Jenn Jackson is back on the bike, and ready for the new year
U23 National Champion has recovered from a season ending injury, and is ready to race
Jenn Jackson is new to the cross country scene, but she’s already made her way up to the front of the race. In her first season of racing, she nabbed two top-10 finishes in Canada Cup elite women’s races, then fully announced her potential by winning U23 Canadian national championships in Canmore last July. Her rapid ride through the field might seem surprising, unless you follow XC skiing, where Jackson is twice the junior national champion and made multiple skiing World Cup appearances. She may have strong results behind her already, but she’s aware that she’s still new to the sport, and is still open to figuring out where she fits in the sport, and where the sport fits in her life.
Jackson is crossing over to the dirt after an already successful career on the snow. Early ski results meant quick progress, a move away from home, and international competition. During the 2016 season, and struggling with motivation in training, Jackson realized she was no longer as into skiing as she had been, or as she needed to be to continue competing internationally. “I ultimately decided to ski race through one more winter with the goal of being able to finish things ‘on my own terms’ at the end of the season,” she concluded at the end of a tough year, “and would try to do more mountain biking in 2017.”
Her final season competing on snow was successful, even if she wasn’t sure it was what she wanted to be doing. Jackson finished 2nd in skate individual at the national championships in Canmore, Alta, and first U23. The result lends a nice bit of continuity to Jackson’s transition from skiing to riding, as her U23 national XCO title gave her two national titles in two different sports at the same venue, less than four months apart.
Switching sports, Jackson was quickly in the thick of cross country mountain biking season and enjoying racing, as well as earning results. Her first season wasn’t all roses though. After being selected to the world championships team, she broke her kneecap racing the technical Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup round. Slick conditions for the women’s U23 race made the infamous course more demanding, and the crash stuck Jackson for 6 weeks braced while the bone healed, with zero mobility, and two months of further rehab for full recovery. She hopped back on the bike just on time to get the last bit of late fall riding.
“I was really disappointed to not be able to race Worlds in September,” Jackson said of the abrupt end to her first season racing. “Having to take that time off and let my kneecap heal was a good reset for me though; I hadn’t taken a long hard break from the training-racing goal mindset for like, six years.”
Going into her second season on the dirt with AWI Racing, Jackson will be up against Canada’s strong women’s elite field. She’s not worried about the level of competition, though, choosing to focus on developing her own skills and enjoying racing instead of setting strict expectations for results.
“It’s tough to gauge what improvements I’ve made this winter, since it’s year one of training for cycling I have nothing to compare it to, but I’m feeling pretty fit from all the skiing and just having survived being inside on the trainer and rollers is a great success.” As for returning to the seasons more technical courses, Jackson is optimistic. “The best way to get better at riding your bike is to ride your bike; and knowing that is enough for me to feel like I’m already ahead of where I left off last year.”
Starting the 2018 season, the plan is to race the Canada Cup series, as well as some OCups and select US Cup XC’s, and see where the year takes her from there. She’s not sure yet where she’ll fit into her new race category but, she says, “Not knowing is sort of nice.” “Without having any preconceptions of where I fit in, I can go into races with an ‘anything is possible’ attitude, and really believe it,” says Jackson of her approach to the upcoming season. “As long as I give myself the opportunity to make something happen, the opportunity is there.”
