BRANDAU Elisabeth

General
TEAM FOUNDER
In 2013 she founded her own team, Radon Elisabeth Brandau Energie Racing Team [Radon-EBERacing]. The team consists of more than 24 elite-level athletes, young and amateur athletes. When travelling to events abroad, she often rents a mobile home or sleeps in a tent to save money and be as independent as possible. (bioracer.de, 01 Jan 2019; elisabeth-brandau.de, 01 Jan 2021; krzbb.de, 01 Mar 2021; faulhaber.com, 16 Apr 2019)

MATERNITY BREAK
She has two children and considered quitting sport while on maternity leave in 2017 after the birth of her second child. She returned to cycling in 2018. "After my second son was born, I was completely out of touch with cycling. I probably would have quit if it wouldn't have been for the team meetings [with Radon-EBERacing]. They got me back in the saddle and got me excited about the sport again. I told myself, 'You gave birth to two children, you can do this too'. And I owed it to my team. I compete against Olympians and World Cup participants in these races. Many have no idea that I'm a mother of two, and they are quite surprised when they find out. You can say that mothers get better after pregnancy. Physically, detoxification processes take place, and there was a change in the head, I changed my training. Some people thought I was crazy but not my Radon-EBERacing team. They believe in us as a team and put me mentally back into the saddle. I live for my family, for my job in the health sector and environmental technology, and for my sport." (faulhaber.com, 16 Apr 2019; Instagram profile, 23 Mar 2021)

EARLY STRUGGLES
During her youth in road cycling she battled anorexia. "In competitive sports, eating really causes problems for some athletes. I was one of them. I come from a road cycling background and became anorexic there. The pressure was enormous. Many of my teammates had serious problems with eating. I ruined myself. Few people understand that this emaciation is of no use in the long term. At some point the body will take revenge. I lived and trained without carbohydrates for a while. That does not work if you do intensive sport. If you just want to lose weight, you can do without carbohydrates, but this doesn't work for athletes. I was so exhausted. My new trainer at the time helped me a lot and explained some physiological things to me. That relaxed me and I began to eat without fear of gaining weight." (bike-magazin.de, 01 Jan 2016)