Stirnemann delighted with her winning 2014 season
Newly crowned eliminator world champion adds to her already full palmares
For Switzerland's Kathrin Stirnemann, winning the elite women's eliminator race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on Tuesday evening in Lillehammer, Norway was a dream come true.
"It's been the perfect season," she said. "I won everything I could: the Swiss championship, the European championship, the World Cup overall and now Worlds. It's unbelievable - I have no words."
Stirnemann said she woke up feeling like it would be a good day, but her eliminator qualifying didn't go that smoothly.
"Today I struggled a bit in the qualifying because it was the first time I did the track at race pace. All the roots and turns came too quickly for me, so I lost time in the technical sections."
She didn't let that faze her though, and she applied all her experience from winning so many races already this year.
"In the heats, I tried to save energy as much as possible, and it worked out," she said. "I think it's important to keep your mind cool in the eliminator. You always need to have different lines in response to whatever the other riders do. You have to decide quickly sometimes in the midst of the race."
Stirnemann will race the elite women's cross country mountain bike world championship on Saturday.
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"I'm plate number 6, so will be on front row at the start in the cross country," she said. "Last year I was seventh, and I will try my best. I definitely want to go for a top 10."
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.