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2011 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships
Helen Wyman: Learning To Believe
Posted January 28 2011
Words And Photography By Luke Webber
Days before the 2011 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships, Luke Webber talks to six-time British Champion and Koppenbergcross winner Helen Wyman and discovers the little black box which could hold the key to becoming Britain's first female World Champion.
It's not often you can find an acceptable excuse for watching yourself on TV; but Helen Wyman insists hers is a good one. Because in a season Wyman calls her best, the Koppenbergcross winner and six-time British Champion transformed her attitude to racing entirely by chance.
Returning from the second World Cup of the season, Wyman began to watch back live coverage of her race, but was immediately puzzled by what she saw.
"When you're racing you think you are going as fast as you can; when you watch the men race they look really fast and you imagine that's how the women at the front of the World Cup look. But when I watched the races back on TV I was like, wow, these girls are no better than me and there's no reason why they should beat me.
"From that moment on I had a bit of a revelation. Before when I raced I believed I was looking fast, I thought I was riding fast - and I was, but maybe I wasn't riding fast enough. Sometimes, yes, you get into a battle with someone and they get a bit of a gap, which you think is impossible to bridge. But when I watch it back on TV I think to myself; there's no reason why it's impossible to get back on that wheel. Especially if I stop sprinting like a girl.
"And I do sprint like a girl, when really I should sprint like a man!"
CHANGING CHANNELS
Wyman's first results from analysing her performance came in three consecutive races; finishing third at the Nacht van Woerdon, second in Zonhoven and winning on the Koppenberg - an experience the Oudenaarde-based rider describes as "massive, and something that not very many people get to do.
"Putting those results together makes a massive confidence difference, and it is something which builds."
And when it comes to the British Championships, Wyman has ridden something of a six-year confidence wave, reflected as I ask her about an event she has made her own.
Immediately Wyman places her apple juice aside, adjusts her posture and projects a sense of pride across the room.
"Retaining that British Champions title was a significant moment" she stresses. "You always want to win it, and it's the kind of race that I go in to with confidence."
Such an obvious change in attitude leads to the obvious question and another one of those revelations. What if it was possible to bring the outlook exhibited in the British Championships and apply it to every race?
There's a brief intake of breath as Wyman tries to get the words out fast enough.
"I'd love to carry the attitude I have at the British Championships to every race. It's all in my head. I guess I'm getting there but it takes time - maybe a season or two of results - to get that belief."
But it is obviously a belief which is growing, Wyman greeting the word ‘Worlds' with a single, considered and extended "yeah."
Following a brief pause for thought she continues.
"This year the course is much harder, even if it does freeze over. That's good for me. You don't want to go into any race saying you can't win it; but Katie Compton has been unbelievable in some races this year. But out of the rest of the girls, I've beaten them all. Everyone will be at their peak for this, you have to get in the right place at the right time and see how it goes from there. To be in the top ten is a good ride, top five an amazing ride and top three is perfect."
Such a result would firmly install Wyman into the hall-of-fame of riders which she remembers aspiring to over a decade ago; the likes of Louise Robinson, Isla Rowntree and Vic Wilkinson - but Wyman does worry about the next generation of British women's cyclo-cross greats.
"It seems now most of the winners of the National Trophy have other interests - their main racing is on the track, or the road or mountain bikes. It makes me worry a little for the future. I'm 30 next month and won't be around forever, Gabby and Nikki are in their mid twenties and then there is a gap.
"I hope it's possible to find a couple of young riders that have a real love for cross; it can only be a good thing. Our country has always had a good woman in cross, as far back as I can remember, and I don't see why that can't be for the future as well."
But before writing the future of others, Wyman has one of her own, starting in 48 hours at the World Championships. A result this weekend would take her from Britain's good woman, to an all time great, which might be all it takes to inspire another in a long line of successful Brit women in World cyclo-cross.
