PRO RIDER’S VIEW Riding the self-determined way
Reigning esports Cycling World Champion Ashleigh Moolman proactively uses the three pillars to stay motivated and focused on her performance.
“My best performances always come from a scenario where, within the race, I feel that I have been really well supported by my team,” says Moolman, “that they have worked so hard to make sure I am in the best position to win. Then, when it comes to going for the win, you just have the ability to dig so much deeper because you’ve been surrounded by all these people who have believed in you, who have worked for you.”
When it comes to mastery, Moolman says she is a numbers person. “I studied engineering and I have an analytical mindset. I like to look at my numbers, I like to go back through them and see what my power was – did
I hit the target, am I making good progress? When I first started cycling, I was always earmarked as a climber... In my first year [at the Giro] I finished 18th, which was pretty good at my first ever Grand Tour, and as the years went by my performance improved from 13th to 10th to ninth to eighth to fifth and then second. Seeing that improvement helps to motivate me to keep going and to know I’m on the right path.”
To maintain her sense of autonomy, Moolman focuses on controlling the controllables. “There is always going to be adversity in cycling, even if you have made all the right choices, but when you are surrounded by all these people who believe in you and everything you can control is perfect, it empowers you to handle all the things that go wrong.”