follow your instincts - 春雨逍遙

Missed an opportunity to write about my favorite story from the Tokyo2020 Olympics and it I believed went down Olympic history as one of the greatest shocks.

An Austrian Olympian, Anna Keisenhofer, her devotion certainly paid off when she became the 2020 Olympic Women’s Road Race gold medallist to win Austria's first cycling Olympic gold medal since 1896.

She hasn't been part of a pro cycling team since 2017, a decision that she made because she felt that the environment just didn't fit her character. She likes to be independent making her choices like her training plan, races and so on. She has just that lonely fighter approach.

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She was the first rider to attack in the Olympic road race, forming a breakaway group with four riders.

Having dropped two of the riders with 86km to go, Kiesenhofer then made a break from the other two, and rode on her own, in time-trial style, for the remaining 40km.

The peloton caught the two riders, leading them to believe that they were racing as a group for the gold medal, unaware Kiesenhofer HAD GONE IT ALONE to win.

As silver medalist the Netherlands' Annemiek van Vleuten crossed the line, she celebrated AS IF the gold was hers, NOT knowing that Kiesenhofer had already secured victory.

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'I dare to be different. I have a different approach and this means that I'm also unpredictable, and that's exactly what happened yesterday,' she said. 'People didn't predict, people didn't think that I might win.'

She hoped her story could inspire others too,

'not to give up, to persevere [...] do what suits your character.'

'You just have to follow your instincts.'

I love it!