[Sport] Rachel Atherton: Five-time champion aims to return stronger

[_Happy boy]

 

Five-time downhill world champion Rachel Atherton says she is determined to return to the top of the mountain biking world.

The 32-year-old has not raced since tearing her Achilles tendon in July 2019 while preparing for the World Cup in Les Gets, France.

She was due to return at last months' World Championships in Austria but was forced to withdraw due to the injury.

"It's frustrating," Atherton told BBC Sport Wales.

"But I'm motivated to overcome the injury, keep pushing, and hopefully get back to the top step in the near future," added the most successful British athlete in the history of the sport.

"I'm still not 100 percent fit. I'm missing World Cups that are happening this year so it's quite upsetting but on the other I want to really push myself and to get better enough that I can be back racing."

Atherton, who was injured 16 months ago, had her sights set on winning a sixth World title in Leogang but was forced to accept she was not yet ready to return to elite racing.

She will not race at all this year but has targeted a competitive return before the 2021 race season and is aiming to add to her record 39 World Cup victories.

"I'm definitely one of the older racers and I've been racing World Cups for so long now - I won my first one in 2006 so it's a long time to be racing," said the mid-Wales based rider.

"But it's pretty exciting to have to hold your own, and I've had such success, and everyone kind of is aiming at me and I know that everyone's looking to beat me and I've got a target on my back.

"On the one hand it is daunting but on the other hand, it is exciting and motivating to try and want to prove something to the young girls I suppose."

Following surgery Atherton spent three months on crutches but did initially hope to be back racing early this year before the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to her plans to return.

"I just started getting back into the gym and then the lockdown came in and all the gyms were closed and the facilities were closed and it just meant that a hard job was much harder anyway.

"Recovering from an injury is hard but with the lockdown and everything going on this year it's even more difficult so motivation has been hard to find at times."

Since injury Atherton has focused her energy on her own bike brand - Atherton Bikes - which was established in 2019 with her brothers Dan and Gee who are also elite riders.

"The injury took me out of not only the racing but developing the bikes and that was a really bitter pill to swallow because we were really involved with the development," Atherton explained.

"We are really putting what we learned on the racetrack into the bikes.

"It's important to have other things to keep pushing you and to keep motivating you and Atherton bikes is exactly that for me so I'm definitely going to keep pushing and keep trying to get back to the races and show people what the bike can do."