Last weekend, Rachel Atherton took the win at the first round of the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill in Lenzerheide. Her win, with a time of three minutes 7.514 seconds, helped her bag her 40th UCI MTB World Cup victory.
“I just actually can’t believe it, it hasn’t really sunk in,” Atherton said after the race. “You get so fired up and then it’s three minutes and it’s over. Coming into this I didn’t know if I would qualify, yesterday [qualification] was mind-blowing. I was like: ‘Woah!’ And this new format is so hard, doing semi-finals, you’ve got to save some energy. It’s mental, oh my gosh!”
Rachel Atherton on her way to her first UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup win since 2019 pic.twitter.com/S0PFtvVmdj
— UCI Mountain Bike World Series (@MTBworldseries) June 10, 2023
Despite being a six-time world title champion, Atherton's win has come as a great surprise to the mountain biking world. She had not raced since 2019 due to an Achilles tendon injury and has a 21-month-old daughter, Arna.
Race commentator Cedric Gracia called Atherton “the fastest mum in the world”, during the race. After the race, she even went straight to feed her daughter. “People said, 'Leave her at home and come out and focus on yourself,' but having her here helps me relax and takes your mind off it,” Atherton said after the race.
Rachel Atherton claims her 40th UCI Downhill World Cup win in Lenzerheide!🏆
Dubbed "The fastest mum on wheels", by commentator Cedric Gracia. Atherton has raced just once since 2019 after rupturing her achilles and the birth of her daughter in 2021.
[via IG rachybox] pic.twitter.com/OIqPhdi7NZ— the female athlete project (@femathproject) June 12, 2023
"I feel a bit of a responsibility to race and to show that you can have a baby and still do sport," she added, while admitting that racing as a mum does bring new pressures. “If you get hurt, you can't just kick back at home until you're fixed… I'd have to carry on being a mum and feeding her and all the stuff that it entails… I think you just need to be more calculated and a bit more clever; rather than going fast, you've got to find different ways to be fast.”
Atherton is determined to defend her leader’s jersey in round 2 of the 2023 Downhill World Cup at Leogang this weekend.
