<\/p>\n \u2018When you have a lung contusion, it feels like you’ve got a chest infection without the fever and the phlegm, so it’s just not very nice, really,\u2019 Drake said in what I learn is a typical nonchalance when it comes to diagnosing her own injuries – despite being a trained doctor.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s really hard to be objective about yourself, especially as an athlete like you just like, Ah, I’m sure it’s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n So, who is this cyclo-cross star? Talking to Drake away from her bike, the first thing you notice is her energy – she\u2019s light and funny and humble. I ask her what it\u2019s like competing at these events knowing that the field is missing some of its big names – Xan Crees<\/a>, Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt<\/a>, Cat Ferguson<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember racing Zoe at my first national championships in 2023. That was insane,\u201d Drake laughed. \u201cI am nowhere near that level but it doesn’t mean that I don’t aim to be there. I’ve got a long way to go. But, you know, I like to aim high. Having the ability to race someone like that, even if you hang on for a quarter of a lap the first time, and then it’s half a lap the next time, and then it’s a lap the next time\u2026 It’s a stepping stone.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake\u2019s first stepping stone was laid when she was a young child, razzing about on her Isla bike, <\/a>out cycling with her Dad<\/a>. Her chosen hobby flipped when she turned 12, and she ditched the bike to become a county swimmer. But it was in the slog of medical school, and the ensuing mental health challenges<\/a> that accompanied its intensity, that she took up cyclo-cross.<\/p>\n It was around this time that she met her now-husband, Giles, too. A cyclist himself, he built Drake\u2019s first adult bike in 2020. By 2022, she was competing in her first national cyclo-cross race.<\/p>\n \u201cAs someone who’d never really paid much attention to cycling, it just looked a bit silly and fun. And I think it came at a point in my life where I needed something else. I was struggling quite a lot mentally <\/a>throughout university, and that continued into when I was working as a doctor as well, and having something new and exciting that diversified my mind and mentally gave me a break from stuff… I think that was one of the biggest draws for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou could be thinking about a billion different things on the start line, but as soon as the whistle goes, you’re fully 100% focused.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n In her first two and a half years as a doctor, she completed her first three seasons of cyclocross on the national scene. In her first year, she finished in the top five at the Paignton round of the National Trophy Series.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, it was a massive struggle to even train after work, because I was doing nights. One week I’m pretty sure I did a 72 hour week, and then the following week I had a race. It wasn’t healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next year, I had an hour commute one way. So I was commuting two hours, whilst training and trying to race.<\/a> I ended my season early because I got so burnt out, and mentally I was in an absolute hole. And the year after, I just about managed to get a bit more of a balance. I didn’t race very much. I was still struggling mentally and still struggling to get all the training in.”<\/p>\n In December 2024, Drake stopped working as a doctor. \u201cNot because of the cycling, it was a personal decision that I’d made that it just didn’t work for me anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to sort of clear the air and say I wasn’t able to race at this level when I was working full time as a doctor. It was not possible. And I don’t think it’s healthy for anybody to try and do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake is currently working in a bike salvage and insurance shop. Working part time in a flexible job means that she can fit training around her work<\/a> in a way she never could before. There are still parts of competitive cyclo-cross racing she finds difficult – the technical nuance needed to corner, dodging the elbows that come out in continental racing (“historically, I’ve been quite a gentle competitor”), working out optimal weight distribution and shifting.<\/p>\n But right now, she\u2019s recouping after her Flamanville crash at home on the Wirral, saving her strength for the last round of the National Trophy Series in Irvine next month. In this pre-Christmas pause before racing picks up again, she’s allowing herself to enjoy the season’s success.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing into the season, I’d said to the other half that I never actually felt like I’d won anything,\u201d she said. \u201cI’d won local stuff, but to be able to win it against the best in the country is another feeling and something that I really wanted this year. Passing that line, knowing that I’d done everything I could since last cross season to be in the best shape possible\u2026 it was an amazing feeling. It sort of felt like, actually, I do belong here. I have things that I need to work on<\/a>, but I am good enough to be here.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ffion Drake started the British cyclo-cross National Trophy Series with a quarter of wins. 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\n<\/p>\n