I raced in the Superior Glass Classic at the Burnaby Velodrome over the long weekend. It was my first big dose of track racing in many years (aside from team pursuits) and I had so much fun! I finished 2nd in the ‘A’ category behind Kyle Buckosky while tied with Eric Johnstone (current Jr. Men’s Omnium silver medalist).

What was most exciting and inspiring was seeing a group of 17 youth/development women from all over, out at the track training all day and racing all night. SEVENTEEN!! Everyone was talking about how the most exciting sprint rounds of Saturday morning were from this category. There was also an incredible showing of youth/devo men.

Kudos to Jeff Ain, as well as Rachel Canning and Mike Rothengatter for organizing and executing such an incredible camp for all these young women and men.

Now for some press:

http://www.localride.ca/wp/2012/11/13/maggie-wins-superior-glass-track-omnium/

http://pedalmag.com/?p=177525&c

Thanks to the BVC, Kelyn Akuna, Jeremy Storie and all those who made the race happen. Thanks Aidan Mouellic for the picture! And Skinetex for holding my knee together all weekend.

The 2012 Pan American Cycling Championships were held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. After about 30 hours of travel (including a 100km bus ride that ended up being almost 8 hours) we arrived to the beautiful ocean front, European inspired city.

We were only able to train twice on the track before race day so we were quick to learn how to ride the track as a cohesive unit and get over the travel and jet-lag. It is autumn in Argentina right now and during training we were faced with up to 50km/h wind gusts and some rain. Usually, the elements would not be an issue in track cycling competitions, but the Mar del Plata’s velodrome is 250m outdoor concrete. Thankfully the three of us (Steph Roorda, Allison Beveridge, and myself) are experienced track riders and grew up racing on outdoor concrete velodromes in Canada (CBTL!). We knew how to ride a team pursuit in the wind and we knew that not only our fitness, but our technical abilities would set us apart even more from the other teams present. We were confident and excited going into the qualifier on March 5.

We qualified 2nd next to Venezuela and earned our ticket into the Gold medal final later that evening. Despite posting a slower qualifying time than the other team, our team was motivated to show that we can go faster and stepped up with a new race plan and crossed the line in first place. It was a great feeling knowing we executed our plan perfectly and would go home with a gold medal.

Steph and I have been national team and road racing teammates for many years now and it was great to be able to ride with youngster Allison Beveridge and get her hooked on WTP! She is fresh out of the junior racing category and this was her first senior Pan American Championships. It was inspiring to ride with such emerging talent and be able to share as much experience with her as possible.

The 2012 Pan American Championships were the 2nd last event to gain Olympic qualification points and the final race before the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia in the beginning of April. Over the past 2 years we have been traveling the world, racing, and picking up points. Our WTP was sitting 7th ( the top-10 teams qualify for the Olympics) and it was critical to come to this race and well, win, to  further solidify our ranking. After winning the gold medal, picking up a couple hundred points, and taking home a Pan American champions jersey (and a quick dip in the Atlantic), we feel like the mission was accomplished. Now I will recover and begin my build for the final race of the track season before the 2012 Olympic Games, the World Championships.

Thank-you to Mike and John – our two lone staff members who handled the entire team from airport pick-up logistics to gluing tubular tires. You guys are awesome!

Thank-you to everyone back home from their constant support and encouragement. I am thankful to have so many people behind me and our team. And a big thank you to Local Ride and Dr. Vie Superfoods+  for all you do!

PS. It is pretty cool to have won the Pan Am Games and the Pan Am Champs in the same year

This was my 4th time traveling to Colombia for a bike race and my 3rd time competing at the Cali World Cup. Cali holds a special place in my heart as this is where, in 2009, I won gold medal in the team pursuit with my fellow teammates, Steph Roorda and Tara Whitten. Since then, there has been a sense of nostalgia every time I come back to this track. One never forgets the first time you get to throw your arms in the air after a win while wearing the maple leaf on your back. I would like to think that of that moment as the one that jump-started my track cycling career.

But back to the current times… This was the first race Tara, myself, and Steph have done together this year so it was exciting to suit up with them and see what we can do this time around. We were on world record pace for the first 2km and we were about to qualify first with only 2 laps (500m) to go. But there is a reason it is called a team pursuit. The final time is taken when the front wheel of the 3rd rider crosses the line. I was on the front for the finish and when I crossed the line and saw no one beside me (we finish stacked up across the track to minimize lost time) and then looked back and to watch the rest of my team cross the line seconds after me (seconds is significant when we are talking about missing the medal rounds by, for example, 0.001 last year), my heart sunk. You don’t get a medal for winning the 2.5k mark in the team pursuit and almost never counts. The reality of it all is that at the end of the race, we could not hold onto the pace we had set early on, we did not break the Canadian record, our final time was slower than both World Cups prior, we did not finish together as a team, we did not get the chance to battle it out for medals, and we placed 7th.

We took a risk and sometimes the outcome doesn’t always reflect what you set out to accomplish. Call me corny, but as Wayne Gretzky says, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. We did not go out and do a safe, pretty ride to come in 7th…we tried to do some spectacular and well, we blew up spectacularly!

