Cool head helped Strathpeffer world champion Fin Graham prevail in monumental year
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Fin Graham is no stranger to success.
This year he won three world championships, multiple World Cup events, national and European championships and was also named Scottish Cycling’s male rider of the year.
Still, despite an ever-growing list of accomplishments he tries not to see himself as the favourite going into events.
At times, routine preparation can be what makes the difference between steps on the podium.
The idea of normalising races and competitions extends to his targets for any given year or season – Graham tries not to set too much store in how many medals he is going to win.
That said, he did have particular targets in mind for the track world championships back in October, where he would come away from France with two gold medals.
There he was using the disappointment of just missing out on gold at the Tokyo Paralympics game in 2021 to fuel his charge for world title redemption.
“I don’t like going into events thinking I’m the favourite,” the 23-year-old cyclist from Strathpeffer explained.
“In most races I’ll go in just wanting to enjoy myself, and see what happens.
“There are some races where you obviously have targets, but I don’t like going in thinking ‘I’m going to win it’, because more often than not you’re probably not going to win.
“I don’t like thinking ‘I’m going to do this’ or ‘I’m going to break a world record’. I just want to follow the process I normally would, and if any of that happens then it’s a bonus.
“With timed events, you have no idea how other people are going, and there’s nothing you can do to influence how they do.
“All you can do is the best ride that you can, and hope that it’s enough. If it’s not, you’ve still done the best you can, so you can’t be too disappointed if you finish fourth and miss out on a medal.
“The Track World Championships this year was a massive target for me though. Going in I wanted to get gold medals in the events I didn’t win at in Tokyo.
“Going into the Road World Championships, I had Covid not long before, so I didn’t really know how that was going to affect me. There I just went in hoping to enjoy it, and thankfully I was able to come away with a win.”
