Eva Lechner starts the new season with the best in the world

“I would have liked to stay in my homeland for a few more days,” said Eva Lechner before her flight to Gran Canaria. The woman from Eppan who works for the US team Clif loves her surroundings and the mountains. But everyday working life wants things to be different: Lechner is going to a two-week training camp in preparation for the upcoming cross-country MTB season. After a difficult year, the 31-year-old from Überetscher has focused fully on the new season: “2016 was difficult, I always had problems finding the right footing.” The Olympics in Rio were another moment of tension for Lechner. The South Tyrolean fought there and gave everything. In the end, almost too much. Weeks of regeneration followed to regain strength and motivation.

Eva Lechner returned to international racing at the end of last year. And how: With a brilliant second place in the Cross World Cup in Namur (Belgium). Her Czech teammate Katerina Nash won the race. Nash, born in 1977, was initially a talented cross-country skier before switching to cycling. The former winter athlete is even more successful there than on the cross-country ski trail. Her country's multiple champion in cyclocross and mountain biking, World Cup winner, bronze at the World Cross Country Championships in Luxembourg and currently second in the cross world rankings speak for themselves.

Team Clif has big plans for 2017 “Three in the top six,” was the headline of the US team Clif after the World Cross Country Championships in Bieles, Luxembourg, at the end of January. In addition to third-placed Katerina Nash, the young Canadian Maghalie Rochette was fifth in the World Championships, followed by Eva Lechner in sixth place.

Rochette, like Nash, has already been on skis during her sports career. Only 22 years old, she is considered an enormous talent, initially practiced triathlon and impresses with her youthful enthusiasm in the team. Eva Lechner is also firmly convinced that we will hear a lot more from Rochette in the future.

Rochette's compatriot Catharine Pendrel closes the ranks of the best. Born in 1980, Pendrel is a lot older and richer in important successes. The Canadian is a multiple overall World Cup champion in cross country and also came third in this discipline at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. The line-up for the current season is fixed and we have to beat them: Catharine, Eva, Katerina and Maghalie. A lot of Canada, paired with the Czech Republic and South Tyrol.

Source: Josef Bernhart

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Eva Lechner starts the new season with the best in the world

The best team in the world. That's the message. Eva Lechner from South Tyrol is part of this team. And thus part of a vision that is already reality.

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