June 24, 2022
Our coaching team share their experiences of racing Nationals
Racing your National Championships is a privilege as a rider and often a career highlight. Whether it’s your first as a junior or last in masters, there’s a unique thrill in racing against the best in your nation.
Team EF Coaching's Colby Pearce put’s it well:
"Every National Championship is a special one. It represents a milestone recognizing hard work and achievement, as well as overcoming obstacles and sacrifice."
Team EF Coaching is perhaps uniquely qualified to talk about racing and winning National Championships, between our coaches there’s over 40 national titles, across every discipline and category, from Alex Howes 2019 US road title to Oli Beckingsale’s 17 GB XC titles, Colby’s incredible 14 US track titles and of course Bruno Langlois’ Canadian National Championships win at the age of 37, our coaches have just about done and won it all.
With National Championships on the horizon, they’ve put together some of their top tips and memories from racing at the highest level.
Preparation for National Championships is usually dependent on your racing calendar, for some it’s the most important race of the year and everything builds up to it, for others it falls in the middle of other significant races and specific training is almost impossible. One thing that can always be fine-tuned is your mindset on the day.
Oli Beckingsale:
“One day races are always the big ones, there are no next days or next race, it is all on the line, mentally I would always be prepared to dig a bit deeper.”
Knowing the course and training for crucial segments was important for Emma Grant:
"I mostly focused on freshening up and doing efforts to mimic a key part of the course, such as a finding a short and steep, grunty, classic British hill in Yorkshire.”
Many of those entered in Nationals will be there without the luxury of a team’s support, both in the peloton and on the side of the road, as a full time XC racer Oli Beckingsale has plenty of experience of being a ‘privateer’ in road races:
“Riding without team support, which I often did as a pro XC rider was tough as you cannot play the numbers game, you need to make the breaks or the day is wasted. However, the advantage on been a lone wolf, is you can slide into the moves without thinking of a bigger team picture, you can ride more on gut feel.”
Emma Grant suggests building you own team with what you’ve got:
“I always enlisted the support of my family and generally spent the night before having them watch youtube videos of how to navigate the feedzone and how to hold a bottle!”
Nationals can be chaos, yes -it’s the best riders in the country, but there’s often not much of a team to support you, there’s a real rivalry between top tier pro riders and everyone else and tactics you wouldn’t see in any other race.
One thing Alex Howes can attest to is that you should never give up, no matter how bad the prospects may seem:
“When I won in 2019, I had been cramping up for over three hours, I’m still not sure how I pulled that one out of the hat, sometimes you just have to hang on in there."
Oli’s first senior win was one of his most memorable:
“Winning my first senior champs in 2002, I was a younger pro and it felt like I had made it professionally. It also really helped with the next contract!”
Emma’s visit to the British National Championship podium highlighted something she hadn’t trained for:
“Finishing 2nd in U23 at Glasgow 2013 - in hindsight I was the only non-Olympic champ on the podium. I was a total rookie with the champagne and in the end Laura Trott/ Kenny had to open it up for me!”
Alex again:
“Nationals are generally a total mess. It's the only race on the calendar where all the top talent around the country lines up and really goes for it. Sounds exciting but it's often a case study in negative racing tactics. That's why, when it does go right, it's oh so beautiful.”
One of Colby’s best memories is, perhaps surprisingly, not from one of his many wins but captures the spirit of what racing Nationals should be about for everyone:
"I have a great memory from 2014 CX Nationals in Austin, TX. I wasn’t super fit going into the race as I had been working with the team that season, traveling to the Vuelta to help with the sports science program meant not much riding, but I still had a great time and raced my single speed in both SS and 40-44 races. I didn’t win a title but enjoyed competition for what it was: the chance to do the best I could what the fitness I had on the day."
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