Women in sport: Elena Cecchini

Meet Elena Cecchini, an Italian professional cyclist and silver medal winner in the European Championships. After having first started cycling at the tender age of six, Elena has since travelled the world doing what she loves and competing in races. She is driven, competitive and continuously pushes herself to the limit - we were able to chat to Elena about her incredible willpower, determination and love of cycling.

What made you want to start cycling and how old were you?
I started cycling when I was 6, which is the minimum age you need to have in Italy to take part to cycling races. My choice to start cycling was a natural process, as almost everyone in my family practiced cycling before me. My Dad and my uncle were cyclists, my brother used to be a cyclist as well before stopping his career to be an osteopath. So, I didn’t really choose it, I was just put on a bike. Luckily, it was love at first sight.

Which other female athletes do you admire?
There are many athletes I admire. In my sport, I really admire Lizzie Deignan, a British pure class rider who has been World Champion, Olympic medallist, and for a couple of years she’s been a mum, but she’s still managing to be at the top of the sport winning races. Out of cycling, I admire Federica Pellegrini, one of the strongest swimmers of all time. I like her because she’s one of the few who can really handle her hard sport with the more glamorous life of television, fashion and social media activities.

Which other women inspire you?
The women who inspire me most are my grandma and my mum. Sport is an important part of my life, but real life is more important to me and they are the perfect examples of how hard it can be nowadays to simply be growing a family, work and take care of your house. In between the races my best cure is to spend some time with them and be back to my roots.

What has been your career highlight to date?
Winning the Team Time Trial Worlds Championships with my team Canyon//SRAM in 2018. Cycling is such a team sport, but at the end of the races, just one rider in the team is rewarded. Team Time Trials are the only discipline in road cycling were you get the chance to be on the podium with all your team mates. Sharing the happiness and satisfaction of such a great achievement with my team back in 2018 still gives me goosebumps.

What kind of pressures do you face as a sportswoman?
There are many pressures a sportswoman has to face every day. I am sure every sportswoman has pressures. In my case, the biggest pressure come from myself as I am very ambitious and I always want more and strive everyday to get better and better. Getting better involves hard training, healthy eating to be ok with our weight, a good sleep and enough rest between the trainings. Other pressures can come from the team or our federation to perform.

What has been your hardest moment?
Talking about my cycling routine, for sure this year's lockdown has been a shock to the system, but it also brought some time to be at home with the people I love. (It was from 2010 that I was not at home for 8 weeks in a row, which felt amazing).
The worst year though has been 2013: I had a really bad year with lot of crashes and injuries. It helped me to come back stronger and more motivated though.

What advice would you give young girls looking to pursue sports or cycling?
To enjoy the process. Cycling is a very tough sport and you need to be very resilient. I really get emotional when I see so many girls and women on the bike now. Years ago, I was the only one to cycle in my region and when I joined some male colleagues for my trainings, I always felt a bit apart and people from the road or the cars were looking at me with curiosity. I encourage women to do sport and to go cycling. It’s good for you, for your health but most of all for you mental health. If, combined to this, you can also get into professional cycling, well, that would be a great addition.

What’s next for you?
I still have two races in this 2020: Ronde Van Vlanderen, the biggest of the Classics and the race of my dreams and the Italian Championships at the end of October. A race that I won for three years in a row but that for sure, I would love to win again