Mona Mitterwallner has blown two massive holes in the theory that Cross-country Marathon is for older riders.
The 21-year-old took her second World Championship title in Scotland earlier this month after taking her first aged just 19.
And the Cannondale Factory Racing star from the Tyröl region of the Austrian Alps reckons that every racer should give the long-distance format a go.
I think to every rider who asks me ‘should I do a marathon or not?’ I would say yes 100%,” she says.
A marathon is where you really have to feel yourself, you have to have a good body feeling. Do I go too fast now? Or can I hold the pace?
It's really like you have to be one with your body if you want to succeed.
So yeah, I mean it always depends what is your goal. For me it's winning and everything but for another person it's maybe just having that feeling of being in the flow with your bike.
I love to do long hours in the saddle, I mean there’s nothing I love more. So in the end I'm just doing what I love.
Mitterwallner, who is currently sitting in fourth in the overall Cross-country Olympic rankings after winning her debut elite World Cup in Andorra, admits that the World Championship race in the Tweed Valley was one of her biggest challenges to date.
The Cannondale rider is a Whoop-sponsored athlete and uses the wristband and app to closely track her condition, recovery and sleep.
After the 96-km epic, the Whoop revealed she’d used 4,168 calories during the race and that the strain on her body during the day had been 20.7 out of a possible 21.
It was a tough one, I mean it was the longest race I've ever done, she says.
It was over five hours of racing you feel every ten minutes I would say. So the beginning was I would say not slow but we were just pacing, we were just riding and seeing who put her to pace and because you can't really go all out from start to finish.
And then the course was great. I mean this Scottish terrain and the hills and the mountains and the views, I mean I really loved to race there and also the tracks were super fun and we were so lucky with the weather, it just rained in the last half hour where I got proper frozen.
I think after three hours I just tested everyone's legs and then I saw two other girls who can go with me maybe in the climbs and then in the down I said okay I let go of the brakes and suddenly I had a gap of 30 seconds and I said okay now I keep going I won't wait.
In the end Mitterwallner crossed the finish line with almost a minute’s gap to South African Candice Lill who took silver, while Germany’s Adelheid Morath was some 10 minutes back in third.
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