Amber Neben showed that she is back to her old form this year after two seasons plagued by injury, most recently coming second in the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, third in the US National Championship time trial and fourth in the road race. It's a relief for the 40-year-old, whose dramatic crash in the 2013 Tour of California time trial broke her hip and required intensive physical therapy to get her back to top speed.
"It's just fun to be racing and to be in the mix, to be able to play again," Neben told Cyclingnews in Winston-Salem, where she was second in a two-up breakaway with Belarus champion Alena Amialiusik. "I feel really good and really strong. It's just fun being a bike racer again."
Neben, a two-time Olympian and the 2008 UCI time trial world champion, seemed to be coming back from her 2013 crash last year, winning the San Dimas Stage Race and sitting second overall on the final stage of the Joe Martin Stage Race last April when disaster struck in the criterium. "It was a freak thing, I was second around the bottom corner and Jasmin [Glaesser] slid out and I almost held it up, but then I ended up landing on the curb," she said. "I just hit it just right" - the impact broke her tailbone, and set her back once again. She missed the National Championship road race after suffering through the time trial for 11th place, and selection for the 2014 World Championships was out of the question.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I tried to stay positive and keep pursuing the big picture goal," she said. "I had a really good winter - finally. That was the biggest thing. I took five weeks off and just walked." She also underwent intensive physical therapy to get all of the muscles in her hips and glutes working again, and the process paid off in spades. Finally able to pedal and put out power, she had a strong winter of training and began churning out results immediately this season, winning in San Dimas, coming second to Mara Abbott in Redlands, taking third at Joe Martin before landing on the podium at the National Championships.
"My body feels really good, better than it's felt in a long time, and my training has gone really well. It's like, wow - I feel like I'm putting out power better than I've ever put out before, and I'm old!", she laughed. "I'm having fun with it."
Neben is looking down the road to Rio in 2016, which will likely be her final chance for Olympic glory, but unlike national champions Kirstin Armstrong and Megan Guarnier, Pan American champion Carmen Small and medallist Coryn RIvera, who have already earned automatic bids, Neben has to earn a so-called discretionary pick for Richmond, which is a required stepping stone for Rio. The USA looks set to earn a maximum seven spots for the road race.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1I6Z4zp
No comments:
Post a Comment