About me
Mathematician & Cyclist
Born and raised in Austria
Living in Switzerland since 2017
Minimalist, introvert, attracted by the uncommon
Tokyo 2021 Olympic Gold Medal
Me, my brother and my sister
I grew up in Niederkreuzstetten, a small village near Vienna. As a child I loved playing outdoors and for many years the bike was nothing more than a means of transport. I took up competitive sports much later during my maths studies in Vienna, first running and triathlon, then hobby cycling events (granfondos). I fell in love with the mental and physical challenge of endurance events, the joy and satisfaction of pushing body and mind to the limit. I got into elite road racing during my PhD in Spain and won my first UCI race in 2016, the same year in which I completed my PhD.
Most people visiting this website probably know me for my victory at the 2021 Olympic road race in Tokyo, which had been the main focus of my training in 2019 and 2020. But actually it was just the tip of the iceberg of many, many years of endurance training alongside my academic career.
Below you can see some pictures of my journey from hobby cyclist to internationally competitive athlete (prior to 2021) and further underneath a short CV of my cycling and mathematical “lives”.
Glocknerkönig 2014
Leader at a local road race 2015
First UCI race with Catalan federation (Durango 2016)
Copa de España 2016
First UCI win at Tour de l'Ardèche 2016
Team Lotto Soudal 2017
Tour de l'Ardèche 2020
World Championships 2020
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Cyclist
2010-2013: Running, duathlon, triathlon.
2014-2015: Granfondos (long and mountainous cycling races in the Alps). First power meter and start of structured training
2016: First Elite road races at a national level in Spain. Overall podium at Tour de l’Ardèche (mountainous UCI stage race). Stage win on top of Mt Ventoux.
2017: Pro contract with Lotto-Soudal. Lots of DNFs and burnout.
2018: Back to granfondos (e.g. Tour Transalp, Ötztaler).
2019: Time-trial year: Built my first proper TT bike in the winter. 5th place European TT Championships. Double National Champion road & TT.
2020: GC podium at Tour de l’Ardèche. National Champion TT & hill climb.
2021: Olympic road race Champion2023-2024: Pro cyclist for the World Tour Team Roland
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Mathematician
2008-2011: Bachelor studies in maths and physics at TU Vienna, Austria
2011-2012: Master in Pure Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, UK.
2012-2016: PhD at UPC (Barcelona). Thesis: Integrable systems on b-symplectic manifolds.
2017-2021: Scientific collaborator at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland). Teaching various undergrad courses; research in partial differential equations in particular well-posedness of certain nonlinear wave equations.For those really interested in my research, read more here:
Publications (link)
Thank you
I come across as a lonely fighter. Leading up to the Olympics I didn’t have a professional cycling team, no coach, no nutritionist, nobody to decide on equipment and race strategy for me. But this doesn’t mean that I did it all on my own. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, I do like to have the final say myself, but in order to get to the point of making informed decisions I have relied on so many people!
Here is a little (non-exhaustive) list of people I want to thank.
My family and boyfriend, whose unconditional love and support give me the courage to be who I am. My first maths professors during my undergraduate studies in Vienna who shaped my scientific thinking. Other scientists that I met along the way whose open-mindedness and curiosity inspire me and whose intelligence and knowledge make me humble. Countless experienced cyclists who offered their help when I started cycling, who gave me advice, repaired my bike when it fell apart the day before a race, taught me sportsmanship, resilience and the joy of suffering. My previous cycling coaches who had a big impact on my own training philosophy. All the sports scientists whose knowledge I could access through books, articles, podcasts and conversations.
As you can see, very little was my own “invention”. I just put together the pieces.
Random
A person I admire: my boyfriend <3
Favorite climb: Col de la Croix-de-Cœur
Favorite workout: 3x40min “sweet spot” climbing, or if I’m perfectly honest: a nice easy recovery ride after a really hard training block :)
Training volume: a bit over 1000h/year
Workout music: Killing in the Name of, Lose Yourself, Till I Collapse, Remember the Name, Attack,…
Luxury: Medjool dates
Interests: maths & physics; human anatomy, physiology and psychology
Favorite books: Endure (Alex Hutchinson), Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), anything about exercise science
Favorite podcast: That Triathlon Show (Mikael Eriksson)
Favorite blog: Spare Cycles (Jem Arnold)
What I dislike: Lies, hypocrisy, pretenders, self-proclaimed experts that aren’t experts
Training philosophy: quite classical… get the basics right (if only is was so easy in practice ;)):
specificity & progressive overload
rather high volume, but most of it easy
adequate balance of stress and recovery (not that I really know how to get there, it is a never-ending self-experiment)
fuel for the work required! (in particular no low-carb training!)
make it physically and psychologically(!!) sustainable (I find it extremely important to take into account the psychological “cost” of a workout, not only the physiological load and training stimulus. Have fun as much as you can, so that you have mental energy left when the fun inevitably ends at some point.)