Dani Rowe

The Olympic gold medallist on how the track has influenced her road racing

I’ve been racing a long time, but I rode a lot of the international road races in 2017 for the first time. I think I improved as the season went on. It’s such an advantage if you know the course and if you have raced them before, because you know where the critical moments are, when you have to be at the front and things like that. It was exciting because it was a new challenge for me and it’s what keeps me motivated.

It’s always better to be aggressive and go in with a nothing-to-lose attitude to races. You find you have more opportunities to be in race-winning moves. I’m never going to be winning out of a big bunch sprint. The harder the race the better, which means really trying to find opportunities to be aggressive. That’s definitely the way I like to race.

Races that are not really mountainous but not totally flat either are the ones that suit me. I think the majority of women’s racing is actually that sort of style, which is good. The short, hard climbs like in the Classics and hard one-day races, like in Sweden, Yorkshire and the Women’s Tour are best for me.