As idyllic as three weeks cycling through Belgium and Holland sounds, there were no languid days through fields of tulips for Sarah Poidevin during her most recent trip over the pond.
Poidevin joined Canada’s national women’s track endurance team for a two-and-a-half week stint in Europe, returning home with a bronze medal.
Over 18 days, Canadians raced an incredible 10 times across Belgium and The Netherlands, including one UCI-sanctioned race. The fields were littered with national champions and professional cyclists, so Poidevin was able to rub shoulders with many of the best in the world.
“It was awesome to show up midweek and see some big names on the start list. (Cycling legend, multiple world and Olympic champ) Marianne Vos was at a couple of the races, as well, though she did not actually race and just spectated,” Poidevin said.
Racing as an alternate on the team, Poidevin still got plenty of race experience. She had mechanical issues with her bike for the first part of the trip, but once she got on one of Cycling Canada’s spare bikes, she began to show her potential.
Once in the peleton, she worked as a domestique for her teammates, covering early attacks early on in the race, initiating her own attacks and keeping the pace high in the last part of the race to allow her teammates to break away.
“I really enjoyed having so many opportunities to race because it allowed me to learn more about team tactics and really work on the strategy side of my racing, while also physically pushing myself at each race,” said Poidevin.
“Overall, the five of us were able to work really well together and use each of our different strengths to execute team tactics. We had great results and collectively got podiums, if not a win, at each race we attended, other than the UCI road race.”
Not only was the team and competition level different, the courses were also much different.
“There was practically never any elevation gain and they were made of short circuits, between five and seven kilometres for the Kermesses and between one and two kilometres for the criteriums. A few of the races had short cobble sections, and curbs or speed bumps to hop, and all of them had tight turns and very narrow roads,” Poidevin said.
The Kermesses proved to be her best race, and Poidevin snagged a bronze in her final race of the tour.
She’ll now return to Calgary to train and work on her skills to earn another shot overseas. Now that she has a taste of the competition, Poidevin said she’s even more motivated to push her cycling.
