IN CYCLING I LOVE TO RACE

Hi, I'm Eleonora, I'm 39 and I live in Paris

How and when did you start cycling? I started indoor cycling when I was 18 years old. When I was 29 years old, I moved on to road cycling and I loved it.

How have you progressed in cycling?
I've made a lot of progress in the gym and I've given myself some great challenges. I started with the famous La Marmotte, then the Etape du Tour, a must for cycling enthusiasts, and I finished with an Ironman!

You seem to like racing, do you belong to a club?
Yeah, I love to race, I love to compete. I'm full of energy and I like to use it to always surpass myself.
I'm a member of a triathlon club in Paris, the RMA, with whom I've competed several times.

How have you progressed in cycling? Did you join a club, get a coach? I don't like riding alone any more than I like living alone! I have a horrible sense of direction and above all, I like to be accompanied.
I love to organize outings with my friends and often we end with a little run and finish with the aperitif ;)

You say that this year you took a coach, why now? What does he bring you? I took a coach to have a customized schedule. The idea was to improve myself in running, I made progress thanks to him. I was preparing a second IronMan and then the confinement arrived so I cycle less, ran less and ate more :)

When you're at the end of your rope, what resources do you call on?
I use several resources, I always think about the hard moments in training, why I train and why I do what I do, or during the races and I also think about the experiences told on Arnaud Manzanini's Ultratalk Podcast.

What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start cycling?
I would tell her: let yourself go, don't be afraid of speed, it's always a wonderful ride.

Can you tell us about your training routine? I've been training for 10 years 6 to 12 hours a week but this year to train better I decided to follow a real schedule with a coach to really increase my progression.

How do you manage to reconcile your passion, work, and family life?
I'm lucky to be in a sports family. My husband does triathlon and the kids have been doing it since the age of 5 and 7. So we are very tolerant of each other. Sometimes we don't see each other during the weekend, especially during the preparation period for the races, we do 4 hours of cycling each and not at the same time because the children are still small! We share running and swimming together. After love, it's sport that unites our family, we can't live without it!

You can follow Eleonora on Instagram: @elelhoir