Congratulations on adding to your National Road Race title. How does the road season prepare you for racing on the track?
Road season provides a great overall base to lay the intensity of track training and racing upon. The intensity from road racing provides enough stimulus that with a bit of track specificity, such as leg speed, the transition between the two tends to work quite well. Once on the track and in season we put a fair bit of emphasis on track specific workouts based on high power and intensity while still trying to maintain a relatively strong endurance base from the road. The bunch racing skills are also of great value transitioning between the two.
What’s harder, racing on the track or the road?
They are quite different in terms of difficulty and stress. Track is more intense and focused, but has less variables that can play out during the race in terms of weather, group size, course variation, etc. Road has a longer more team focus, but can throw a lot of various elements at you in a race that are outside of your control. Mentally, that can work both ways as a relief or stress. Physically, I don’t think you are racing your bike properly if you’re not hurting by the end, no matter the race.
Was it challenging to compete on the track after such a long season?
I actually took a couple of weeks off the bike after the Pan Am Track Championships (where she won gold in the Madison) at the beginning of the month, so my preparation going in wasn’t ideal, but it did help to eliminate some of the fatigue from road season, which I think was more beneficial and will definitely be in the long run as track season is just starting.
