2016 UCI Junior Road World Championships; Doha, Qatar.
Time for a break. My final race of the 2016 race calendar season took place earlier this month (October) in Doha, Qatar. I was picked to represent Canada at this years UCI Junior Time Trial and Road Race World Championships.
I was very fortunate that all my teammates on this project were also the same group of girls I had the privilege to race along side at the 2016 UCI Junior Track World Championships this past July in Aigle, Switzerland. It sure has been a crazy whirlwind of traveling and racing this past season, or at least been a busy season for me. I have taken away so much from these experiences and I am excited to carry this knowledge with me on future projects and in the years to come.
This Project didn't start in Doha, before we arrived for the racing my teammates and I had already familiarized ourselves with the Canada house in Tielt-Weinge. We spent two and a half weeks training and racing around Belgium, getting a feel for the cobbles and narrow roads; something to note, pretty much the compete opposite from the roads in Doha!
I wasn't so fortunate in the first week, getting sick before the departure of this whole journey really took its toll on me. I wasn't able to take part in the first Junior Kermesse. After the first week I was then able to participate in the last two races, but this was in the elite categories. It made for some hard, fast racing with extremely strong women. Each race was held at a different venue, you'd have to go search for the registration desk wich ended up being in either a Bar, Pub, Club house or Coffee shop. There were always announcers, huge crowds, follow cars forming what we know as a caravan, and prize money. It was impeccably organized (from the looks of things) the start/finish had a huge arch across the road covered in sponsor labels and brands. It felt as though the race was bigger and more important then just a local race.
Once we had completed all of our training in Belgium we then set off to Qatar.
I had a total of two days to try and get acclimatized to the heat and humidity before I started my first event, the UCI Junior TT World Championships.
The race was hot, even with the air-conditioned buildings and ice vest I could still feel sweat trickling down my face when I was lined up waiting to walk up to the start. My pacing was good, but my numbers were not up. I remember looking down and watching my numbers as they slowly dissipated. Trying to raise them throughout the ride was nearly impossible, and by the end of the race I was light headed and completely over heated. non the less it was a fantastic learning experience, just getting the experience out weighs the result ten to one.
It was a bit of a relief to have four full days of heat training before the road race was under way, we managed to fit in a couple two to three hour days with a few efforts. Hydration was also key. our training rides were out of town, almost bordering the desert. Our follow car would drive behind us to the start of a 24km loop. The car would then wait on the one end of the loop and riders would head out at their own pace. Each time picking up 2-3 bottles before we would set out and do more laps.
On the morning of the road race the temperature was cool, because we had an 8:30 start, the temperature started at mid to high thirty's and progressively got hotter as the day progressed.
Our race started out fast and sketchy to say the least. The first crash happened out of the second roundabout about 800m from the start, and the second which I managed to get caught up in was about 3km in. I remember just watching was the girls around me starting to slam on their brakes, as I looked up it was too late and I went into a pile of bikes. My leg was through my frame and I had other riders all around me also struggling to get up and back on their bikes to try and catch the already passing group. By the time I to up I went to jump on my saddle and I noticed one of my shifters was complete twisted and my chain was off. Once I had sorted out the mechanical's on my bike I was desperate to catch the group, I caught up with two girls, we managed to connect with a group of about 20 who ended up dragging us all the way to the main group. The race wasn't super animated after that, everyone got more comfortable as the race went on. The only place everyone had to be completely alert for was the two feed zones on the course, roughly one every 6km as it was too hot not to have them. Bottles were dropping like rain and the feeders were closing in on the road nearing the end of the feed zone which made dodging people a regular occurrence there. It was only until the last lap when things went completely haywire and girls were trying to organize themselves into their respective teams, but it only seemed like Italy actually got their act together which payed off at the finish.
This whole experience was so amazing and will be fundamental in my growth as an athlete and a cyclist. Having a taste of what racing at this level is like makes me hungry for more!
I would just like to thank all my family, friends, sponsors, supporters and coaches who have got me to where I am today. I can't wait to continue on the path I am now, to grow and learn as an athlete.
Cycling Canada, Bear Mountain Cycling Centre, Broadstreet Cycles, Tripleshot Cycling Club, Cycling BC, CSI Pacific,and the Cycling NextGen Program based in Victoria, BC.
