Everyday when I wake up and walk out of my room I see this World Champion jersey hanging on the side of my wardrobe. The white jersey with the colorful stripes are jumping straight in my eyes. Sadly it isn’t mine it’s Carolines‘. Caroline Buchanan the 3 times 4X World champ / 2 times BMX World champ and good friend of mine hanged it there. It was a gift from her for helping her out during her overseas time. I had never touched the jersey since. I just always looked at it and thought how great it would be if it would be actually mine.
And then 5 weeks ago I tried it on just to see how it looks and it looked and felt great. It totally gave me a motivation boost and I trained my a… off the last weeks. I thought „Helene you won the 4X overall two years in the row why not the World Champs, so train hard otherwise you will never know !“
The last weeks were not a easy I have to be honest. I pushed myself definitely over my limits and few jumps scared me a lot but I wanted to be as best as possible prepared for the pro Line in Val di Sole. I also worked with someone new together, a BMX/4 trainer from Czech Republic, who helped me a lot.
So the 21th August came closer and closer and because I am also just a human being and not a machine I got sick on Tuesday and had to take antibiotic. I guess because I trained so much and knew I would have a good chance for the title I was so nervous. I could hardly eat something and I could not sleep well. Afterwards a shame – because it cost me a lot energy- actually for nothing.
Because as soon as I stood in the gate I was so focused and my nervousness simply vanished and I just wanted to race and do my best.
My first heat went fine. My second heat, the important one to advance to the finals started well and ended bad. I had a great start and cut off Steffi Marth, but somehow I let it a little bit to open and she squeezed back in. Until the finish we battled hard but she advanced and I was out and so had no chance for the World Title anymore. For a short moment I was very angry about my stupid mistake, but that’s 4X and it doesn’t matter what plan or tactic you have in your mind you can be never sure about it when 3 others are next to you.
In the small final I raced against Romana Laboukova (CZE), who was also very strong gold medal contender, and I placed behind her in the 6th spot.
The final woman result:
1 Anneke Beerten (NED)
2 Lucia Oetjen (SUI)
3 Steffi Marth (GER)
To sum it up the 6th place wasn’t what I came for but I have to pick the things out I can be proud of and learn from them which I did wrong.
My next stop is now the Eurobike. See some of you there 🙂
Thanks to my FeChri,Florian Gärtner and Christian Donner for the pictures. Thanks to the mechanic Partick, my work colleague and friend, for helping me out and Jan for beeing my coach.
Thanks to my sponsors.
World Champs Val di Sole 2015
