I was interviewed for an article that appeared in some of the Metroland papers, including the Arnprior Chronicle-Guide and the West Carleton Review, a couple of weeks ago. I grew up in the West Carleton area and went to High School in Arnprior, so it was neat to be featured in those papers.

Thanks to my friend, Jennifer Higginson, for mailing me a copy.

You can read the full article online here:
http://www.yourottawaregion.com/localprofile/article/806523–making-the-news

My Team!

Here’s a link to a feature article about my team, “Stevens racing Presented by the Cyclery”, that appeared today on Canadiancyclist.com.

http://canadiancyclist.com/cycling4women_features.php?id=18969

I’m looking forward to a 3rd season racing with these women!

You can read more about my team here:
www.stevensracingcanada.com

Here are some pictures from my trip to Europe as part of the 2010 World Championship Canadian National Track Cycling team. We spent a week in Apeldoorn, Holland before going into Copenhagen, Denmark for the World Championships. Apeldoorn is the sight of the 2011 World Championships, so this was a good opportunity for us to get to know the track before next year’s Worlds while adjusting to jet lag before the competition began in Copenhagen.

Photos are courtesy of Fred Draisma – a cyclist, Canadian team fan and talented photographer who came out to watch our training sessions in Apeldoorn.

Team Pursuit training…

Tara and I discovering “Canada Lane” in Apeldoorn, Holland.
Photo courtesy Tanya Dubnicoff

Canadian Cycling Association

02.23.10 – Canadian Track Team Announcement for Worlds

February 23, 2010 – The UCI has announced the qualification quotas for the upcoming World Track Championships in Copenhagen March 24-28, 2010. Canada started the international season with a successful Panamerican Championships, setting 1 Pan Am record, 5 Canadian Records, and winning 7 medals. Small teams were sent to the first two World Cups where newcomers to the Elite International scene gained valuable experience. Full teams competed in the last two World Cups where Canadian continued to set Canadian records and personal bests in every event they entered and came home with 6 medals. The success of the riders has earned the team starts in 11 events.

Team veteran and Olympian Zach Bell will be competing in the Points Race and Scratch Race. He won gold medals in both of these events at the World Cup in Beijing and is currently ranked second in the World in the points race. At the 2009 World Championships Bell gained a wild card entry in to the omnium, a new Olympic event, and came home with the silver medal. He finds himself in the same position going in to Copenhagen and does not currently have a start position.

Travis Smith, who is also a veteran of the National Team Program, will be competing in the Sprint and Keirin. He has had his strongest season so far since crashing and breaking his hip in 2007 and is pleased with how his training is going heading in to Worlds.

Smith will be joined by Stephane Cossette and Joseph Veloce for the Team Sprint. The team started their partnership with a bang by posting the third fastest time in qualifying at the third World Cup in Cali where they finished 4th. All three members are training in LA before leaving for Worlds where they hope put together a fast and technical perfect performance and improve on their 8th place World ranking.

Monique Sullivan will represent Canada in the 500 meter time trial and the Keirin. She has placed in the top 10 in both events in World Cups and is looking to do the same in Copenhagen.

Tara Whitten, World Silver medalist in the Omnium last year is looking to take one more step on the podium this year. She will compete in the Individual Pursuit and Points Race, events that she is currently ranked 3rd and 4th in the World respectively. Laura Brown, Steph Roorda, and reserve rider Julia Bradley will join Whitten in the Team Pursuit. This team has set a new Canadian record 3 of the 4 times they have raced internationally and placed on the podium each time winning a gold and bronze medal. Currently ranked 3rd in the World, these determined women have their sites set high for the World Championships.

Most of the team have set up a home base in LA over the winter months and will head to the Netherlands for a training camp before arriving in Copenhagen on March 20th. Fans are encouraged to cheer on the team via the wall on facebook (Canadian Track Cycling).

http://canadian-cycling.com/cca/media/news/2010/0223_track.shtml

Fri, Aug. 28/09
Today was Day One of track competition for me. I qualified 3rd in the Individual Pursuit this morning which put me straight through to the bronze medal final this evening. I was racing against Steph Roorda in the final. It was a seesaw battle that saw the lead change many times. In the end, I won in a respectable time of 3:58.

Sat, Aug 29/09
Today was the Points race. It was 20km (100 laps) with sprints every 10 laps. I was in a group of 3 that lapped the field and duked it out for the top 2 places. I won the bronze medal in one a very aggressive points race.

Sun, Aug 30/ 09
Today was the final day of the National Championships. I raced in the 10km scratch race. It was 50 laps of the 200 metre track.

Three laps into the race, Laura Brown attacked. A Quebec rider was in front of me and she got out of her saddle to go with the break. Her chain snapped with the acceleration and I was stuck behind her to try and maneuver around. I had to “put on the brakes” then steer up and over.

