Hello!
It has been an intense past few months. If you have been reading online (www.usacycling.org, www.cyclingnews.com, or www.velonews.com), you may have a clue what Mike and I have been up to—though it’s at best a glimpse of our effort, travels and lives. We apologize for the lack of communication and chalk it up to how busy we remain while in the thick of it.
Mike and I have continued to organize and run our team program through our busiest season to date. From a fantastic winter of productive training in Chile, to Pan American Championships in Venezuela, to 10 weeks and 10,000+ kilometers of driving throughout Europe for a challenging stint of World Cup racing—all along living out of the motor home. Mike and I have made it back to our home turf on Martha’s Vineyard safe, sound and elated to announce I have been officially named to the US Olympic Team!!!
It is a huge honor to be selected to represent the USA and more specifically all of my family, friends, and sponsors at the Games. I will be joining other US mountain bikers—Todd Wells, Adam Craig and Georgia Gould as we set out for Beijing, China in mid August.
It has been a very intense selection procedure, which began in 2007 with the fielding of an Olympic “long team”—a talent pool consisting of 6 men and 5 women from which the eventual 2 men and 2 women Olympic athletes would be chosen. Both Mike and I made the initial selection for this “long team” and this opportunity established our season goals firmly around attempting to make it all the way to the final team selection. The 2008 criteria required me (or Mike) to be one of the top two Americans in overall World Cup ranking after the 5 opening rounds of the highly contested UCI cross country World Cups. The selection criteria pushed us to our limits, as we found the competition at an all-time high, with many other countries choosing similar selection processes that included the World Cups. Though we struggled at times, I am happy and immeasurably proud to have accomplished this goal. Though Mike was not able to make one of the two coveted men’s positions, he shares a deep satisfaction for our accomplishment, as he truly played a huge role in enabling me to rise up and realize this achievement for our team.
It has been an amazing opportunity for Mike and me to share this journey as, we both continue to push our limits toward some ideal of our potential, which itself seems to keep changing and expanding. I am filled with gratitude for each of you for your continued support. I could not have made my way so well on this technical trail with out YOU.
The next few weeks bring some exciting racing opportunities that will serve me well to be on my top form for the big race in Beijing. The U.S. National Championships are next Saturday, July 19 at Mount Snow, VT. This is a personal favorite course for both Mike and me. It is riddled with steep climbs and rooty, rocky, intensely demanding terrain. I aim to defend my national championship title in both the cross country and the short track. Mike is looking for a top finish on par with the bronze he rocked last year.
We will then head north to Quebec for 2 more World Cup races in Mont Saint Anne (Jul 27) and Bromont (Aug 3). These are important races in their own right, though for reasons of wanting to arrive with my best form in Beijing, they will be mixed in with lots of specific training. It will be interesting to see how these go, but you can bet I will be giving it my best on race day!
Directly after the Canadian World Cups, I will fly out to my hometown in Fairfax, CA for 5 days of training and Olympic processing before the entire US Mountain Bike squad (mechanic/coach Mike included) fly to an island off of South Korea for the USA cycling training camps. Here we will acclimate to the time change and climate for a week before a quick and surely exciting 5 days in Beijing I will race on Aug 22. Both Mike and I are looking forward to the adventures and travel that await us.
Breathing it all in with gratitude,
Mary McConneloug and Mike Broderick
Team KENDA/Seven Cycles