2024 World Champs Recap
By: Ellie Winchell
Just a few days after racing XCO National Championships I received a very exciting email from Cycling Canada. I had been selected to go to World Championships in Pal Arinsal, Andorra!! I was overjoyed; my big goal for the XC race season was to qualify for World Championships, I knew it was a big ask of myself based on how I compared to the other girls and that just made it so much sweeter when it happened. I was set to travel just two weeks after being told that I was going to get to go so I booked some flights and sent my bike right to the bike shop to get everything dialed and make sure we had time to get any parts before I had to leave. The two weeks I had at home were jam packed with big training days and a lot of time teaching swimming lessons at the pool. It was pretty busy and full on for “summer vacation” but I loved every minute of it especially knowing that all my training was going towards performing well at World Championships.
Getting to Andorra and Race Prep
In order to get to Andorra, it took about 48hrs of traveling from Powell River. The first day was one ferry ride and about 2 hours of driving to get to Gibsons, we slept there and hopped on another ferry at about 6 in the morning and headed straight to the Vancouver Airport. The first flight was a 5.5hr flight to Montreal. I had a super quick layover there, then I was on the next plane to Barcelona, Spain. In Barcelona I met up with the rest of Team Canada and we found all of our luggage, ate some food, and I still could not tell you what meal it was. It felt like dinner, but it was technically breakfast time in Barcelona because of the 9 hour time difference. Once everyone got to Barcelona, we loaded up the rental vehicles with a crazy amount of luggage (bike racers do not travel light). It was a 3-hour drive to Andorra. Before this trip I did not even know that Andorra existed, it is a tiny country in the mountains between Spain and France.
Once we got settled into the hotel, we went straight into race prep. The biggest factor for the race was venue was altitude. The course was about 2000m above sea level and our hotel was 1500m above sea level. Going from about 5m of elevation at my house to the 1500m at the hotel was a big jump, especially while trying to train and make sure my body was ready to race. The first two days were focused on adapting to the altitude as well as the time change. In order to accomplish that it was important to make sure I was eating at proper mealtimes, doing chill zone 2 rides, and getting lots of sleep. Once we had settled into a bit of a rhythm it was time to check out the course. I rode the course for the first time on Monday and race day was on Friday so there was a lot of time to check out the course and dial in all of my lines. The course was one of my all-time favorites, it had steep gravel climbs and lots of natural techy descents, XC courses – especially in eastern Canada have a lot of manmade features that can be awkward to ride. This course was very natural except for a little section of pump track and a gap jump which was very very fun. While pre-riding it was important to keep it chill because with steep climbs and high altitude it is very easy to get your heart rate super high and get fatigued easily, which is not ideal for race week.
Approaching the Big Day
The night before the race we had a big Team Canada photoshoot with all of the XC and Downhill racers. It was very cool to be in the same picture as people like Emilly Johnson, Gracey Hemstreet, Emmy Lan, and Carter Woods. Right after the team picture I had a super big
dinner and got started on prepping all of my race day stuff. I pinned my number onto my jersey, filled all of my bottles up, put gels and cliff bars into my jersey pockets, put out my tool kit, helmet, glasses, gloves and all of the things I would need for a big day of racing and cheering. I was starting to get quite nervous and excited at that point, so I had to take a melatonin to make sure I was properly rested for race day.
Race morning wake up was at 7am so that I could eat my breakfast three hours before my race started at 10. Me and the other Junior girls rode down the road from the hotel to the Gondola that took us up to the course. I think that was the most stressful gondola ride of my life. Once we got up to the team tent I checked tire pressures, lubed my chain, and taped my gels to my top tube. There was about half an hour of just sitting and waiting until warm up time which is definitely better than being rushed but still not great because all you can do is think about the race. Finally, it was warm up time. I ate my cliff bar and had my last run to the bathroom, I put my air Pods in and started spinning. My nerves cleared almost instantly because of the familiar routine of going through the steps in my warmup. With fifteen minutes until the start, I went to the start gates and found my spot. It was super busy with about sixty girls at the gates, which is a lot more than I am used to. It felt very busy and crowded, especially with people spinning on rollers and coaches staying with their athletes. My goals for the race were to push myself as hard as possible and keep a positive mindset the whole time. My hope was to finish with a top 40 which I thought was achievable based on my UCI ranking.
Post-race: “I want to do that again!”
The start of the race was very fast and aggressive, but I surprised myself with how I managed to move up in the group instead of dropping back like I normally do. About ten minutes later I realized that maybe a strong start was not a good thing. I had so much adrenaline in my system that I did not feel how hard I was really pushing. I ended up digging myself into a bit of a hole from going out too hard and I really struggled to push myself for the second lap. I started to have a negative mindset as other riders seemingly blew past, and I did not have it in me to battle for positions. By the start of the third lap I realized what was happening and tried my very best to switch my mindset. I told myself that I was chasing the girls in front of me instead of being chased by the girls behind me. This really helped and I started to move forward again and start slowly ticking off other girls. I finished with a strong last lap and I could safely say that I had pushed myself to my limit and gave everything I had both mentally and physically. I ended up in 40th place, which I was happy with. Just having the opportunity to participate in such a big event with so many incredibly fast girls was a huge achievement for me so I think I would have been happy regardless of the result.
Afterwards my first thought was “I want to do that again”. It was such a crazy race and I think it would be so cool to see my progression with a little bit more practice racing at that level. I got home from my trip so motivated and excited for the next race season, I don’t think it will come soon enough. :)
