A chat with Roger Hammond
Retired Briton races Paris to Ancaster in Ontario.
Great Britain’s Roger Hammond travelled to Ontario this weekend to enjoy a few days of extended family visits, meet with local cycling enthusiasts, and compete in one of the nation’s toughest Classics-style races at the Paris to Ancaster on Sunday, April 15.
“I came for the Paris to Ancaster for a few reasons,” Hammond told Canadian Cycling Magazine. “First, it is a unique race and there aren’t many in the world like it. It has mass participation, the fans can race at any level, and with anybody. I was also a cyclo-cross rider and the off-road element of this event appeals to me. I always liked racing on the worst roads in Europe at events like Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders.”
The high profile road racer will lead a field that also includes Canadians Mike Garrigan, a former national cyclo-cross champion who won Paris to Ancaster last year, Aaron Schooler and former Olympians Sue Palmer-Komar and Leigh Hobson.
“I’m hoping to enjoy the race,” Hammond said. “I want to race properly, as a professional cyclist of 14 years, I am always competitive when I put my leg over a bike. I’m unsure about how my form is right now. My wife and I had our first baby two weeks ago, and I flew in last minute, so my preparation hasn’t been ideal. I just want to have a great time.”
Hammond, 38, first came to Canada in 1990 as a junior rider to compete in the former Under19 Fonthill Lumbar Niagara Grand Prix, run by the same organizer’s as Paris to Ancaster. He won that three-day race more than two decades ago before the launch of a successful career as a professional cyclist. “It’s like going back to the old days for me,” Hammond said.
Hammond retired from the professional ranks in January, after building a palmares that includes a junior world championships title, multiple British national road and cyclo-cross championship wins and podium finishes at Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Britain, Tour of Qatar and Tour of Denmark. He competed for teams Discovery Channel, T-Mobile, Team High Road, Cervelo TestTeam and Garmin-Cervelo.
“I retired from cycling because I’m getting old,” Hammond said. “I’m 38 now and for a professional cyclist that is getting old. You can see how old each cyclist is because it’s on our racing lisence. I was one of the oldest and I decided it was time.”
“I never thought I would ever retire,” he added. “When I was racing I thought, one day I will wake up and be sick of it, but that never happened. I had some injuries, rehabilitation from crashes took longer to heal, and so it was a combination of my age and the crashes I had last year. I always wanted to come over to do Paris to Ancaster but it always conflicted with one of the Spring Classics.”
