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This past weekend was my goal race of the season, the national championships (cyclocross).

I’ve never felt so nervous pre-race; the night before I found myself self-assuring big time.  Usually I’m pretty lucky that there isn’t much self help chit chat going on inside my head, I keep a pretty steady channel of observations, somewhat immediate planning , and “would that part be cool on my bike or would my van be better on gas if I did such and such type of inner commentary”. This day was an exception - Cant sleep, must be excited, it’s good to be excited right? Gunn Rita the great multi time MTB world champion said she didn’t sleep before she won the world championships so, it must be a good sign. I kept this up into the next morning- Coffee was good, good sign. Mmm this tastes like a winners pancake. Stubbed toe, ouch, good sign. Eh check it out No parking ticket, what a winner. Stuck in traffic, all good! Not once did I think I was ill prepared for the day’s event.

Big Wez and I (Wez is the name of my 2005 Black Savanna van) set up at the race venue around noon. With the race start slated for 3:30pm I had enough time to do whatever it is that racers feel is important pre- race. Personally I like to do a few laps of the course, adjust my tire pressure based on my still somewhat unreliable but hard to veto pinch, press and squeeze technique, and have a snack.

Before long, Wez and I were surrounded by close friends and quickly learnt that I have a newly formed supports club, Really cool!  I have so many good friends in the sport of cycling and to see some of them at the events reminds me why these races stay fun, The people.  My mom actually backed me up on this premonition recently citing - “cycling people are really nice, just good people”.  With an hour to start I was ready to get on my rollers and start a warm up. This is usually only something I do for nationals, I’m not sure why, I would surely never suggest that an athlete change their routine before a big event but, it just feels right and that until now has always been the end of that self help conversation.

I thought three things when I was warming up on those rollers.

1 I’m pretty sure I’m going to win this race today.

2 I’m gonna hold back then attack with 3 laps to go and ride away from the field.

3 Maybe I could have done a few things a little differently in the lead up to this but it’s time to race now and I trained my butt off a month ago for this day so let’s get on with it!

Well, #1 and #2 ended up being false. But #3 ended up having some truth to it.

I didn’t win the race, I was 6^th.

This brings me abruptly closer to the conclusion of today’s topic and the basis of my goal for the next few months. I’m currently afforded a short hiatus from my coaching position and I plan to spend most of that time focusing on the smaller things that it takes to be an elite athlete. I’ll do this to remember what it is to be a racer, what it feels like to stand on a starting line ready to compete and void of excuse.  I’m fortunate to work with High performance athletes on both the road and Mountain bike in the spring and summer months.  Already I’m beginning to form my message to them for 2012-

I won’t and nor should the aspiring high performance athlete be satisfied with the will and the drive to truly shine and perform on the day of the race alone. Or at least that’s the gist of it so far.  Do as I say not as I do could work too, no? I’ll get back to you.

Mike G.

(Mike Garrigan is Ontario cycling’s provincial endurance coach and an elite cyclocross athlete during the fall and winter months.)

Here are my powerfiles from the race