Seagrave targets elusive world title
Tahnee Seagrave has set her sights on winning the Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup series as well as the World Championships this season.The new season gets under way on 16-18 May with the opening round of the World Cup in Bielsko-Biala, Poland.In 2024 the 29-year-old had to settle for second at the World Cup and third at the World Championships.The Llanfyllin-based rider, who has been racing at the top level for the past decade, has agonisingly missed out on securing gold, but hopes that will change this season."I'd love to win a World Champs, an elite World Champs title, I've never had that in my career," she said."I've been so close to the overall title so many times and just missed out, so I'd love to be a little bit more consistent."I'm really excited to kick things off. I'm just itching to get going, but just like I've said before, I'll always just give 110% and see where that takes me."
Seagrave came back to form last season, winning the World Cup round in Val di Sole, Italy, following a difficult few seasons after a serious concussion suffered in April 2022."Last year was a really good season for me. I didn't really expect anything but I had this just low-level confidence that I knew that I could perform at my best," Seagrave told BBC Sport Wales.After clinching junior World Championship gold in 2013, she was tipped to dominate at the very top level, but one injury followed another, from broken bones and muscular tears to slipped discs in her neck, before concussion left her wondering whether she would ever race again."When I had my head trauma, it took a lot of mental work to come back to racing and I think that kind of changed my perspective on life and on racing," she said."I really had to build a self-confidence and that just kept growing every day and the more I rode the more I gained confidence, I just shut all distractions out and I learnt a lot mentally."Seagrave also turned to sports psychologists and psychiatrists as "she did a lot of work to be able to feel confident".She has recently been busy testing a new bike at her mid-Wales base during the off-season after parting ways with her five-year association with bike brand Canyon and switching to Orbea."We're just trying to create a fast bike and one that works really well and that can take us to the top step," Seagrave said.
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