EMILIA FAHLIN
F DJ- NOUVELLE A QUIT AI NE
I’m currently sat in Sweden, where it’s pitch black outside just after 4pm now we’ve switched over to wintertime, with a typical steady drizzle of rain. It’s a normal off-season day! It’s quite obvious the race season has gone by and finished. Every year it’s the same. The season can at times feel endlessly long, and you’re counting down the days until you get some downtime and a little break for the off season. But when it comes, it always feel like the spring was just around the corner, and it feels weird having a whole winter coming up and not weeks, but months away to the next race.
This year is no different, even though my year as a whole has been rather different than any other previously. First I had to delay my race start by a few weeks because of an early illness, but I came out having the best spring I’ve ever had. I’m normally more of a slow starter and also found that my body naturally responds better at other times of the year, rather than that early period. This was really a highlight of the year: experiencing the spring classics in good shape, actually getting to enjoy contesting for the win in the races I’ve always had a special love for. But also the new experience of dealing with the pressure of doing so as the team captain. It was definitely a big few months, and I was really spent both physically and mentally when I closed out my spring, but also so hungry for more. I’m already looking forward to next year knowing with confidence what I was capable of and which races I want to target.
Then the incident which changed my year drastically happened. I had a big crash in training where my head took all the impact. At first I thought it would just change my next couple of weeks, and I had to re-adjust some of my first goals of the year, which by then felt quite hard.
I had no idea it would have me out basically all season, but also on a personal level it was one of the toughest periods I’ve ever gone through.
Now I’m back to where the concussion symptoms are actually manageable, I can look back to an end of the season where I took a somewhat crazy 15th place at the Worlds road race, and a ninth place in the last WorldTour race of the year in China. Not did it only prove to me something very important for the winter but I also managed to get enough points to qualify Sweden one place at the Olympics next year in Tokyo.
Thanks for following along my rather bumpy journey, and after a rollercoaster of a year I am happy I can close it on a way more positive note, looking with more excitement to next year!
I had to delay my race start by a few weeks because of an early illness, but I came out having the best spring I’ve ever had