Canadian Cyclist

 

July 15/07 7:22 am - Anne Samplonius Interview


Posted by Editor on 07/15/07
 

Anne Samplonius Interview

Earlier today Anne Samplonius took Canada's second gold medal in two days at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We caught up with Anne after her victory to find out about her ride.

It feels pretty damn good to win. I would have to say honestly, though, second would of felt like a loss and I would of been disappointed. I think I was the favorite to win but you never know on the day if you have it or not.....and today I did once again. I feel like I pushed even harder then I did at the Nationals TT last week and it was hard to judge where I was in comparison to my competition as I was the first rider off! Vincent (Jourdain - National coach) also had my SRM head in his baggage that he took from Nationals and as luck would have it that is the one bag that never arrived. So I had no speed, watts, kilometres or anything to go by, just my feeling. Generally that is how I like to ride a TT, but it would of been nice to know at what kilometre I was at and I also like to look at my cadence.

What I really focused on was to put in a good average speed for the course, which was flat. It has been a very long time since I have ridden a flat TT and I know that the US nationals were just held on a very identical course to what we did here in Rio, except they did 24 kilometres and we did 20. (Kristin) Armstrong won that again convincingly, as she should as current world champion, and her average speed was somewhere around 46.5 kilometres per hour!! (Amber) Neben was second at around 45.4 kilometres per hour. So I wanted to do around 45 kilometres per hour, which puts me in at a world level. I finished the TT here with an avg speed of 44.3 kilometres per hour with extremely windy conditions, so I was very happy with that!! Some of the gusts from the side were blowing me around quite good, and we started with a headwind for a few kilometres and finished with a good headwind section for a few kilometres. So winning the gold was great, but winning it with a good fast ride was even more important to me under such windy condtions.

I think the last 2 TT's I have done (Nationals and Pan Ams) have showed that my form is one big step ahead of last year. I also have a new time trial position on the bike which has improved my timetrialing tremendously. So yah, I was happy to stand on top of the podium today, listen to the National anthem and know that I won gold for Canada, but also I proved to myself that it was done with a good ride. Being at a major Games is motivating. You cannot help but get caught up in the spirit of the Games with all the athletes around from all the sports, and even though it was not a world class field here it will be a moment I will remember forever.

Now I have a week to try and not de-train here, since there is no good riding around except an old Fomula 1 track that is 3 kilometres around. Another fun challenge of living at a major Games!


 

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