Rachel Atherton: The Fastest Mum in the World | UCI Mountain Bike World Series

The unstoppable Rachel Atherton opened up the 2023 Downhill World Cup season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland with her 40th career win after three years away from World Cup racing to start a family with the birth of her daughter.

We caught up with Rachel in Leogang after her incredible win to understand the journey she has been through the last few years and just what it meant securing the 40th career win in her return to racing.

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Rachel afan the fastest mom in the world on track 39 UCI World Cup wins to her name and she dearly led to make it a nice round for cross the [Applause] line I felt like I slotted straight back into it you know I love racing and I I

Take it so seriously and that’s that seems to be just naturally what I can do you know I I guess I’ve done it for so many years it it literally felt like I’d never been away it was mad the family right there and her daughter I love having a kid and

Having a baby and it’s awesome but it’s really hard just suddenly stepping away from that focus and that dedication to to being a racer and to pushing yourself and getting the best out of yourself and I found it really hard to not have a

Goal you know and a focus so I knew I wanted to do some races this year for sure and I could couldn’t commit myself to training properly until I was getting more sleep and really she’s been sleeping better for a few months and I started

Training so hard to get bit I want to be strong I’m fed up of having a bad back you know I’m fed up of feeling rubbish I’ve rid like once down a bite since before Christmas it’s so fun I literally can’t believe how fun it is I’ve been training

For about two months I live at w bike park and I ride there every single weekend two three days a week and that is that has got to be you know good for you laping the bike park all day she can’t beat richel affer half a second

Back afer can’t believe it there’s win number 40 I just can’t believe it it’s mental oh my gosh Le gang’s next week and I just I’m so exhausted if I have a trio of wins I also have about five injuries here I like it here but it never I feel like it

Never really goes my way it’s a weird track cuz it’s a lot of fast bike park stuff and then some narly technical I’ve never ridden these new bottom woods so I was really stoked to see that in real life this track is one minute longer than last weekend so for me it’s not

Ideal just get slower and slower as the track gets longer and longer so I’m not sure what the tactic is this weekend but I I just know that uh I just want to have a solid run and not get hurt that’s the main thing for me this year the the

Goal is not to win World Champs but that’s the goal I know I got a solid few months of training before that so I can be a lot stronger and fitter and now I’ve won last weekend I don’t really know I guess I’m just yeah I’m just here

To to have fun still like I really missed it been at home and been a new mom it’s it’s so different you know it could not be more different to this adrenaline fueled kind of extreme testosterone driven lifestyle and it’s basically like an awesome holiday with a

Bit of hard work in between Jo [Applause] after