Fortunately, everyone stayed upright but there was a break of three (Rachel Canning, Laura Brown and Tara Whitten) already one third of the way around the track. I put the hammer down and caught the remaining group. When I got to the front I drove it as hard as I could to try to get up to the break. Unfortunately, no one was able to stay with me so I put my head down and chased and chased and chased. I was chasing solo for a total of 27 laps.

One of the riders in the break of three (Rachel Canning) got dropped and the remaining two (Laura Brown and Tara Whitten) caught and lapped me. I jumped on their wheel and sat on until Canning was caught and I “unlapped” her. At this point the four of us were together with about 5 laps to go. Tara and Laura were set to battle for gold and I was duking it out for bronze with Rachel Canning. It was like two match sprints happening simultaneously. With 2.5 laps to go, I jumped and came across the line for a bronze medal.

I believe I was seeing stars for about an hour afterwards. It felt like I’d done a 50 lap pursuit! I was happy with the result given the bad luck I had at the beginning of the race. This was a good reminder for me never to give up. You just never know what can happen!

My results for the weekend:
Bronze medal: Individual Pursuit
Bronze medal: Points Race
Bronze medal: Scratch Race

Additional coverage on the Canadian Cycling Association’s website:

http://www.canadian-cycling.com/cca/media/news/2009/0829_tracknationals.shtml

Check out the cool article on my sister, Charlotte’s yoga blog. And I always thought tapas was just Spanish cuisine!

http://www.yogaflavoredlife.com/philosophy/what-is-tapas-bringing-fiery-enthusiasm-to-your-yoga-practice.html

Calabogie Ontario Cup Road Race

This weekend marked the first race of the year with my new road team, Stevens Racing presented by the Cyclery. I finished on the podium in 2nd place. After being in a breakaway for the last 40 km of the 75 km race, it was a drag race to the line. My teammate, Sophie Matte finished 4th in the sprint and Trish K. Spooner and Sue Schlatter finished with the pack. Congrats to all the finishers!

2008 Road Racing Season

Here are some pics from my 2008 racing season. I raced for the EMD Serono Stevens womens team. I did alot of travelling and racing in the US (primarily New York and Vermont) in the spring – Jiminy Peaks, Hollenbeck, Bear Mountain, Syracuse stage race and one or 2 others I can’t remember! As a team, we raced the Calabogie Ontario Cup, where I placed 4th, the Montreal World Cup, the tour de PEI UCI stage race and National Road Championships in Beauce, Quebec. That is where my season ended. I got caught behind a crash that I could not avoid on a high speed descent and went down hard. My collarbone fractured in 4 places and I required surgery to have a plate put in.

This is me, Trish and Sophie in Syracuse after Sophie finished on the podium in the stage race.

Montreal World Cup – epic conditions and poor Quebec roads made for an interesting race. I was happy with how I raced, and impressed with my teammate, Sue Schlatter’s, 33rd place in a World Class field. Just for the record, this Stevens road bike is the lightest and stiffest bike I’ve ever ridden. What a treat!

Trish and me racing together at the World Cup in Montreal.

EMD Serono Stevens Women’s team at the tour de PEI.
l to r: Sue, me, Ireen, Sophie, Trish, Julie (DS)

This is me and Sophie on a bus shelter in Charlottetown, PEI! Apparently we were the poster girls for the ’08 tour de PEI. The picture was from ’07. Sophie is in red and yellow and I’m in the blue Advil jersey right beside Sophie. We always seem to be close to one another in races so it was pretty funny to see us on the bus shelter, especially because we were on different teams last year.

My piece ran on CBC Radio’s “Outfront” last night! If you missed it, you can listen to it online:

http://www.cbc.ca/outfront/listen/2008/08-02-21.html

Like a Pack of Wolves
by Julia Bradley

Julia Bradley lives and breathes bicycle racing. An elite athlete, she reveals the animal instincts that give a competitor the jump on the pack in a sport where one dare not show weakness.

Producers: Lindsay Michael & Neil Sandell

Track World Cup #4 – Copenhagen, Denmark

The 4th and final World Cup race was held in Copenhagen, Denmark over the weekend. I raced in 3 races at the World Cup. Saturday was the Pursuit and Scratch race and Sunday was the Points race.

Individual Pursuit:
Personal best performances and strange races were the theme of the day on Saturday. I did a 3:55Pursuit, a personal best by 0.2 seconds and 5 seconds faster than I did at the LA World Cup, where I was sick. My first lap was a bit slow and I threw in a quick 2nd lap and set a good pace on the third lap. I started to fade a bit in the 2nd kilometre and was passed by a Russian rider as I came into the home straight with 4 laps (1km) to go. This is usually good motivation for me as it gives me something to focus on and a rabit to chase. Unfortunately, the Russian slowed down after passing me like someone had jumped on her back. I actually had to back right off to avoid drafting just when I wanted to give my finishing kick. I even contemplated repassing her, but that is illegal by UCI rules, and I would have been disqualified had I done that. So for my last kilo, I was stuck behind her going slower than I wanted to. It was quite a strange situation and I was disappointed that I couldn’t have really killed it in the last kilo, as I felt that I may have been able to take up to 2 seconds off my time. However, it was a personal best and that’s always a good thing! End result: 20th.

