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‘Riding is a pretty astronomically large part’ of Matteo Dal-Cin’s life

Dal-Cin reflects back on his win at Redlands and whether he expects to be back to defend his title next year.

April 19, 2016
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A week on from earning the overall win at the Redlands Classic, Matteo Dal-Cin of Silber Pro Cycling is back home in Ottawa. He has been out riding and enjoying the spring weather after spending much of his winter training in Arizona and California.

The win at Redlands was a big milestone in the 25-year-old’s career, perhaps his biggest win up to date with maybe the exception he says of his overall victory last year at the UCI 2.2 Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay. “In terms of craziness and press coverage it’s for sure the biggest,” said Dal-Cin, “It’s been a whirlwind adventure. It’s been really neat, everyone in Ottawa is super excited.”

With the help of his teammates, Dal-Cin became the first Canadian to win the GC at Redlands. “I’ve sort of realized what an amazing job all the guys did for me.”

Dal-Cin has made it a goal this year to ride consistently in every race he lines up for, whether aiming for a result or just having an impact on the race, something that takes a great deal of preparation and time. “Every year you learn a few little things you could be doing better or taking more seriously,” he says. “You bump into people along the way who help you become a better athlete and person in general. It’s a slow process of adding the right little pieces.”

Over the winter one of those people Dal-Cin had a chance to learn from was a fellow Ottawan Mike Woods, who for 2016 joined the WorldTour ranks with Cannondale Pro Cycling. The two lived together in Tucson, Arizona for a month and Dal-Cin was able to see how Woods would go about his day-to-day training. He then could add those things to his repertoire that could help him make incremental improvements. “The way he approached training was impressive,” said Dal-Cin. “The little things like setting out goals, stretching and keeping his diet clean.”

Another important aspect of performing at a high level is taking enough time away from the bike. With almost 11,000-km in his legs in 2016 (as you can see on his Strava profile), days off the bike are certainly a rarity. “A rest day thrown in here or there isn’t the worst thing. Some of the days I just have a normal down day, the equivalent of a lazy Saturday for someone working a regular week day job. I like to get up a little later and have brunch. It’s nice to just hang out with my family and have a normal relaxing day.”

During the season, life away from the bike is hard to balance. “Riding takes up a pretty astronomically large part of my life,” said Dal-Cin, “but I’m a little bit too high energy. If I take too many rest days, I’m bouncing off the walls and I need to expend some of that out on the bike.”

It’s only in the off-season when Dal-Cin finds time to really pursue some of the other activities that he enjoys. “I like doing other sports like playing hockey 2-3 times a week in the off-season. In the fall, I help my dad out with his construction company. When I had to do it during the season I didn’t like it as much but now it’s a good mental break.”

With summer approaching, the biggest races of the season are coming up. “We are hoping to be invited to the Tour of Utah and the Tour of Alberta, both huge events with the highest caliber of racing.” Next up on the calendar is the Tour of the Gila (May 4 to 8). “I have a lot of confidence in myself and the team has confidence in me, so morale is high,” said Dal-Cin.

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The goal is to continue to progress through the ranks but the time frame for the next step remains uncertain. On whether he believed he would be at Redlands next year to defend his title, he said that in all likelihood he thinks he’ll be on the start-line, perhaps moderating his expectations of the kind of jump he hopes to make. “Maybe if you ride really, really well you don’t end up being there but that would be a pretty enormous jump to be on a team that isn’t doing Redlands.”