October 21/18 18:16 pm - Rochette 6th at World Cup #3 - Interview

Posted by Editoress on 10/21/18
 

Maghalie Rochette (Clif Pro Team) had one of the strongest performances of her career on Sunday at Round 3 of the Cyclo-cross World Cup in Bern, Switzerland, finishing sixth in Elite women, only 21 seconds off the podium. After not finishing the first round and finishing ninth in the second, Rochette sits 15th in the overall standings.

Maghalie spoke with us after her race:

That World Cup was not originally on my calendar. We decided to come about 10 days ago, and that decision was based on the fact that I did not finish the first World Cup in Waterloo due to illness. I think it ended up being a great decision to come ... Switzerland is truly beautiful and I really enjoyed the couple of days we had here.

As far as the race goes, I wasn't too sure how my fitness was going to be. I have been sick a lot in the past month ... I kept catching one thing after the other. And so I did not train as much as I usually do, which was a bit stressful for me. But David (my partner, coach, and mechanic) reminded me many times to trust the fitness I had and that it was better to be healthy than fit. So I rested a lot, but we still managed a few key training sessions last week and this week.

The race went well! I had a good start, but at the first few corners, I was quickly reminded how aggressive you have to be when racing World Cups. I lost about 10-15 spots in 20 seconds ... But then I was more aggressive and did some good passes, moving up lap after lap. I felt surprisingly good in this very dry, very fast course that required a lot of power. In the end, I got sixth. At some point I attacked the little group for fourth place, but I made a mistake shortly afterwards and they caught me. Oh well, maybe next time!

I'm pretty happy with that! It's the best I could do on the day, so that's all you can ask for. :)

Now, I'm going out to a traditional Swiss restaurant with my dad and boyfriend to eat some cheese fondue. I really love cheese, so I'm excited to try that! I think it's a must to experience a bit of the culture when travelling, so it should be fun. We are flying back to Canada tomorrow and my next races will be the Pan Am Champs at SilverGoose and then Nationals in Peterborough. Hope to see many of the Canadians fans there!

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