Hugo Barrette prepares for Pan Am Games track cycling with the winds of home at his back
Born in the Magdalen Islands, Quebec, track cyclist Hugo Barrette credits a feeling of a constant hometown backing for much of his success in the sport.
Hugo Barrette, a rising star in the Canadian track cycling scene, was one of the first track competitors to land in the Toronto area for the 2015 Pan Am Games, back when he arrived a couple of months ago to take full advantage of the new Milton velodrome. But in spirit, he told the Toronto Sun, he brings a lot more than just his bike and his teammates with him.
“It’s as if you have 12,000 brothers and sisters and they’re behind you no matter what,” Barrette said, referring to his Magdalen Island roots. “And that feeling is just amazing.”
Born in the small Quebec archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Barrette credits that feeling of a constant, faithful hometown backing for much of his success in the sport — success that’s been demonstrated quite a few times by the 24-year-old rider. Though he missed qualification for the 2012 Olympics by a hair’s breadth, he was at the following year’s Pan Am Games, where he and his team won silver after a team sprint that broke national records. The next year, in January 2014, he ascended to seventh overall in global UCI track cycling rankings, after a fourth place finish at the Guadalajara, Mexico UCI World Cup that month.
With that record behind him, he’s one of Canada’s strongest contenders as track riders get ready to roll out, alongside other top Canadian athletes like Jasmin Glaesser and Sean Mackinnon. As he told the Toronto Sun, getting there was aided by a path paved in his youth, thanks to a lot of support, a lot of opportunities to cycle, and even a lot of challenges stemming from Magaden Islands life.
Those opportunities and challenges, in fact, were two sides of the same coin. Buffetted by high winds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Magdalen Islands archipelago, Barrette said, isn’t exactly the sort of locale frequented by cyclists. The roads may have been his as a result, but the reasons for it certainly put the young rider through the wringer. “The amount of wind on the Island is nuts,” he told the Sun. “Every day is windy and unless you were like me and wanted to train hard and strong and just go to fight the wind, it’s not the best experience. And when I say a lot of wind, I mean enough wind to wipe you off your bike.”
“But it makes for amazing training.”
The opportunity to train further in Montreal during his teenage years eventually took him away from the Islands, but as Barrette gets ready to race at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, the benefit of all that wind in his face, to say nothing of the supportive Magdalen Islands crowd at his back, keeps his thoughts close to home.
“I always think of home,” he said. “It’s a small community and we’re kind of a big family. In defeat and victory, they’re always there.”
Track cycling at the 2015 Pan Am Games gets underway on Thursday, July 16, starting wth the Women’s Team Pursuit at 11:00.
