Cycling: After a difficult time, Olympic champion Julie Bresset from Team BH-Sr Suntour-KMC wants to get back to the top. The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano in Albstadt was the point where the French couldn't go any further. On May 31, 2015, she wants to replace the memories with a positive experience.
Two days before 2014 started in the Bullentale, Julie Bresset decided: That makes no sense. What she was saying at the time via Twitter "Fatigue" explained was going through a period of mental exhaustion and she took several weeks off before returning to Mont Sainte Anne, Canada.
However, it wasn't the Julie Bresset who was fighting for podiums and victories. Two 16th places, a 20th and finally a tenth place at the World Championships do not correspond to their capabilities. But they corresponded to their situation, the attempt to regain fun with what was actually passion.
"I hit the wall", says Bresset in retrospect. "I ignored the little signals." Physically and mentally. "Training was just work, there was no more fun."
That's what it's all about now for the two-time elite world champion. Having fun and finding your way back in small steps. The results in Cyprus were not befitting, but she wanted to put up with that. "I was disappointed, it's not that easy to accept", confesses the 25-year-old. But the path she wants to go is clear. Last Sunday at the Coupe de France in Marseille it was second and the next step seems to have been taken.
The capacity should increase slowly and cautiously. At the start of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2015 in Nove Mesto (May 24th) and Albstadt (May 31st) she wants to be "among the top ladies" again and then continue working towards the World Championships in Andorra.
"I don't want to make the same mistake I made a year ago", she says.
The mistake? “It was just all too much. Sporty, but also private”, explains Julie Bresset. "I hadn't learned to say no. There was pressure that I put on myself.” She drove for other races, but no longer for herself.
About this "too much" In January, the graduate economist and social scientist decided to quit her 50 percent job as a civilian employee at the Ministry of Defense. She also left her home in Brittany and moved to Besançon.