Ashley Moolman-Pasio could barely hold back tears as she walked through the mixed zone after the elite women's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships. Her frustration after a season of bad luck had culminated in an ill-timed mechanical problem that forced her to replace her bike.

"I don't understand why," Mourman-Pasio told Cycling News. It's mechanicals again." This past year has been a series of mechanicals and crashes.

Moolman-Pasio went into the time trial confident of a top 10 finish, but she was aiming for a top 5. The 30km course was flat for the first 14km, then hilly until the technical final in Harrogate. It suited her strengths and skills. She took the start, but it wasn't long after the opening chute in Ripon that her bike showed signs of trouble.

"I started the time trial and slipped a bit going down the chute. But I didn't think too much about it," Moolman-Pasio said.

"I kept changing from big blades to small blades. If I tried to stay in the small blade and change to an easier gear, I'd jump two or three gears. If I tried to go down one gear, I'd go down three. It was crazy, and it messed with my rhythm."

Moolman-Pasio did not want to change bikes right away. She hoped the gears would settle down, but it didn't work out. She eventually stopped to change bikes on the second climb, but by then it was too late. She had lost a lot of time from the other top 10 riders.

"I didn't want to change bikes, but I was at a point where I had no choice. 'The time it took to swap bikes wasn't ideal. But once I did it, the second bike was much better and I was able to find my rhythm.

"But we had already lost momentum and it was game over. It just didn't happen."

Moolman-Pasio started the season on a high note. She signed a new contract with CCC-Liv and will race with her longtime mentor, Marianne Vos. She had strong prospects for the spring classics, the midsummer stage races, and the world championships.

To say the least, her season did not go as planned. Almost from the start, she has been plagued by bad luck after bad luck.

Her first crash came at the Tour de Flanders. Her wheel got stuck in a crack in the middle of the road. She told Cycling News that she "hit the ground hard, slid across the road into a ditch, got stung by nettles and stopped."

She also crashed in the final sprint in the Amstel Gold Race. She finished seventh in Flèche, but found herself more injured than she had previously thought; an MRI scan revealed that her L4 and L5 vertebrae were compressed.

She thought her season was over, but after consulting with her coaches and doctors, she was allowed to return to competition at the Tour of California, where she finished third overall; at the Giro Rosa in July, she placed fourth. He had hoped for better results in both races, but considering the training and racing interruptions caused by his previous injuries, it was a strong performance.

With a strong second half of the season, she turned her attention to preparing for the World Championships (time trial and road race).

However, cycling can often be a test of will rather than strength or skill. This season, Moolman-Pasio has been at the mercy of luck.

"It's a pile-up," she told Cycling News. 'It's one race after another. I'm sorry I'm so emotional. I try not to be, but it builds up throughout the year. I know these things are going to happen, maybe two or three times, maybe 10 or 15 times."

Moolman-Pasio tried to quell the frustration stemming from her time trial result, in which she finished 32nd, 6:15 slower than newly crowned world champion Chloe Dygert-Owen.

Instead, she weighed her prospects in Saturday's elite women's road race.

The women will ride 150km from Bradford, heading north to Masham in North Yorkshire before heading south to the undulating three finish circuit in Harrogate.

"Everything will be better than this year. If we can have a smoother race, that will be an accomplishment."

Moolman-Pasio would really welcome a race without crashes and mechanics. Luck aside, on strength and skill alone, she is one of the top contenders for the world title.

The route is similar to the Ardennes Classics, which Mourmand-Pasio has always preferred to run. Moolman-Pasio has shown her strength in these three competitions over the years. Last year, she finished second in Flèche Wallonne and fourth in Liège-Bassagne-Liège, and the season before that she finished in the top 10 in all three races.

"I love classic-type routes. I'm a classic rider. I love the unpredictability of the race, the challenge, the exhaustion," Mourmain-Pasio said, gradually regaining his positive outlook.

"I have hope. If everything goes my way, which it didn't this year, but ...... I'll have hope."

"Once again, I wish you luck."