As the Elite men’s road race segment of the 2015 Global Relay Canadian Championships approaches, Ryan Roth is maintaining focus

As he heads into this weekend’s competition in St.-Georges, Que., Silber Pro Cycling’s Ryan Roth is already looking back at a solid season. Before racing kicked off at the 2015 Nationals, Roth and his team had notably shown their strength on the asphalt of Philadelphia. There was also his performance at the Tour de Beauce, earning Roth 5th overall in the competition.

In other words, the 32-year-old cyclist from Kitchener, Ontario had definitely earned his rest as this weekend’s competition grew closer. Placing second yesterday in the Elite men’s time trial, that rest — as well as a practical, see-what-happens focus — has yielded some benefits, it seems.

“Mostly I’m just racing and resting,” he said, speaking to Canadian Cycling Magazine, talking about how he’s been preparing for this weekend’s competition. “I mean, we did Saguenay, Beauce, then a couple of days in Kitchener, so in between mostly just resting and trying to freshen up.”

“I feel pretty good. Kind of optimistic, so we’ll see what happens.”

Like other riders, with the Elite men’s road race coming up on Saturday, Roth seems to be facing this weekend’s field of competition with a mixture of optimism and realism, but he’s holding off on any binding judgments about the contenders he faces until he sees the whites of their eyes. “I haven’t seen any sort of starlets; I don’t know exactly who’s here,” he conceded, “but you can usually guess: most of the usual suspects. There will be lots of strong guys, but we have a strong team, so we’ll try to use that to our advantage, also.”

Roth, however, would have every reason to be cocky were he to so choose. In 2014, he placed second in the road race segment of the Nationals. In the time trial, he placed third — a finish he has already bested at this year’s event. Still, he insists, success often hinges on maintaining a healthy, somewhat detached perspective on the competition to begin with.

“It’s always hard to prepare too specifically, because the other races are also important,” he said, addressing what winning formula from 2014 he might be bringing to 2015. “To say, ‘I’m going to focus on Nationals’ doesn’t really happen. But I always enjoy the road racing and the time trial; I’ve had some good years and some not-so-good years. So I’ll just do my best on the day, but whoever shows up is somewhat irrelevant to that. You do the best ride you can with what you have and just work with that.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s road race at the Nationals, Roth is equally aware that the course, literally, may be more level than it would otherwise be at other competitions, which changes his expectations. Climbing, he says — something at which the former mountain biker excels — may not factor too heavily into his preparation.

“If I was climbing a little better in Megantic doesn’t really translate so much into the road race this year,” he raises as an example. For Roth and his teammates, ultimately, it’s a matter of showing up, riding hard, and seeing what happens.