"... I only have to ride my bike"

Mountain bike shooting star Elisabeth Osl collected her first World Cup victory in South Africa and thus managed her ultimate world-class breakthrough. In an interview the 23-year-old Austrian talks about her athletic development, her goals – and why being quick on her bike is not only an advantage in races.

Congratulations on your great start to the season! With your strong fifth places in Offenburg and Houffalize, you impressively underlined your first World Cup victory in Pietermaritzburg. What has made this season so fantastic for you?

Well, firstly, I have a great team behind me, which takes wonderful care of me. Secondly, I changed my coach before the season started. We optimized my training and changed it a little. It looks like that worked!

You mainly changed your weight training, increasing it in comparison to your basic training. Does the secret to your cross country success lie in this training ratio?

Whether I can really say that, I don’t know. Every athlete is different and reacts to training differently. But the increased weight training definitely had something to do with my success. In preparation we concentrated mainly on intensive training on the bike.

The next World Cup event is taking place in May in Madrid. The course there doesn’t suit you that well, why?

The course in Madrid is not ‘hilly’ enough for me. There aren’t any long uphill slopes and generally it’s quite flat. I prefer technically challenging circuits more; what I’m generally used to.

You expected a great deal from your change to the Ghost Pro Team. What improved your development there?

The whole package. The atmosphere is great, the team support is absolutely professional and the material is first class – my bike weighs 7.6 kilos! Being in this team frees up my head and I only have to ride the bike. Everything is organized for me; I don’t have to worry about my bicycle at all. It used to be different. Now I can fully concentrate on the competitions.

Before the season started you set your goal to establish yourself among the top ten women in the World Cup. Now you’re competing for the top placings. What do you dream of when you fall into bed after training?

Of course I could always have bigger dreams, but my goals stay the same. Nothing is going to change there. The competition among the women in the mountain bike World Cup us so strong that at least 10 riders could make it onto the podium. So my goal is still to establish myself among the top riders.

In South Africa it became clear that being in top form is not only handy in the race …

You could say that. I was riding home from training and two men were secretly following me. Suddenly I heard leaves rustling behind me. I found that strange. When I turned around, both men tried to grab at my bike. Well, I really put my foot down and managed to get away. They called after me that they’d come after my bike the next day. The whole incident didn’t make me feel that good, but at least nothing happened.