Catharine Pendrel

I don’t know exactly what happened Saturday.  The Olympics are such a strange beast; racing is such a strange animal.  If you had asked me Friday if I was ready I would have confidently responded yes without any false bravado.  I felt so ready, I felt fast, I was excited, and I was sharp.  So where did everything go wrong? That is open to interpretation; of which there are many (see appendix A. joking).  I had an ok start and was able to move into the top 3 by the end of first lap, the pace felt too slow evidenced by the fact that the gap we had opened at the front had come back together, but at the same time my body felt tight and pulling on me or like I was under water.  I knew I had to split the race apart, to make it harder and went to the front and drove it.  But every effort I made seemed to only work a couple of seconds and then the rider I passed was coming around me again.  I was getting gapped on the crests of climbs and not sticking wheels meaning I was constantl

Luna goes 1, 3 and 5 overall on the World cup and Waldek goes loco on photoshop. How times have changed! I can’t believe that I haven’t written about winning the World Cup overall yet!  I guess there have been other things on my mind! It has been good year and definitely a full year with training camps starting in January and World cups starting in March and of course, always the Big O in the back of your mind.  The start of this year would also be my first time racing internationally as the World Champion, something I wanted to do well. A big year indeed; It got off to a great start with a 3 rd in South Africa and remained solid throughout.  I have been going event to event, but always with one event in the back of my mind and now I am finally on the trip that will culminate with the Olympic games. So yes there has been a lot on my mind and with moving from one focus to another sometimes you don’t make enough time to acknowledge all the joys along the journey.