Respecting your limits

Looking forward! After slugging through to the finish line of my lowest World Cup result since 2007 I found a nice piece of grass to collapse on and contemplate what the heck had just happened out there. How had I gone from racing to win, to just trying to finish? My manager, Waldek, worried came over. He picked up my bike and spun the wheels. I laughed. I had already checked that. My brakes weren’t dragging, just my body. I pride myself on my consistency, I have finished in the top 3 of the World Cup overall since 2008 and top 5 in 75% of the World cups I have done. When I’m off I can usually still piece together a decent ride, but after 3 laps of trying to hold wheels in Windham my dig was gone and I was just trying to turn my legs over. (If the race had been all downhill though I would have been on fire!) As with any performance it is never just one thing that leads to having a good race and never just one thing that leads to a bad one. Typically if you have t