Sizing up the field, and my condition

May 15, 1996
Well, the big event is almost here--not the Olympics but the Olympic trials. It's sort of ironic: my goal has always been not just to go to the Olympics but to medal, but my whole focus of the season so far has been to reach a peak for the trials. Hopefully if I make the team, I will have enough time to rest and reach another peak six weeks later in Atlanta. The pressure at the trials will be tremendous, but hopefully I will be able to deal with it. So far in my career, I've always done the best when it counted the most. To this day, the only time trial I've won is World Championships! I've also always had good races when a selection was on the line. I'm sure there will be riders who have been flying all year who will crack at the trials.

I feel confident in my preparation--I've done everything I can and I'm as good as I'm going to get. Now all I can do is rest and make sure I'm fresh for next week. The last three weeks have been very intense. My training volume hasn't been particularly high, but the intensity more than makes up for it. Training otherwise known as interval hell! I feel as though I've made some significant improvements over the last few weeks, especially in my time trialing. I'm definitely tired after all this and the last couple of days were hard to get through, but that's all part of training. Stress your body and it adapts and grows stronger.

A big factor in my preparation is that I've stayed healthy. I haven't gotten sick or injured. In bicycle racing there is, unfortunately, always the risk of crashes. A bad crash in the last few weeks could ruin all my chances of making the team. I did have one scare though: I was hit by a car two weeks ago on my way back from a training ride. It was the driver's fault, but that doesn't really matter--when cars and cyclists collide, the cyclist always loses. Luckily, it was at low speed and I was able to walk away with only bruises and scrapes (we call it "road rash" in the sport). My bike was ok except for the rear wheel that was smashed. The driver paid for a new one though.

The cycling Olympic trials are a series of five races: two time trials and three road races. There are points for placing in each race down to 20th place. The rider with the most points at the end is the winner of the trials and is automatically on the Olympic team for both the road race and the time trial.

The other two spots are coach's selection and one of those two does only the road race and the other does both events. The races are scattered along the east coast: two in West Virginia, one in Pittsburgh and two in Charlotte, North Carolina. Every sport has a different approach to the Olympic trials. In sports such has swimming and running, things are more clear cut. There is one race and the top people go. Period. Having coach's selection spots does open the door for politics, but cycling is less clear cut than some other sports. For one thing, you have the aspect of mechanical failures. If the best rider in the country has a flat tire in the trials, you still want them on the Olympic team.

Also, although many people don't realize it, bicycle road racing is really a team sport. Only one person crosses the finish line first, but in most cases, that person had a very strong team behind them. Our coach likes to say "there are winners and there are workers." If we go to Atlanta with three winners who can't work together, there probably won't be any medals.

Finally, there is the fact that two of the riders on the Olympic team will do two events. The Individual Time Trial for men and women was added to the Olympics for `96 and each country gets to send two riders. However, for the women, there were no spots added to the Olympic cycling team. We still only get the same three riders. For the men the road team went from three to five. The same thing happened on the track: they added a points race for women, but no spots. Either the pursuiter, the sprinter or a road racer has to do it. This is the equivalent of asking the same runner to do the 1500-meter and the Marathon! It isn't really fair, but then life isn't always fair!

It is kind of interesting: within the world of cycling, the World Championships are really a bigger deal than the Olympics because the race is much more competitive. At Worlds, you get to send the six best road riders and the two best time trialists. The World Champion gets a coveted rainbow jersey that they get to wear in races the whole next year. As far as the general public and the media are concerned, though, the Olympics are everything. This is also where most of the sponsorship dollars are funneled.

People often ask how I train. In the past, training for cycling has been less measurable and scientific than other sports but that is all changing. I always train with a heart rate monitor and I can download it onto my computer after each workout for analysis. I do tons of interval training based on heart-rate zones. I also now have a special crank on my bike, called an SRM System, that allows me to measure my power output. The crank has a strain gauge in it measures the force I'm putting on the pedals. This is converted to watts of power by also measuring my cadence and I can see the readout on a unit that is mounted on my handlebars. I can also download all the information onto my laptop and graph it and look at average power and heart rate for each interval.

Except for my off-season endurance rides (six-seven hours) and occasional group rides, I do most of my training alone. I race almost every weekend (usually both days) from March to October. I usually average between 16 and 26 hours of training a week and do between 250 and 450 miles a week. In the off-season, I also lift weights three times a week for four months. I train on the roads around my home and occasionally go to the track for speedwork. I have never had a personal coach, but I work with the National team coach, Henny Top, who is in Colorado Springs. (I live in Cupertino, California). I spent about 12-15 weeks a year at national team training camps, run by Henny. As a member of the national team, I get a training schedule every month with daily workouts on it. I follow this during the off season (November-February) but once the racing season starts, everyone has more individual needs. I pretty much design my own training schedule based on what has worked for me in the past and the races that are coming up. Henny helps me with fine tuning it, and I can consult with her over the phone.