2014 must have been my best cycling year so far. I left for Euros with an ambition to win gold medals. My first race was the 200m tt for my sprint qualification which ended with a 4th place. I was not happy but I qualified and that was good. The further we got in the tournament, the harder it got.
Starting semifinals against the Russian Tatyana Kiseleva was a challenge. A challenge I lost. I had to ride for Bronze (and that was a MAJOR disappointment for me!!). I eventually ended up with a bronze medal on the first discipline, Sprint. Knowing everything could still happen.
The last day started at 6 AM. On that day I only had one more chance to win a Gold medal.
I got on the rollers and my legs felt bad. So bad, I thought I wouldn’t even qualify but I moved on and tried to think about anything but my legs.
Round 1 went very smooth ending with a 2nd place. I only had to survive 1 more round to get into finals and I did. I survived round 2 with a 1st place.
There and then I set my hopes up again for a gold medal because I was riding my last junior european championships ride for gold.
On my own, listening to The Foo Fighters and pedalling easy I rode back to the track. Until that moment, the start shot fired, I had no nerves. Until that moment I was too much in the zone of thinking about spinning my legs around.
The shot was given and we left. Nerves all over my body (and while I’m writing this, I get that exact same feeling). 6 girls, 6 possible European Keirin champions. The speed of the motorbike got faster and so did we. 2 and a half laps before the end, the motorbike left. Everybody was looking at each other to see who was going first. They started putting on a hard pace at 2 laps from the end but the only thing I was doing was singing a song in my head: ‘we own this’. The themesong from Fast and Furious movie 6. Telling myself that I could own this moment and I went for it. Pushing all the power out of my legs as hard and as fast as I could!
Before I knew I was over the finish line. I won. I was European champion and I could not believe it!
I had never been more proud of myself not knowing what was still to come 1month later.
Nicky Degrendele 