EMMA JOHANSSON'S BEST YEAR - MRS CONSISTENT

The Swedish ace was on top of her game in 2013, writes Chris Marshall- Bell, and rose to the pinnacle of the sport

- Chris Marshall- Bell

The best year of Emma Johansson’s career, 2013, was very nearly the season that never was. “My plan was to retire in 2012, or maybe one year later if I had had success in London,” she reveals.

As it happened, the Swede’s 2012 season did not go to plan. A January training camp crash wiped out her winter work, she rushed back to racing, finished sixth and not first in the road race at the London Olympics, and “suffered the whole season”. Outside of a National Championships double, she won just three times – a lowly figure for someone considered among the peloton’s best.

Despite not triumphing at the Olympics, she thought about hanging up her racing wheels, aged 29. “It was such a bad year that I thought I either quit now or make some big changes.” Thankfully for cycling’s annals, she chose the latter, joining Orica-AIS from Hitec Products-Mistral Homes and going on to deliver one of the most extraordinary displays of consistency the sport has ever seen.

The numbers are so mind-boggling that CW had to redo our maths on multiple occasions to make sure they were as follows. The Swede raced 63 days, finishing in the top 10 on 55 occasions. Her lowest position was 31st when all she had to do was avoid trouble in a bunch sprint en route to winning Thüringen Rundfahrt, her second stage race victory of the season. She scored 41 podiums, winning eight times. Amanda Spratt, a team-mate of Johansson, says: “She’s a consistent racer and in 2013 she was on the podium literally every single race.”