This World Cup was bittersweet. We are showing great promise. With a little more team practice and a little better race plan, we will nail it for the Olympic Test Event in London, England in February (our next race). These past two seasons of qualification is all a process for the Olympics next summer and THAT is where it counts.

I believe, do you?

The Pan American Games are the second largest summer sporting event in the world, next to the Olympic Games. Being only 10 months before the next Summer Olympic Games in London, we thought it would be a wise idea to get some Major Games experience.

Local Ride road racing teammates, Steph Roorda, Jasmin Glaesser, and I headed down to Guadalajara, Mexico for all of our first Major Games representing the Canadian Team. I was selected to compete in the individual time trial, team pursuit, and road race.

The time trial course suited me well with four turnarounds (lots of standing starts!), four times through a cobbled, round-a-bout, and 20km total. It was mostly flat with some long sections of (deceptively hard) false-flat inclines. I was excited to be selected for the time trial as I really love to time trial, yet I have had little international racing opportunities.

Pre-riding the course was near impossible as it was situated in the bustling, heart of downtown Guadalajara (pop. 1.6 million), thereby I made quite a few technical errors on my first lap. But I cleaned up my ride considerably to negative split my second and final lap. The finish line was through The Arcos Vallarta (an iconic roundabout similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and about 4km from the final turnaround. This is where the Cuban rider that started 1 minute ahead of me was within my reach. It is amazing how much more you can suffer when you have a carrot! I had a lot of people along the course cheering for Canada and that was so very special and motivating. It felt like I was on of their out there. I finished the ride only 20 seconds back from the winner and won a Bronze Medal. I was ecstatic! Going into the time trial, I did not know if a medal was within my reach as most of the names on the start list were unfamiliar to me. All I could do was ride as hard as possible and see where I stacked up. It was a great start to the Games.

A couple of days later was the Women’s Team Pursuit. Steph and I have been members of the Canadian National Team since 2009, and were excited to have Jasmin Glaesser join us in wearing the Maple Leaf (for her very first time!). In the qualifying round, we were first up and this was without a doubt, a little nerve racking. We were a medal favorite in this event and we were having to set “the time to beat.” We gave it everything we had and broke the Canadian record with a time of 3:25.093. After sitting through seven more teams set qualifying times, we had made it through onto the Gold medal final against Cuba. Yes, we set a faster time than them, but we knew we could go faster and we had to – Cuba was going to put up a fight in the final. We changed our race plan slightly and with the temperature of the velodrome reaching almost 30 degrees Celsius, accompanied by the adrenaline of making it into the Gold medal final at a Games and a packed stadium (including Canadian track legend Curt Harnett), we were able to shave 3.6 seconds off our initial time. We won the Gold Medal and set another Pan American and Canadian record of 3:21.4 (only 1.8 seconds off the World Record). We were given a standing ovation from the crowd, again reinstating the positive relationship between Canada and Mexico.

I personally have raced for Canada ever since a Women’s Team Pursuit has been sent to compete at an international level, and our Gold medal ride was the best one yet for Canada. It was technically near flawless and we went faster than we have ever gone. But this is only the beginning. There are more great things to come and records to be broken in the next 10 months leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for the Women’s Team Pursuit.

A big thank-you to the Canadian Olympic Committee, Own The Podium, the Canadian Cycling Association, and COPAG for allowing such a successful Games to happen, not only for me or the cyclists, but all athletes who were competing. I can’t wait for another. Let’s hope this was the first Games of many more to come for me…

Here are some pictures of the events mostly (I’ll post some personal photos later, eg. Opening Ceremony,  village life, other events I watched, etc.)

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It’s official!

From a lovely email: “On behalf of the Canadian Cycling Association and the staff who will be working with you during the Games, congratulations on being nominated to these 2011 PAN AMERICAN GAMES.”

This will be my first major games experience (the biggest games I have ever gone to was the Canada Summer Games in 2005).

They Pan Am Games will be held in Guadalajara Mexico, October 16-23.

This is an integral part of my development to be ready mentally and emotionally for the Olympic Games next summer.

Yahoo!

Click here to read the article from CTV Olympics about the team selection

Canadian Track Women Take Trexlertown, Pensylvania By Storm

After the 2011 Canadian Track National Championships in Bromont, QC, “a mix of riders came together and contributed their respective strengths towards a great training and racing environment for two weeks” in Trexlertown (“T-Town”), PA, explained Jasmin Glaesser.

Most of the mornings and afternoons were spent training at the track, with either a long road ride in the evening or racing in the local Tuesday and Friday night events to complement the volume and intensity we were trying to achieve.

Three-time World Cup medalist and National Track Team rider, Steph Roorda, explained “these last two weeks [as] really great. We got loads of hard work done on the track. It was nice to come and ride the outdoor concrete for a change, it lent itself well to the hard work we needed to do. The racing was also really fun. I have missed weekly track racing in the last year, and I was happy to race hard when i could.”

