Chloe Sparrow announced herself as one to watch by winning Challenge St Pölten on Sunday.
But the 26-year-old, a relative newcomer who only took up triathlon during lockdown after being furloughed, had to bounce back from weeks of adversity to do it.
Sparrow’s breakthrough win in Austria was her first as a pro after coming second on the same course last year, and she says it restored her confidence in her ability to succeed in the sport.
“Rough couple of months”
She said: “It’s more than just a win. It’s been a rough couple of months with injury, illness, a DNF on my first race. When that happens, your confidence takes a big knock. So to win today, it’s more than just a win, it means a lot.
“I struggle a lot with my confidence so it’s given me the boost of confidence that I’ve needed to carry on with the rest of the season.
“It’s a super special race. It was my first podium as a pro last year. To get the win this year just makes it such a special event and the atmosphere was amazing.”
Sparrow had a difficult start to the year with a DNF at Challenge Sir Bani-Yas in April before coming eighth at Challenge “The Championship” Samorin on 18 May.
But she said everything went according to plan at St Pölten, where she focused her efforts on trying to build a big lead on the bike.
In actual fact she ended up leading the whole day, completing her 1500 metres swim in 23:00 minutes. But she really pulled away on the bike, leaving everyone behind, before holding off a furious charge by Anna Pabinger on the run to finish a nailbiting 30 seconds ahead of the Austrian in 4:25:51.
“I just tried to be brave”
Sparrow said: “I did plan in trying to gain a big lead on the bike. My swim wasn’t great but I thought I could get a big lead on the bike if I ride hard. I was planning on doing that. So I was really pleased with that.
“I just went hard from the start and then from knowing the course from last year, I regretted not riding the big climb harder that year.
“So this time I rode it hard, and my coach told me to just send it on the descents, you can gain a lot of time on the descents, so I just tried to be brave and it paid off.”
Sparrow admits she isn’t sure what comes next for her and is just focused on “a few weeks of good solid training block” before deciding her next challenge, but one thing’s for sure – with her confidence back, anything is possible.
