For the full schedule and more information on this week’s races click here.
This weekend’s action will be available to view on Eurosport.com, discovery+ and globally on GCN+.