The Team won the omnium every night, while also winning the other top spots on the podium. B.C. road racer, Shoshauna Laxson, had been on the track only a handful of times before coming down to T-Town. She described her first race as “a lot of fun. I was really nervous since it was my first track race ever. Group positioning was tricky at the beginning, but I got used to it as the race progressed, it just felt like a really short Criterium!”

The folks of T-Town were very accommodating to us Canucks and despite Mother Nature, everything ran smoothly thanks to the Valley Preferred Cycling Center.

National Women’s Team Pursuit Coach, Olympian, and former T-Town training camper, Tanya Dubnicoff said, “T-Town brings back great memories for me! The ambiance is so friendly it feels like home! I was very pleased with the camp. All athletes pushed themselves beyond what was done in previous training sessions with some exciting racing as well! The weather gave us some challenges: torrential rains, thunderstorms, hurricane warnings, and even an earthquake!”

This development camp is an exciting start to the 2011-2012 Olympic Track Season. For more information on the women’s team pursuit program please visit the Canadian Cycling Association’s website: www.canadian-cycling.com

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We raced on the newly re-surfaced, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Velodrome once again this year for the 2011 Canadian National Track Championships.

It was a fun week with much success from all Cycling BC riders. I mostly avoided the rain this year around, watched some great bike racing, hung out with my mom who flew across the country to watch me race, and explored the townships of Quebec on my road bike.

My total medal haul was 2 gold and 4 silver! The biggest surprise of the week was Team Pursuit rider Steph Roorda and myself winning the Team Sprint! What a whirl wind of a week.

And as always, thank-you Tim for the pictures:

Check out our road and track team sponsor’s video:

A geat kick-start to the 2011-2012 (OLYMPIC) Track Season!

For 2011, The Cascade Cycling Classic has been given an NRC ranking of 2.2 (!!) It is the longest consecutively run elite stage race in the country and has attracted most of North America’s top cyclists and teams over the years. The quality of the race courses, the beauty of Central Oregon and the fun atmosphere of the race has made it a perennial favorite and has the competitors returning year after year.

I rode with Cycling BC alongside fellow BC folk and guest rider extraordinaire, Clara Hughes. It was a hard race, but I was happy to get some major quality and quantity of road training in, help Clara in her yellow jersey, and spend time in beautiful Bend, Oregon. The team had a stage win, a stage second place, held and defended the leaders jersey for two days, a podium in Best Young Rider category, and a podium in the overall race. Excellent results and proof that all the support provided to Cycling BC and the effort put in by the riders is paying dividends.

Now I get to go camping (!!!!) before getting ready for our very-early-in-the-track-season, track nationals!

What a great way to bring Superweek to an end!

Tour de Whiterock is a hard race and we dominated. We had some hiccups during Superweek with tactics and were defeated many times in sprint finishes and so forth. But we came together as a team for the White Rock weekend, raced our bikes as hard as we could, and kicked butt.

We took 1st (me), 2nd (Jasmin), 3rd (Jenny) in the hill climb, 2nd (me) and 3rd (Jasmin) in the criterium, and 1st (Jasmin) and 2nd (me) in the road race. I won the overall and Jasmin was second.

Great teamwork all around! Did you know Tour de Whiterock has been going on for ~30 years? I am stoked to have won it this time around.

Now we are heading down for the annual BMC Cascade Cycling Classic (NRC), July 19-24, Bend, Oregon. I hear there are a lot of hills…let the summer-time road training camp continue!

By Guest Blogger, Jenny Lehmann of Local Ride Racing/Dr. Vie Superfoods+

The Giro di Burnaby, Superweek BC’s third event, was a 1.85km course with 8 corners corners, however, no major obstacles besides the wind. The raceheated up during the second and third lap with Laura, Jess and Steph attacking one after the other. During the fourth lap, just as Steph was brought back to the group I counter attacked down the straight away and managed to get a gap, with Trek’s Julia Garnet on my wheel. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it would stick, however, we worked hard as a unit until we eventually had a significant gap of about 40 seconds on the peleton. By now we realized that both of our teams were supporting the break and evidently none of the other teams were willing to chase either, letting the gap grow to a minute and 40 seconds. It was reassuring to know that my teammates had faith in me to win the race, so now all I had to do was figure out how.

I knew that if it came down to a sprint, the odds were in my favor, though it was more likely to come down to a game of cat and mouse, first. Knowing that Julia is a strong time trialist I knew she would want to attack me early and try to get away, as did she with 4 laps remaining. Unfortunately I wasn’t as sharp as I should have been as she caught me off guard and launched a strong attack, which I wasn’t able to follow. I dug deep and tried to bridge up to her, but unfortunately I had nothing left in the tank, and finished second.

Though it wasn’t the finish we hoped for, we are riding as a strong cohesive unit and confident in our ability to ride strong on the hills at White Rock this weekend.

She forgot to mention we won the crowd prime too! Thank to the city of Burnaby, the sponsors, the volunteers, and the people that came out to support the race and cheer us on – I’m glad it’s back, now let’s make it even bigger!