Interview Nathalie Eklund

She entered the sport through riding her bike 300 km, nowadays she tries to win races of half that distance. Nathalie Eklund is already a sport enthousiast from a very young age and now chases her limits in cycling. The Swedish time trial champion will make her debut in the Womens' World Tour with Israel - Premier Tech Roland. After a good 2022 with victories in smaller races and her grand tour debut in La Vuelta, she's ready for the Tour de France. Follow her here on the path to her Olympic dream.

You entered the sport at the age of 28. What made you decide to start doing the sport on a competitive base?

That’s quite a long story 😅 I have since I was a child loved using my body, loved competing and dreamt of going to the Olympic Games one day. From the age of 6 until 20 I was focusing only on becoming a professional dancer, but when I stopped I tried to find another passion where I could use my body (/train every day, because I just love to train) and also a sport which I could live from (as a profession). I did everything from CrossFit, bikram yoga and OCR. But when me and my sister surprised my dad in 2014 flying to Tokyo and cheering him on on the last 500m of Tokyo Marathon (while making a commercial film for Santander Bank) I just knew I wanted to try endurance sport because of all the emotions it gave me and what I saw it gave my dad. I started running in 2015 and after some years I tried swimming and biking and quickly I got quite good so in 2017 I decided to try triathlon to become a professional triathlete. However I got too many injuries from running and when I had a chance to try road cycling in 2018 with Skoda Cycling Team (a project where some amateur riders get treated like a professional for a season with the goal to ride around a lake in Sweden, 300km, sub 8h) and after that season I was hooked. I started racing in Sweden 2019 and left triathlon and now here I am 😄

What was the hardest challenge for you when you entered cycling?

It was and it still is, the skills riding in a bunch in a hectic race. I was strong and quite quickly gained more and more endurance, but I didn’t ride a bike until I was 26 and my first time in a bunch was at the age of 29.

What are your personal goals in the sport?

I want to go to the Olympics to full fill my childhood dream. But I also want to look back at a great and happy time/career - seeing different places (I love to travel), meeting fantastic people, winning and loosing as a team and so on.

This year you became also more competitive to go for victories in international races. Do you feel that you rapidly make progression ever year? Both mentally and physically?

I actually didn’t feel that good this year physically and of course that made me struggle even mentally after some hard months. I think I didn’t really approve physically this year, but I had people believing in me and that made a huge difference. Also gained more and more experience in the peloton (as I started racing in the pro peloton during Covid in 2021 and almost didn’t do any races, 2022 was my first full year).

Next year you will join Israel Premier – Tech Roland. What will your role be in the team?

I don’t really know my role just yet. Most of the riders are new coming from other teams so I think we will have to get to know each other as riders a bit first. With that said, I am really excited for the upcoming season together!

How will you spend this Winter?

I live in Stockholm where we have a bit of snow, quite cold weather (0 to -10 degrees maybe) so I use to spend my winter on Zwift, in the gym, running a bit and doing my endurance rides on my gravel bike. I have already been on camp on Gran Canaria and this week first camp with Israel Premier Tech Roland to get some road rides in as well, and planning on going back to Gran Canaria right after New Years Eve. Christmas I will spend in the north of Sweden where I can do some cx skiing as well!

Are you obsessed with equipement & nutrition or do you rather focus more on the bike racing itself?

I am not obsessed I would say, but for me it is very important indeed. I think I have more knowledge in at least nutrition (and about the equipment I am influenced a lot by my boyfriend who is a bit obsessed 😂) from just a life as a dancer/athlete and I like to dig deep into things.

What can we wish you for 2023?

Oh, that’s a hard one. I would like to get a healthy year, developing even more as a rider and get a top 10 in a time trial like worlds/European or a world tour race. It would also be nice to win some races with my team and to get to ride Tour de France.