For British athlete Fenella Langridge, simply making the start line this weekend represents a significant victory.

After everything she has battled through in recent years, competing in her fourth Challenge Roth is a major achievement in itself – and the enormity of her fight for fitness makes this year’s return all the sweeter.

With a second, third and fourth-placed finish to her name, the 34-year-old clearly knows this race well and, by her own admission, is starting to see enough of an improvement in her racing to perhaps worry a few of the favourites come Sunday morning.

‘Scary’ surgery followed by bike crash

Her issues started when she was diagnosed with external iliac artery endofibrosis and required what she describes as ‘scary’ surgery. And then, just as she thought the worst was over, she crashed while riding in Australia – a fall that, while not too damaging physically, was to have a lasting impact on her mentally.

In May of this year, she opened up on the scars that were clearly still hampering her performances, writing on Instagram how she had felt ‘embarrassed’ after competing at IRONMAN New Zealand earlier this season, having ‘spent hardly any time’ in her aero bars.

Speaking to Laura Siddall, who is at Roth working for TRI247, Langridge explained how the process of rebuilding her confidence had been a long one, but that with every race completed this season, she had seen signs of improvement.

“You don’t come to any race and hope that you don’t win, but it has been a year of progression, and while I am not expecting to win, obviously it would be nice,” she said. “It hasn’t been easy. The year before the surgery was probably the most difficult. I probably didn’t realise at the time how difficult it was; I just brushed it under the carpet so that I could move on.

‘It has taken longer than I’d hoped’

“When the diagnosis came, it was something of a relief because you think ‘Oh my god, everything just makes sense now’. The surgery was extremely scary, but it had a timeline for the recovery, and I was able to work through that.

“Then I had the crash, which threw another curveball into the situation, especially when it comes to confidence on the bike, and that has taken longer than I’d hoped to feel anything like myself again.

“I would say I am 90% there. I still have moments, but I am a very different athlete from what I was at the beginning of the year and before the surgery, so it is nice to be here.”

What she describes as a ‘slow-burner’ of a recovery, rather than a Hayden Wilde-style bounce back from surgery and win every possible race he enters, has left her feeling more confident that she can still compete against the very best… even if she had her doubts.

Why she looked to Hayden Wilde for inspiration

“I was hoping to do a Hayden Wilde and come back and win my first race, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that, not in my books,” she said. “It has been a slow burner, but I have been ticking off the goals in each race where I want to be a bit more competitive, be a bit more aggressive and find that grit and determination.

“Maybe I also needed to know that I do still, in fact, belong up at the front of the race. I could have lost that during those years out. I do still want to be racing against the very best and be at the top of the sport.

“With the sport evolving and progressing like it is, you can find yourself wondering where you belong after being out for so long. I am still finding my feet, but I am building with every race, and hopefully this weekend will be another improvement.”

And that steady improvement should ensure that she is primed and ready for both the IRONMAN and 70.3 World Championships later this year – a double that she has not been able to achieve in recent seasons but one which offers further proof of that steady rise in performance standards.

Kona, 70.3 and Pro Series still on the agenda

Indeed, she currently sits fourth in the Pro Series league table and is excited at the prospect of what the second half of the season might bring.

“Kona is the main aim, and the Pro Series is a bonus,” she admits. “I haven’t qualified for both world champs or been able to do both in a very long time, and because the 70.3 is in Europe and because I am doing OK in the Pro Series, there is the possibility I will go and race that.

“The aim will be to get within 10-18 minutes of the lead to boost my 70.3 score and not with the idea that I am going to go and win it. But just to be at a 70.3 Worlds again will be great; I haven’t done it since the very beginning of my career.”

But for now, it is Roth at the forefront of her mind, and another opportunity to edge ever closer to that 100% recovery target.

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