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What can American biking study from Jennifer Valente’s journey from junior rider to Olympic champion?
An extended and profitable profession in biking ought to have its basis in enjoyable.
“Not having such a aggressive atmosphere from the start modified my outlook on sport, and what it might imply,” Valente informed VeloNews. “The neighborhood, and making it enjoyable. It appears like a cliché, of ‘Oh, don’t neglect to have enjoyable.’ Chasing an Olympic medal or an Olympic dream is such a traumatic and taxing factor to do this for those who don’t have that basis of having fun with some a part of it, and discovering the nice issues, it’s onerous to proceed.”
Valente, 26, is our visitor on subsequent week’s episode of The VeloNews Podcast, the place she is going to take us contained in the thrilling moments of her current Olympic title within the Omnium occasion. In profitable the race Valente turned the primary U.S. girl in historical past to win an Olympic title in monitor biking. She etched her identify in U.S. biking historical past with the win.
After profitable the Scratch Race, the opening occasion of the Olympic Omnium, Valente rode good and picked up races within the Elimination and Tempo races, positioned her into the pole place for the Factors Race. Not even a crash on the race’s midpoint might derail her effort, and he or she collected sufficient factors through the occasion to take the Olympic title.
After the race Valente sat on the monitor and soaked within the second, tears of pleasure streaming down her face as she draped a U.S. flag on her shoulders.
“Main the Omnium from the primary race your thoughts frequently jumps to the top, and it’s a must to frequently carry it again to the second,” Valente stated. “Again to the second. What am I doing? What’s happening proper now. Not letting my thoughts wanter to the top. And once I completed and knew I had received, it hadn’t actually set in. After which it was extraordinarily overwhelming.”
Lengthy earlier than she was an Olympian, nevertheless, Valente was a young person from San Diego who caught the biking bug as a child. On Thursday she mentioned her upbringing within the San Diego biking neighborhood, the place she was an everyday on the Wednesday group experience via Camp Pendleton, the Thursday evening races on Fiesta Island, and a stalwart on the San Diego Velodrome. Valente stated she laid the inspiration for her future skilled profession inside the neighborhood, and it was the coaches and fellow racers who helped her domesticate a ardour for biking that took her all the way in which to the Olympics.
“Actually studying the entire technique of issues. Racing all types of various races domestically — factors races, sprinting, Kerins, scratch races, and random stuff that occurs at native veldromes like snowball races and win-and-outs — in addition to studying to work in your bike and the gearing and what it feels wish to experience totally different gears, and to motor tempo. These had been all a part of the journey and all of it contribute to the gathering of information. Whether or not you notice if it impacts something — I believe it does.”
You possibly can hear extra from Valente in subsequent week’s episode if The VeloNews Podcast.
