McConnell will line up for Sunday's Women's Elite Cross-Country World Championships ranked first in the world and second overall in the World Cup series after a standout season on the bike - a season she has been steadily building toward since her first Under-23 World Cup win in 2013.
After numerous podium finishes, McConnell claimed her first Elite World Cup victory in the opening Olympic distance cross-country (XCO) round in Brazil this year, backed it up with another win in Germany in round two, then rode away from the field and stayed away in round three in the Czech Republic.
In rounds two and three she claimed a first and second in the short track cross-country (XCC) as well, which is held two days before the XCO rounds. Why wear one leader’s jersey when you can wear them both?!
The proud Canberran is known for her consistency but a longer-than-normal race season has placed challenges on the entire field, McConnell included. In addition to openly navigating the physical challenges of maintaining race fitness from the Australian summer then into and through the European season, watching McConnell fight back from two flat tyres at round six of the World Cup in Andorra has been as inspiring as seeing her lead the pack.
As the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships get underway, McConnell caught up with SBS Sport’s Kath Bicknell to talk about her incredible year on the bike, what inspires her about her competitors and her hopes for the rest of the Australian mountain bike team at this week's events.
First of all, congratulations on such an outstanding season this year. What are some of the more unexpected things that have come with winning World Cup races, leading the World Cup XCO and XCC series, and leading the world rankings at the highest level of the sport? (Seriously, what a sentence!)
Haha, what a sentence indeed. The crazy thing it all happened at once so it was a lot. One thing that surprised me within myself was that when I was the favourite to win a World Cup as the leader and world number one, I was able to completely take off the pressure and deliver. Pretty crazy to go into a race as the favourite and win, especially when you are someone who always flies under the radar.
I've been so pleasantly surprised by the way people are so genuinely happy for me. Of course, the people who are close to me and have supported me, but I never expected to have such strong support from within the race circuit, other teams, my competitors. I was really overwhelmed by the support from within. That really means a lot to me.
That's great to hear about the support from within the sport. It’s been a hugely exciting season but also a really long one with the World Cup series running from April to September over nine rounds, plus the World Championships this weekend. What are your goals at this point in the season?
It has been a long and unusual season. With the increase from six to nine World Cups and an earlier start by almost two months, a lot of riders have handpicked their schedules focusing on these later races. There are only a handful of us who have raced the full season.
With a few extra unexpected challenges as the season has progressed I'm not feeling like the best version of myself. This weekend at the World Champs I just want to give my best and ideally feel like I'm really racing my bike again. A smooth race would be a bonus.
I'm sitting out all of the extra races like the relay and short track to freshen up as much as possible for the XCO.
The World Cup final the following weekend is a different story. While I'm lacking both form and confidence I am still very much in the fight to win the World Cup overall and 100 per cent I am going to give everything I have left at this last race of the season.
I'm not backing myself to pull it off but I'm not going to wonder what could have been.
There are a lot of riders out there who are inspired by how you keep things so honest and real on the good days as well as the less good days – whether that’s refusing to buy into pressure due when things get hyped or sharing the challenges that come with holding such a high level of form over such a long season. As you navigate the ups and downs of racing as a job and a passion, who are the riders that regularly inspire you?
I really love to share my story for all the good and the bad moments. Our lives look pretty glamorous, and often they are, but it's a lot of hard work and it's rarely ever anything close to easy.
There are no riders specifically that inspire me, but I really have a lot of time for the ones who are genuine off the bike. We are a pretty tight group of athletes behind the scenes and checking in on each other through the tough moments is something amazing that a lot of us share. I think that is inspiring, that we can fight in a race with everything we have yet really care about each other as people.
It's so nice that you say that. A lot of people outside the sport seem to be surprised by all the hugs between the field at the end of a tough race! Moving on to this weekend, can you tell us a bit about the track at Les Gets and what to expect in terms of the competition out there on Sunday? How does it feel to race there compared to what it looks like on TV?
From what I've seen there are a few changes. Last year we raced in crazy conditions, the mud was insane and there is a lot of grass, which is the easy part in the dry and causes the most crashes and issues in the wet.
I don't think TV ever does justice to any World Cup level course, but regardless when you put the best riders in the world together you’re going to get a show. For sure we are going to see some fast Frenchies this weekend, some will pull it off and some will put too much pressure on the result.
I think it will be exciting racing. I hope I'm near enough to the front to see what's going on.
We hope so too! Something special about the World Championships is it’s one of the few times Australian cross-country racers have a bit of extra support to race in a team environment at this level. How did this team atmosphere help you at earlier stages of your racing career?
That is a really hard question for me to answer, especially as I'm always so honest. I love being part of the Australian team, but unfortunately only a few times in my entire career have I stayed with the Aussie team at the World Champs. This year is no different as I'll be staying outside fully supported by my [professional] team.
The atmosphere within the [Australian] riders is really great, but so, so much more could be done to bring together the full team. My first Junior World Champs was a special experience because every night the whole team would eat dinner together from Junior to Elite. I think it's a big missed opportunity and something that has been missing as long as I've been racing. It's a little sad when you see not only the pride but the support to back it up within other federations.
What do you hope other riders in the Australian team will get out of the event itself, beyond race results?
It's the first time since pre-COVID that we have a full Aussie team back at World Champs. The last couple of years there have only been a few of us racing so for the younger riders to have a chance to get exposure to this level of racing again is really awesome.
As Aussie battlers and with such little experience we always have the best war stories. I hope everyone can have a clean race and take home plenty of learning experiences but most importantly motivation and an insight into the life and level of international mountain bike racing.
