Rachel Atherton will defend her Leader's Jersey at Leogang,
2023 Downhill World Cup Round 2
June 13th, 2023
“The World’s fastest Mum” who took her 40th World Cup at Round1 Lenzerheide will take to the track again next weekend at Leogang.
Rachel admits that her victory still hasn’t 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 train and regroup in order to maximise her fitness for World Champs 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 Arna to think about”
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, riding the AM.200.M, showing the world just how great this bike rides and seeing Andi 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 I’m here I don’t want to stop… and my mum has agreed to stay with us and look after Aran for another week 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…