Scratch Race:
A few hours later, my focus was on the Scratch race qualifier. I had the race of my life. I felt strong, confident and raced better than I’ve ever raced. It was 20 laps (5km) and 12 riders from each of the 2 heats go through to the final. Once the pack got rolling, the speed remained high for the duration. I felt comfortable moving around the pack and my legs felt great with the quick pace. With 3 laps to go, I jumped into a hole in the pole lane and the wave of riders seemed to be moving well in that line. I was in a great position coming into the bell lap (1 lap to go) and just needed to hold my position to get through in the top 12. We crossed the finish line and I had no trouble hanging onto the group. I even had the feeling that I could have gone faster if there weren’t riders in front of me. I finished somewhere in the top 12 which should have put me through to the World Cup final. However…..

As we approached that last lap, going into what I thought was the finish, the bell rang again. Some riders heard this and some didn’t. Some riders slowed down like the race was over and some sped up like they were going into the last lap of a scratch race. As a result of the confusion, there was a crash and the crash was right in front of me. I had nowhere to go but over a person/bike, and down I went. I suffered some scratches, bruising, and a good hit on the lower back, which seemed to shift my back and pelvis out of whack. I also cracked my helmet and took a piece out of my disc wheel.

I am quite sure that the person who was running the lap counter screwed up. Early in the race, a solo rider took a lap on the pack. That meant the pack should race for only 19, not 20 laps. I believe that the first finish bell was for 19 laps when the race really should have ended and the second bell was for 20 laps, and was a mistake by the officials. I was given a result based on the “second” finish (after I crashed). Because the crash took place within a lap of the finish, they still gave me an official placing of 15th – everyone who crashed got placed at the back of the pack, but it was not enough to go through to the final.

As much as the end result was disappointing for me, I knew that I had raced my best ever scratch race. My preparation was good, my speed was great and my fitness was there.

Points Race:
I woke up Sunday feeling pretty banged up but warmed up and got ready for the points race. The race was 10 km with 4 sprints. The gun went off after the neutral lap and I attacked. 3 of us were off the front. As soon as I tried to put power on the pedals, I knew my legs weren’t going to cooperate. The hit I took on my left SI joint from the previous day’s crash had shifted my lower back and pelvis and I had trouble putting out power. I struggled to pull through with my breakaway companions. We stayed away for the first sprint and and I picked up a point which put me in 4th position after sprint #1. The pack caught us somewhere between the first and second sprint. It was all I could do to sit in and when the pace picked up, I was off the back alone. Eventually, I was lapped by the field and finished outside of the top 12. I knew why I was hurting but at least I’d tried something in the race.

My coach, Steve, puts things into perspective and I’ll quote him directly: “There’s an important lesson here. Sometimes you actually ride very well but things happen that make so that the actual quality of your effort doesn’t show up on the scoreboard or results. In those instances, it’s very important to be aware of what you’ve accomplished and how it is good. The results only tell a small part of what actually happens in a competition.”

My preparation leading up to this weekend was good and I felt that I was on par with the best in the world. This weekend marks the end of my track season and the beginning of a short period of rest and relaxation before road racing season begins. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those who have made it possible for me to compete on the 2007/ 2008 International Track cycling circuit.

Firstly, I am grateful to Planet Energy for sponsoring the Team R.A.C.E. Pro Track Team for the second year.

Thank you to my sponsors at Oakley and System Fitness. I am grateful to my coach, Steve Karpik, whose dedication and belief in me is unwavering. Thanks also to my strength trainer, Dennis Lindsay.

I was very touched by the generosity of several individuals who made donations to my World Cup racing fund. I’d like to acknowledge each one. Thank you: Peter Mansbridge, Deen Karim, Donna Morissette, Nancy Kelly, Abby Thom, Ian Kalushner, Andrea Cardillo, Mary Mather, Nicholas Tustin, Ronda Clanfield ,Knowlton Nash and Lorraine Thompson-Nash, Geraldine Connelly, Monica and Jonathan Whitten, Richard Rogers, Elizabeth Johnson, Tamir Kojfman, Leslie Stojsic, Mark and Rhonda Bulgutch, Gail Chang, Jennifer Leask, Micheal D’Souza, Melinda Lehman, Anne Carroll, Toni Tosti, Michael Santianni, Alison Smith, Mark Harrison and Jennifer Harwood, Steph Jenzer, Vish Gajadhar, Jeff Goldhar, Terry Auciello and Ruby Buiza, Romilla Karnick, Kalli Roger and Stephen Booth, Carmine Caravaggio, Jeff Keay. Thanks also to Fred Parker who helped drum up support for my endeavours.

I must also thank Todd Hayes for loaning me his front disc wheel for the Pursuit.

As always, a very special thank you is reserved for Sherali, who has been a constant source of support and inspiration. And finally, to my family and friends who are always supportive of my endeavours to realize my potential as an athlete and proud of me no matter how things go.