World Cup bronzes for Dundas rider Ruby West
She knows it won’t last long, but at the moment Ruby West is the third-ranked cyclo-cross rider in the world under 23 years of age.
And she’s only 18. The Dundas rider, who two years ago won the national U23 championship against riders up to seven years older than her, won bronze medals at the UCI (Union Cycliste Nationale) World Cup races last month in Iowa City, Iowa and Waterloo, Wisconsin. That left her in third overall in the U23 World Cup standings. She won’t maintain that lofty spot because when the World Cup tour reopens in Europe, she won’t be able to attend all the races there. She’ll take part in two Cup races near the end of the season, in late January, in France and in the Netherlands, then remain in the Netherlands for the U23 world championships in the first week of February. She has finished 33rd, and 23rd in the last two world championships against powerful European riders, many of whom were significantly older. There will be more Europeans riding in the European legs of the World Cup circuit and World Championships than there were in Iowa and Wisconsin, but West was encouraged by her two podium finishes against strong fields.
“After seeing that I’m not that far behind the European riders, I want to go over and do well,” West says. “People often count North Americans out in cyclo-cross. Hopefully we can get them to change that.”
West says that she’s had increased recognition since her two bronze medals. “I knew it was a bit of a possibility that I could get on the podium,” she said. “I’d been on podiums before but didn’t know what it would be like for a World Cup. It was the coolest thing. It was kind of a surreal feeling. But when it happened again the next weekend it was like normally going on a podium.
“My coach was cracking jokes: ‘Hey, you’re third in the world right now.’ Sometimes the magnitude of these things don’t click in.”
This weekend West will be in Sherbrooke, Que., for the Canadian Championships.