Coaches View: Catharine Pendrel reports back from Paris XCO Test Event
What to expect from mountain biking at the 2024 Olympic Games
When four Canadian riders landed in Paris for their first look at the 2024 Olympic mountain bike course, they were led by Cycling Canada coach Catharine Pendrel. Not just a coach, Pendrel is, of course, an Olympic medallist herself. So who better to shepherd the next generation through their first brush with the Olympic experience?
Pendrel’s guidance clearly helped. Gunnar Holmgren rode across the line in fifth, mixing among the legends of the sport. CarterWoods, Jenn Jackson and Emilly Johnston all had impressive results of their own.
We caught up with the four-time Olympian to see what she thought of the Paris course, of the four young athlete’s performances in Paris and what Pendrel, as a coach, was looking to get out of the “not a race” test event.
CanadianMTB: As a rider who has competed at several Olympics, is there anything about the Paris XCO venue that stands out to you?
Catharine Pendrel: I think Paris is pretty representative of other Olympic tracks and new World Cup venues, technical and physically demanding. This track seems particularly fast however. The racing was very high speed and tight in Paris. Lots of groups racing rather than solo moves.
Riders and staff were asked to give feedback to fine-tune the course for next year so for sure we will anticipate some changes, but the same flavour. We learned the area can get extremely muddy and soggy when it rains, but the organizers did a good job weatherproofing the track.
This was a very young group – none have any Olympic or major games experience (though some were just named to the PanAm team). What was it like as a coach bringing them to the test event?
I was impressed at how relaxed the group was. Although young they all bring a lot of experience and helped amplify each other’s learning. We talked about how energy management would be one of the big keys to success next year.
All but Emilly [Johnston] will get their first games experience this fall at the Pan Am Games which will be great exposure. With Emilly, having spent 10 months in Europe with her pro team this year, we decided the home time was more critical to performance.
What was the focus, in terms of what you wanted these young riders to learn from, or take away from the test event?
Our focus was to learn the course, venue and surrounding area: How/where will we warm up? Train when not on course? How did the start flow, Where could you make moves of significance, what tires are optimal, what lines are optimal, suspension set up? We took a tonne of video, did more than our normal amount of pre-race laps, and got to experience the course at speed.
I wanted everyone to learn as much as they could this year to reduce the amount of unknowns that might cause stress next year. But also just to enjoy an “Olympic” experience and the progress they have each made. I wanted them to know how the course races, what they can work on in their training to be stronger for next year, and what were their areas of strength. I wanted our athletes who typically work with pro teams to have trust in their Olympic staff, get to know how they are around races and what they need to perform. The more comfortable and relaxed our team environment can be the better we can perform.
What do you take away from their performances, as a coach, after watching them throughout the weekend?
I think we have a positive future! I think the riders gained some confidence and awareness last weekend that will help them in future races. As the team coach, but not always the private coach, this weekend to build trust and relationships is super important. I need to know what makes them tick.
Test event participation isn’t selection and there is still a long time left in the qualification period for Olympic berths, but is there any reasoning or strategy from Cycling Canada for bringing four new riders to Paris for the test event?
The 4 riders selected for the test event are our current highest performers having all done a Top 3 in U23 or Top 25 in Elite. They were there because they had earned our two quota per gender based on performances. Test events are by invite only and the quota each nation receives is based on our nation ranking.
The test event is not a selection event as it is an invite-only event (so not open to all eligible athletes) and intended to be used for learning and feedback over performance. Some riders may have approached it as an A event whereas other high performers trained heavily through. In 2024 we may only get 1 quota per gender for the Olympics, with multiple high performers vying for the positions, but we have been able to provide our current highest performers, an opportunity to preview the course and plan optimistically for 2024!
