Moolman-Pasio explains the success behind Vargarda TTT

Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team earned the second spot in the Crescent Women World Cup Vargarda TTT on Friday night. The result saw the team go two places better than last year’s fourth spot. Read the report here. Below, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio explains the success behind the result. 

We really connect well as a unit. We have a really nice group of girls and characters who connect well. We were here from Monday already and we did a fair amount of training on the course and from day one the connection was there. It was just about nailing the details and making sure we went fast on the day.

Like I’ve said over and over again, we’re a small team but we have big hearts. We’ve all come from Rio a little disappointed, those of us who went there. I personally am so happy to be back with my trade team. I just realised how much my team means to me and cycling is a team sport. You can be as good as you are individually but you’re not going to win races on your own, that was a big realisation for me in Rio. To come here and to join my team I was just so happy to be here.

We’ve all been training well together. It has been a good environment and there is a good vibe amongst the girls. We knew that we stood a good chance of a podium today and we thought we it maybe be a close third place.

We were all standing around waiting as we went first. We set the fastest time at the first split so we knew we stood a good chance. As we kept watching the times we had these little celebrations as we heard teams were slower than us and it became very real that we were challenging for second place for sure. First would have been a push with a world class team like Boels-Dolmans.

We finished off strong and had a good strategy to monopolise on certain parts of the course. The girls just left it all out there and it’s just an incredibly proud moment to all stand on the podium. I said to the girls before the start, this is the one opportunity in the year where we can all get on the podium as a team.

It’s incredibly special to all stand on the podium together. For me it’s turned any heartache I had from Rio around and I just realise what a special team and special group of girls we have and we can only go from strength to strength from here.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio