How Michael van den Ham (barely) made it to Pan Ams
Catching up with the Canadian champ at the halfway point of a successful season
Photo by:
Nick Iwanyshyn.
Michael van den Ham is having an unexpectedly busy fall. After a heavy block of racing that saw him finish fifth overall in the new USCX series and net a top-20 during the trio of U.S. World Cup races, he returned home. What was supposed to be a break to recover before European races ended up being anything but relaxing.
The Canadian national champion lives in Chilliwack, B.C. While he’s stayed dry, his community was stranded between the floods in Sumas and the collapsed highways surrounding Hope. Up until days before Pan Ams, it looked like van den Ham might not even be able to get out of Chilliwack to make it to Texas.
I caught up with van den Ham over the phone at home before he did manage to make it to Texas for the continental championships. We talk about finding consistency, the prospect of missing races because of a climate disaster, and get a sneak preview of 2022 world championships’ course – including who he’s betting on to take the win in Fayetteville.
Canadian Cycling Magazine: Let’s start with the first half of the season. You finished fifth overall in the USCX series. Was that what you were looking for from those early races?
Michael van den Ham: I think the first half of the season was good without being spectacular. I had really good form and a lot of solid races, but I don’t think I put together a single race where I was able to punch above that.
In a lot of ways, I think I had the most consistent form I’ve ever had going into that September to October period. I often don’t come into the season super fast for whatever reason. I remedied that this year, and put together some good performances and races I’m happy with. At the same time, I was wanting and looking for a little bit more. But I’m still happy with how I was riding and how that sets me up for the second half of the season.
Was it one thing missing? Or something different at every race?
Probably a different thing for every race. Maybe a combination of luck and not quite putting it together. The margins between the top riders are so small. There’s not a ton of difference between first and fourth or first and fifth.
The important part is that I was right there. There’s no reason to think that for Pan Ams or other races later in the year that it’s not going to come together.
Is there anything you took away from those races to focus on to try make that happen?
Yeah, I think it’s just being able to carry some of that confidence into the rest of the season. I know how well I can ride when I’m on a good day or on a course that’s suited to me. I showed myself a number of times throughout this year that I was one of the strongest people on some of those days. And I did put together some really strong races. Like the Iowa World Cup, which has been kryptonite for me in the past.
Overall I raced well every weekend, just nothing punched way above that. But by the same token, I wasn’t left with many days where I was wondering how I was going to be able to compete with the top riders.
Iowa was your best result out of that crazy trio of World Cups in one week. Was there anything that clicked at that race?
I just put together a good start and felt strong through the race. In Fayetteville, I was definitely feeling the effect of all that travel. That was a course I would have thought suited me really well, but I just didn’t have the legs for that day. Iowa’s always a course I’ve always really liked even though I haven’t been able to put together a good World Cup there.
I went into that whole block with the goal of getting a top-20 at those N.American World Cups. I hit that in Iowa. That was a pretty big accomplishment for me because I didn’t feel like I had the perfect race to get that placing. It was a cool experience to have a result that I was proud of and was also able to look at it and know that there’s actually more there, that wasn’t the upper limit of what I can do. There’s still another level there that I want to find.
Speaking of Fayetteville, you get that chance to go back there for worlds early in 2022. How useful was it getting that preview of racing there before you go back in late January?
It’s always nice going back to a course that you’ve been at before. You get a sense for how it’s going to play out, how the starts going to go, what the race is going to feel like and that takes some of the uneasiness out of it. But you also get a sense of all the stuff around the race. Where are you going to park? Where did you need to go to find bathrooms? All these mundane, boring things that you don’t think about much when you’re at the race. It’s just one layer of stress peeled back, knowing the venue and what the race is going to feel like.
Even though I don’t think I had a great race at Fayetteville, it was still really nice to go there and get that sense of how everything is going to fit together. I think that’s worth something in January. Whether that’s a place or a couple of places, just being a little more confident is worth something.
How do you feel about the course? Does it play to your strengths or is it going to be a tricky race?
It’s a hard course for sure, there’s a lot of elevation change in it. That’s mainly all on that one big climb out of the woods section. I think it should play to my strengths. I’m generally good at these kind of hard and boggy courses. While there isn’t really a single highly technical feature, there is enough tricky bits that you certainly can’t get away with not being a good technical rider.
