Last day of the UCI World Championships in Les Gets and another great result for Slovenian team and Tanja Žakelj! She was 16th on the today’s elite women XCO race!!
The fans didn’t disappoint and created another day of amazing atmosphere in Les Gets, which made the whole event even better. The women’s race didn’t disappoint as well, it was even more intense than we expected, especially from the start. It was a proper WCH race, with strong competition and high pace, something that Tanja is used to. She just struggled with the pace in the first lap, then the took the control of her faith and showed superb racing. The fans were happy as well… why wouldn’t they be, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won her second rainbow jersey on this champs.
We of course followed Tanja more closely and it was pure pleasure to watch her overtake many of the riders and cross the finish line just behind top-15. Tanja after the race: “16th place on the World Champs is a very nice result. I’m very happy with it, especially since I didn’t fell at 100%. I was out of my rhythm in the first lap; I know that we’re not holding back on the races, but I’m again and again surprised by the fast pace. Like we would only have one lap. But luckily the pace came down after that and I saw that I can ride with the others. Maybe I lost couple of places in the first lap, but that didn’t distracted me and I focused on myself. I was riding on my own pace, my goal was to have a smooth race without any mistakes. I only did one mistake in the last lap, but that only costed me a couple of seconds. I’m really happy with the race, this was a successful finish of the tour with the Slovenian national team. I still have one important race ahead in the team jersey.”
Tanja had three back-to-back race weekends for the national team. She won UCI HC race in Turkey, then took 12thplace on the European champs in Munich and today added to success in Les Gets. Well done Tanja!
We’re now heading towards Val di Sole, for the World Cup finals.
Photo credits: Grega Stopar
