Definitely NOT a comeback!
Just to set the record straight before racing begins, I AM NOT MAKING A COMEBACK TO CYCLING! Though I am racing the Tour de Grand Montreal this week, it is really just for fun, training and the great opportunity I have to share my experiences and hopefully some racing savvy with the young Specialized-Multisports Team I am helping out a bit this year. Last winter, Specialized Canada contacted me and asked if I would be interested in working a bit with their advocacy programs, one of which being a strong desire to help rebuild women’s cycling in my home province of Quebec. I jumped at the chance to be a part of this long-term project because why have all of this experience if I am not going to share it with others?
Yesterday, I drove into Montreal to see an old friend Ina Teutenburg, who was competing in the World Cup race that cruelly scales Mt.Royal a whopping 11 times. The circuit is simple: each lap contains one third climbing, one third downhill, and then one third flat. The sheer repetition and brutal condition of the roads, combined with yesterday’s rain, made for a race of epic proportions. I am not the best spectator with beautiful weather, let alone rain, so I decided to arrive about two hours into the race and not get too wet or too antsy watching the race unfold. Sporting purple rubber boots (or ‘gummies’ as Australian High Road rider Kate Bates called them) and a big umbrella, I approached the fenced-in race course at Avenue de Parc. My concern of trying to find Ina was relieved as the first rider I saw was Ina, pulling off the race course, dirty and wet. I followed her to her team car and when she saw me, in her typical blunt reply, “Clara, what the f***, you just missed my breakaway- I was off the front for 5 laps!” It’s always good to see Ina because she always makes me laugh, and her tough demeanour that is really just for show save for in bike racing when she will put herself out there no matter how hard the course, how nasty the weather, how much pressure. Ina is one tough chick and a very good friend of mine.
“When I got the keys from our soigneur, there was a lady that was running beside me up the climb, cheering me on, saying ‘you can do it, don’t give up!’ and I kept saying to her my race is over, I’m going to the team car now, my job is done!” Ina joked while cleaning the grime off her legs. Ina is a sprinter that can climb, but this was not a course for her. Instead of just sitting in the bunch and then eventually getting dropped, the team had her charge off the front and make the other, stronger teams in the race chase and use energy. This tactic worked and by the time Ina was caught, key riders had spent time and effort that would haunt them in the end of the race when Ina’s teammate and former winner of the Montreal World Cup, Judith Arndt, made her move. All of the racers talk about the fantastic crowd support in Montreal and the lady Ina was talking about, cheering her on, is one of many that came out despite the rain and supported the racers from all nations.
Me and Ina watching the finish of the race
Photo credit Jeff Fowler & Leigh Hargrove from www.canadiancyclist.com
My teammates, a few of them in the race, did really well in hanging in there as long as they could. I look forward to this week when I can show them, hopefully, some good tactics and motivate them to be animated parts of the race instead of doing what many athletes tend to do: sit and wait. I have no idea how I will be able to survive these races but I just hope I have enough energy to give good support.
I saw many people yesterday from the world of cycling that I had not seen in years. Everyone had seen my name on the start list and I had to explain that no, I am not coming back, and it is really just for fun and support that I am doing this race. One such person I’d not seen in just less than a decade was Jeanne Longo-Ciprelli. Jeanne turns 50 this year and is vying for a spot on the French team for Beijing. It will be her seventh consecutive Olympics if she makes it. It’s impressive to see an athlete at that age still looking every bit the part she did twelve years ago when I raced against her in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. We stood on the podium there together and I will never forget seeing her win that road race, when I was third. I remember thinking ‘this is what it takes to win the Olympics’. Jeanne was 37 at the time, and now that I am training for my fifth Olympics, and realize that I will be 37 if I make it to Vancouver, I can relate to the athlete she was back then. I feel I am in my best years physically and mentally, and fully believe that I can be at my best in 2010. Many people tell me that I am too old, ask me when I am going to retire, and I am only 35 now!
I asked Jeanne about this, and she said with a laugh, ‘My best years were between 30 and 40…I trained perfectly, I had confidence and I did not make mistakes. I knew my body well and had my best races then.’
I’ll remember this the next time someone asks me when I am going to retire!
