“Don’t be so hard on yourself” A sentence I have heard many times in my life, not only in sport but also in professional and personal circumstances. High expectations are something I also carried in my day to day life. In a way I believed it made people reach for the stars and in my […]
Dreaming of a White Christmas and many off road adventures
It is that time of the year again where the Christmas spirit takes over and even the most serious of individuals become cynically interested in the festive season. Houses, trees and streets are covered with decorations and pretty Christmas lights whilst the songs “Fairytail of New York” by The Pogues and “All I want for Xmas is you” […]
Cingles Du Ventoux : A bucketlist experience
I am a big believer in making your own luck, I often get a bit agitated when people look at me and the way I live my life and say “you are so lucky” little do they know about the battles I had to fight on my journey. The last 12 months however I slightly altered […]
XTERRA UK : Cold, Wet and very English
After a short 3 weeks in Australia, in which I squeezed in racing another MTB Marathon I found myself back on a plane to the UK. Packed to the max with bike and hand luggage involving everything I needed for the next month or so. What happened to my off season?? A little tired I […]
XTERRA Czech and Germany : An Eastern European Adventure
While I was supposed to get ready and packed to jump on a plane back to Australia, I found myself fitting in training sessions whilst visiting friends and family in Holland. I was (easily) convinced by my fellow Xterra competitors to race two more races which were held back to back in East Germany and Czech […]
The Montafon 2013 : A family reunion whilst racing the Austrian Alps
When I set foot in Switzerland on the 19th June, I hadn’t been in Europe for over 6 years, I was meeting close friends and family I hadn’t seen for 10-15 years. My reasons for my trip to Europe were mainly sport related and I hadn’t really given it much thought that I was going to travel […]
Nienke’s Euro Bog: Xterra Italy
Xterra Italy : Happy Faces Smash Races I had another unpleasant experience on the trains after Xterra France. exhausted from the race I dragged my bike and luggage through 3 different countries hopping on and off trains for 8hrs, speaking bad French, bad German and in the end bad English, only to find the car […]
Nienke’s Euro Blog: Xterra France – A Charbonniers Charm
I endured a little hiccup on the train in Switzerland where I was oblivious to the fact that there are trains where bike’s are forbidden and almost ended up with 150 Euro fine and a night in jail! I confused the guard by telling them I was from Australia but presenting a Dutch passport. The […]
Nienke’s Euro Blog: Racing Xterra Switzerland
Many thoughts can take over your mind when preparing for a big race, I believe female athletes might be slightly more extreme in falling into this negative spiral of doubts. “Am I good enough, did I train hard enough, do I belong here, do I look fit enough, will I get smashed, what if I […]
Final Preparation : The Shimano GP 4 at Ourimbah
It’s time to pack. It’s time to let all last month’s efforts sink in. It’s time to get on a plane, to go to Europe and face the music. It’s time to believe. It’s time to race. I have worked extremely hard the last month, on my swimming, my riding, my running. I have been […]