Raphaela Richter has a turbulent start to the season break

At the beginning of the season, Raphaela Richter clearly defined her season goal: The podium in the Enduro World Cup. Unfortunately, everything turned out differently by the end of the season. In her blog, she speaks very openly about the background.

Text: Raphaela Richter
Pictures: Niklas Wallner

In our magazine, we not only showcase the most exciting bikes of the season. Here, some of the best athletes from around the world also share their lives on the race track. While Lukas Baum and Georg Egger talk about their journey to the Marathon and Cross Country World Championships in the “Glagow Goals”, Raphaela Richter blogs about the Enduro World Cup. Read Raphaela’s background story here in the interview. If you subscribe to the newsletter in the footer, you won’t miss any of these reports.

After an unplanned radio silence on my part, I want to give a sign of life again. My season finale unfortunately did not go as smoothly as planned: So I had to take care of some physical and emotional wounds. And for those who didn’t catch everything, here’s a little summary:
After suffering a concussion during training for the second-to-last Enduro World Cup in Loudenvielle, I had to rest for the final World Cup in Châtel. That meant staying away from screens as much as possible, sleeping a lot, etc.

I definitely wanted to try the training in Châtel, as I had been symptom-free for a few days. Just as I started to confidently ride the bike again, I slipped on a mirror-smooth, stony surface and took the full impact with my right knee. It didn’t take long for it to swell, and at times I even blacked out from the pain and shock (maybe some of you can relate). The swelling got worse over the next few days, and unfortunately, another race start was out of the question. So, I went from 6th place in the World Cup Overall to 11th.

Unfortunately, the streak of bad luck wasn’t over yet. In Châtel, it was also announced that our Ibis Enduro Team would be disbanded. I had grown so close to the guys over the past two years that I shed a few tears. You spend the whole summer together, live together, share highs and lows – all of that combined really knocked me out for a few days.

Now, one month after this rather modest end of the season, I was able to put a checkmark behind the events and give my body time to heal. At this point, I would also like to thank all friends and acquaintances who have given me a sympathetic ear and comforted me.

At the same time, I am looking forward to the path I want to take and I am super motivated to continue working on being able to cycle faster. I will definitely continue to be found between racetapes! Until then: stay tuned.

On bike-test.com, the focus is actually on the equipment. For those who are motivated by Raphaela to get on the enduro bike, we have of course prepared the hottest bikes for the 2024 season here.
Furthermore, you can subscribe to our Youtube channel, because we will soon be presenting some exciting enduro bikes there.