The meeting doesn't start well. Neither protagonist Petra Klingler nor photographer Balz Weber are at the agreed meeting point. And the sun has already set on this side of the Uetliberg. Fortunately, the two of them have already made their way to the sunny side. All that's missing is the editor who arranged the whole thing.

Petra takes it easy. She completed her first two training sessions of the day from 6.30 to 9.30, then rode to work. There she took care of any pending matters on her normally free day. At the beginning of the afternoon, she met one of her sponsors for an annual meeting. She reserved the second half of the afternoon for the photo shoot and interview with Ride. Afterwards, she planned to ride to Herisau, where she lives and where she was due to do a session in her home training room.

Divided Olympic disappointment

The editor felt it was time to fish for a compliment: Which appointment were you most looking forward to when you got up today? "When I saw that the sun was going to come out in the afternoon, I already thought that biking with you would be the highlight," she promptly delivers.

Without complaint, the Olympian rides up the spot where Balz wants to photograph her. When the photographer and the editor put her bike in the picture with the 3-2-1 magic trick, she snaps the scene. Posing for the portrait is routine for her, who has been in almost every large and small Swiss magazine.

Afterwards, she takes all the time in the world for the interview over a cappuccino, talks about the physical limitations that accompanied her through her early childhood, which mountain biker she built up after her Olympic disappointment and what she associates with the Biel bike scene. All this and pictures by an expert photographer can be found in Ride 2022.

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Petra Klingler on Instagram