Woman Racer Spotlight: Lara Meyer

Name: Lara Meyer

Hometown: Zug, Switzerland 

How did you get into cycling? I started with spinning classes when I used to live in London; that was in 2015. At that time I had never been on a proper road bike. Triathlon was really not a common sport, especially in London! However, I had heard of it, and always thought it would be exciting to take part in such an adventure one day. It all came together when I decided to move to Switzerland, registered for my first Ironman 5150 (Olympic Distance) in the summer of 2017, and bought my first Decathlon Triban road bike, second hand for £110!

How many years have you been racing on Zwift? I’ve been on Zwift since the end of 2018, but I only participated in my first “serious” race in 2020 (ZRL Category B).

Are you part of a Virtual team? Yes, BL13! When I joined this team, things started to get serious! I was already in good shape, but suddenly I got surrounded by other girls a lot stronger than me. It pushed me to train and to push for performance. I started learning what it is to suffer in a race haha!

What do you love most about racing? For the same watts as my training sessions, the efforts seem a lot easier. It’s like you’re being given extra strength. I guess that’s what we call adrenaline!

What is your favourite style of race (e.g. points, scratch, iTT, TTT, Chase, duathlon)? I’m hesitating between points and scratch but I will go with scratch. There are a lot of surprises – you have to be ready for attacks at all times. You have to know the route well and be ready for both short and long efforts. I love it!

What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? ZRL. It’s just the most popular, it’s very cool that we’re all so dedicated to this Tuesday’s schedule. It’s great to race with the team. And special thanks to Darryl Carter who has been coaching us every week! Great team spirit. 

What is your most memorable racing experience, inside or outside or BOTH? Zwift Grand Prix Alpe du Zwift scratch race where I had to finish within the 7min cutoff, and made it 6min30 or something. So much joy, and so much suffering at the same time! Outside, it’s a bit cliché but probably my first Ironman at home, Zürich 2019.

What is your favourite food to eat post race? Any kind of chocolate!

What advice would you give to a woman entering her first Zwift race? We are all here to have fun, even if it’s a race, we are mostly amateurs and we all remember our first zwift races. Nothing bad can happen. Worst case you don’t finish it, no one is gonna be angry at you, they would rather cheer you up! And of course in most cases you’ll do great and will want to do even better next time. Last, I’d like to emphasize how crazy it is that we can have such an amazing team atmosphere with just virtual relationships!

Any upcoming race you are looking forward to? I could speak about my Eiger Trail run, 51 km, that happens tomorrow. But that one will probably be in the past already when the article is published. Cycling-wise, I will take part in Roc d’Azur, a 5-day stage mountain bike race in south of France this month (October). Really looking forward to it.

Where can people follow your racing adventures? Find me on Instagram at @madamewatts.