Catching Up With Catherine Vipond

Catherine Vipond (Norco Factory Team), checked in with us from Belgium to tell us about her mountain bike season so far and her thoughts on the Houffalize race course. In Sunday’s race, Vipond, 25, finished in 49th position.

You decided to skip Sea Otter in order to get to the U.K. a week earlier for the Dalby World Cup – what prompted this decision?
Basically the travel and logistics were a lot simpler to skip Sea Otter, and with no commitments at Sea Otter we felt that it would be better to take the time and adjust to British time in a relaxed way. We found a local race that happened to be organized by some friends I’d met through racing and decided to attend that race. It turned out really well as we were able to do a little sight seeing and enjoy England a bit before turning our focus to the World Cups.

What are your impressions of the Dalby World Cup course?
I really liked the Dalby course. I enjoyed just riding it as well as racing. I liked that it had a bit of everything, some climbs, some technical sections, and bike park sections. The organizers spent a lot of time putting the course together and was also very spectator friendly which was great for cheerers.

I’ve had a chance to see the Houffalize course now as well. It is a very different course than last weekend. Lots of climbing, lots of steep pitches and some technical descents including a sketchy rock that has taken out several riders. The layout of the course is kind of neat getting to ride through the center of town as well as through some backyards. The start could be interesting long steep paved climb.

What are your expectations for the race this weekend?
Being my first big races of the year it is hard to know where I stand and World Cups are always hard. I’m starting the season pretty far back in UCI points so my start positions aren’t great. A top 40 in Dalby would have helped for Houfallize but I just missed out on that. Learned a bit from last weekend and I hope to be able to improve on my 42nd.

Can you tell us a bit about your season so far – what races have you done and how have they been going?
This is really the beginning of my season. I did a Victoria Island Cup Race in Port Alberni at the end of March and then the Midland XC race in England before the World Cup. Those two races went well and it was good to get a couple races in before racing the World Cups.

What are your season plans – where will we see you racing next?
Next up is back to Ontario/ Quebec for the first couple of Canada Cups.