Millie Donald is ready for the junior World Mountain Bike Championships in Andorra

Millie Donald during the Oceania mountain bike championships. Photo / Element Photo and Video Productions

A debilitating bout of glandular fever hasn’t put a spanner in the rising form of promising road cyclist and mountain biker Millie Donald who is set to face her biggest challenge yet.

Donald, 17, from Raumati South, will represent New Zealand in the Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra, a tiny independent principality nestled between France and Spain, in the Pyrenees mountains later this month.

She will be in the junior Under-19 category and expects to be among about 80 riders.

Her selection was gained after success in the U19 mountain bike nationals in Queenstown, in February, and the Oceania mountain bike championships in Brisbane, in March.

Those two wins were extra impressive considering Donald had glandular fever at the end of last year.

The fever knocked her around, and she lost a lot of fitness, but she has bounced back strong although not at the peak of her powers.

“I keep getting sick about every month or so.

“I’ve been trying to train around that.

“I think I have some fairly good natural ability which has saved me a bit in some races.”

It will be a busy time starting with the Czech MTB Cup in Switzerland, then to Belgium to join the Black Magic Women Cycling road team for some races including the GP Plouay in France, before heading to Andorra for the big dance on August 30.

Millie Donald with her Trek Supercaliber mountain bike. Photo / David Haxton

Donald was rearing to go.

“I’ve known that I would go for quite a while so there has been a lot of waiting.

“I’m really excited to see what it’s like over there.

“Obviously mountain biking and road cycling in Europe are much bigger so I’m keen to see what it’s like racing against a larger, stronger and faster field.”

She’s going to soak up the experience and isn’t setting any expectations.

“You don’t want to aim super high and then get disappointed so it’s about giving it your all and hoping for the best.”

Moreover, taking part in the upcoming races “will give me more motivation because riding on the same roads every day gets a bit boring”.

Getting to Europe isn’t cheap and compounded by the fact it’s self-funded.

Donald, who does correspondence school with Te Kura, has had two main fundraisers.

One was a record attempt at a Wellington velodrome.

“In 2018 one of my friend’s older sisters realised there wasn’t a women’s hour record so she went and did it as a fundraiser.

“I thought I would do the same and try and beat the record.

“Lots of people showed up.

“I managed to beat the record by about three kilometres.

“I cycled 36.234km.

The second was at Trevor Rice’s cycling museum in Otaihanga.

“He allowed us to use the museum as an attraction, and we charged entry.

“There was some roller racing, which was fun, and because I work at Dominos they were able to supply some food for us.”

In recent days she received a Cookie Time young athlete grant of $500 which was “really good”.

After Andorra, Donald will partake in the Swiss Bike Cup, before heading home and taking on the junior Tour of Southland cycling race, and the schools’ mountain bike nationals.