An Olympic hero hits the road — hard
Carleton skips X- rays to finish second in Vancouver as she transitions from track
TEvery bump on the pavement was super painful. The first couple of laps, I thought I was going to have to pull out. I managed to grit my teeth and pull it out.
GILLIAN CARLETON RACING WHILE INJURED FROM A CRASH THE DAY BEFORE
here are many difficult things about road racing for Gillian Carleton. There’s the endurance and cardio that Carleton needs to develop after winning a bronze medal for Canada in track cycling at the London Olympics. The pacing and tactics of road racing are all different. But the hardest thing about road racing for Carleton has been the road.
The 23- year- old from Victoria has crashed five times in the last couple of months, making a difficult, transition season even harder.
She limped into Wednesday’s Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix in Vancouver, her right hand wrapped in tape and unable to tightly grip her handlebars. Bandages covered the road rash on her right forearm and leg, battered when Carleton fell while leading on the last lap of the UBC Grand Prix on Tuesday.
She wasn’t sure she would even start Wednesday’s race. But she sure did finish, sprinting up Water Street on the final lap, beaten across the line only by Squamish’s Leah Kirchmann in one of the marquee events of cycling’s B. C. Superweek.
It was one of the more encouraging, if painful, evenings of Carleton’s season as she transitions into road racing following her Olympic medal in team pursuit.
“Honestly, I’ve been saving the X- ray on my hand for tomorrow because I really wanted to race tonight and if it was broken, I couldn’t race,” Carleton said. “When I crashed last night, I was full of adrenalin and thinking: ‘ Whatever, I’ll just put some bandages on and get back in the race.’ But I barely slept last night and woke up feeling pretty horrible. I can’t really grip the bars with my right hand. The first time I got on my bike today was when I was warming up for this and I was trying not to think how difficult it was going to be.
“Every bump on the pavement was super painful. The first couple of laps, I thought I was going to have to pull out. I just sat on the last wheel to see if I could hang in. I managed to grit my teeth and pull it out.”
The 23- year- old Kirchmann, the Canadian criterium champion who moved to B. C. from Winnipeg, blew away the field in the final 200 metres to win the $ 8,000 first prize.
Ken Hanson of San Diego successfully defended his Gastown men’s title, beating teammate Eric Young of Boulder, Colo., to the $ 15,000 first prize as their Optum team reeled in Zach Bell of North Vancouver with four of 50 laps remaining on the 1.2- kilometre downtown street circuit.
“We do a lot of criteriums, but this course is special,” Hanson, 31, said. “This race is special. It has such a history to it. The crowds are amazing and the circuit is really hard. Every lap is really fast. This one is special.”
It was special for Carleton, who needed a boost after her crash while leading at UBC epitomized what has been a mentally and physically difficult post- Olympic season.
She isn’t giving up track racing, where she teamed with Jasmin Glaesser of Coquitlam and Tara Whitten of Edmonton to finish third at the Olympics, but is trying to expand her skills by focusing on road racing this year.
She is a rookie professional on the Specialized- Lululemon team. The transition to the road has not been easy, and not because of all the wrecks.
“I’ve really had to change my training to do more endurance stuff,” she said. “To be totally honest, I finished off the back ( of the peloton) in most of the road races I did at the start of the season because I had no long- distance fitness, just power from the track. But I’m slowly improving my aerobic base now and I’m able to help my team more in races. So that’s motivating.
“I’m not placing any expectations on myself to be an amazing road rider immediately because I know it’s going to take time and the girls I’m racing against are world class and have been training and racing on the road for so long.”
While adapting to the road from the track, Carleton has also had to kick her Olympic hangover. She plans to be back on the track in Brazil in 2016, but her long- term objective is to become a world- class road racer.
“Anytime you put your heart and soul into something like the Olympics, you’re going to have a lull afterwards in your emotions and how motivated you are,” she said. “And I definitely experienced that in the fall.
“Definitely, there are some days when my motivation is a little bit lower than it was this time last year. But that’s when it’s kind of nice to be doing something different. It’s definitely an ambition of mine to succeed on the road. But at this point in my career, I’m more suited physiologically to the track. With training, I think I can be a road racer and I’d love to succeed in that avenue as well. My coaches have been super supportive about this being a learning year for me.”
Although she won a stage of the Tour Languedoc in France in May, Carleton said finishing at the back of the pack in some races has been humbling, especially since her Olympic achievement precedes her to many events.
“Yeah, there’s nothing quite like getting called up at the start line ( and introduced to the crowd) and then literally finishing at the back of the pack,” she smiled. “It’s humbling, for sure. But I was pretty prepared to eat the humble pie on the road this year.”
Better that than the road itself.