Racing BC Superweek is always a highlight of any BC racer's year. Racing with giant crowds in your hometown areas is amazing, having almost the entire Vancouver cycling community out to watch these big crits makes you feel the weight BC and Vancouver racing carries, and getting to throw ourselves in with the 'Big Boys' of North American crit and road racing is a chance to show off our sponsors and ourselves as athletes. That being said, it goes without saying that Superweek is a showcase for our team.
Flashback to no less than a week after having the guys ride a perfect race to secure the BC Provincial Championship Road Race, I fell in a crash racing in Victoria's Cameron Law Cycling Series, breaking my collarbone. Obviously injuries are always devastating, but I remember sitting on the hot tarmac as I was realizing that my collarbone was very broken, how I was likely to miss my two biggest targets of the year: National Road Championships, and Superweek. Nationals was definitely out on my timeline for recovery, but if I was lucky, I might be cleared to race BC Superweek.
I had some luck, as well as a few other things on my side. Not the least of which being Zenya at Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Center, whose advice and help ensured I got on the right path to recovery quickly. I started Superweek watching and helping my team from the sidelines, waiting as patiently as I could until my last follow up x-ray the morning of the Burnaby race. My x-ray cleared me to ride. And after a short tune up around the North Shore, I suited up with my teammates for the first time in six weeks.
To say I had a hard race would be a bit of an understatement. My coach had me doing as many intervals as I could manage on a trainer. But more than two hours inside in the heat is pretty difficult. But knowing I had the full support of my team to start the race if I felt healthy enough, and with zero expectations riding a bike for the first time in six weeks, I tailgunned that crit like nobody's business and discovered again just how hard these bike races actually are. I managed to finish the day out and only a short distance off the front group (I was the last rider to go around a crash with four laps to go).
The support of my team, sponsors and teammates is something that is so motivating. I'm on my way back to good form for Track Cycling Provincial Championships, The Whistler Gran Fondo, and Track Nationals to end out my season with TRT, when I'll take some time off the bike, and then gear up for next season with the squad.