I think if we’re looking at it from a “who’s going to win” perspective, it’s a Wout [van Aert] course. And it’s probably a Lucinda Brand course. I think they’d both have a chance at doing well there. Overall I think it’s one of these tracks that, no doubt about it, you can be sure the best rider is going to win. And that’s all you can ask for from a worlds course, right?
Since that big American racing block, you’ve been back at home in B.C. training and doing some local races. How has it been having this kind of break in the season?
Yeah, this seasons different than anything I’ve done before. Because that first block was so intense and there was so much racing, six weekends back-to-back with something like 13 races, I’ve been staying home for five, or what’s turning out to be six weeks of training.
It’s been nice. I’m a little bit of a homebody. I like being at home and training at home. I’ll admit these last couple of weeks haven’t been without some challenges and stressors due to the flooding. But it’s still good to be at home and also connected to the local cyclocross community.
Sometimes when you’re on the road so much you miss out on that. At the end of the day, that local community, those people at those races, are who I enjoy hanging out with and chatting to the most. That’s how it was for me in Edmonton, that local community got me into it. And I hope that I can help get someone else into it or excited about racing at the next level or whatever that is.
Speaking of the flooding, you’re right in the middle of all that. Has your home been staying dry? How has it affected you being in the middle of a natural disaster for the last two weeks?
Literally in the middle of it. My house is dry. I live in Chilliwack, which has for the most part been dry. But to the west of us, I think people have seen online what’s happening in Sumas and Abbotsford. Then to the east of us we have Hope and the Coquihalla and all those photos of washed-out bridges that I think people have also seen.
On the one hand I feel really fortunate because in the community where we live there was never any real threat that we were going to be flooded. So many people around us, that we know, did have their homes impacted or their farms impacted. That’s devastating to talk to them. I’ve been riding around looking at the damage quite a bit and it’s shocking.
This is probably stating the obvious, though it wasn’t to me, it’s very different to be seeing a natural disaster, a climate disaster on T.V. – even if it’s not that far from us, like the forest fires in the interior – it is very different to be seeing that on T.V. or to read about that and be able to change the channel or close the tab and think “oh that sucks” versus having it in your neighbourhood.
It made me think a lot more about what we are doing to cause these things. Maybe – definitely – that should have been obvious years ago. But as someone who is always passively supporting the idea that we need to do something about climate change, I think that staring it right in the face made me think instead of waiting for someone else to do something it’s time to start doing things myself. I think a lot of people are looking at it in the same way. I don’t know what that looks like yet but when you’re riding around looking at a climate disaster that follows just a few months after forest fires, it makes you think.
It makes it pretty unavoidable.
Yeah, all of a sudden it’s not something that’s happening to someone else. It’s something that’s happening to you. Even though that probably shouldn’t matter, it definitely matters, right?
For sure. Now for the rest of the season, with nationals cancelled what is your schedule going forward?
I’m headed off to Pan Ams because I can officially access the rest of Canada again. There was definitely a few days where I was wondering if I was going to be able to race Pan Ams. Highway 1 was still closed. Other routes were set aside for essential traffic. So there was a period where I thought I might miss Pan Ams because I live on an island right now. On the one hand, I would have been disappointed. On the other hand, it makes sense. It’s a natural disaster, what else are you going to do?
Anyway, the highway has re-opened, so I’m headed to Texas. That’s always been a big goal for me this season. I’m excited to get to do that and to get another crack at racing against the top North American guys before I head over to Europe.
Then I’m home for 10 days before heading off to Europe for a couple of weeks. I ended up cutting my Europe trip short by a few days to get home for rescheduled nationals. Just to give more of a window to get over jet lag or in case something goes wrong – if flights are delayed or bikes get lost in transit. After that, build a couple of weeks before world championships.
Worlds are back in North America, finally. Does that make them more special than other years?
Absolutely. My first world championships were in Louisville in 2013 as an under-23. I’m by no means planning on retiring after this but it’s cool that – now that I’m in a completely different stage of my career, I’m pretty established in my career and I’ve accomplished things in cyclocross that I never thought I would – that worlds are headed back to the U.S.
To have friends and family there will be exciting. And to have that North American race vibe – which is always different than the European races – will be good. And hopefully, it will kick-start a whole new generation of racers that are into ‘cross in North America.
Michael van den Ham is joining a team of 20 Canadians in Garland, Texas for this Saturday’s Pan American cyclocross championships on Dec. 4, 2021.
