Mary McConneloug – Page 5

cyclocrossworld.com: Interview with Mary McConneloug

Between nine months of mountain bike racing in Europe, an Olympic selection that ended up in court, and, finally, racing at the Athens Olympics in August, it’s been a busy year for Mary McConneloug. So it came as some surprise that the 33-year-old Californian decided to tackle this year’s Verge New England Cyclocross Series with all the gusto that has won her the past two series titles. But McConneloug has never been your typical bike racer.

After less than a month out of competition, but racing in the U.S. for the first time since last year’s Verge finale in New Hampshire, McConneloug won the series opener in Maine in dominant fashion. Cyclocrossworld caught up with the Seven Cycles rider following her win and asked why she’s spending her “off-season racing” ‘cross and how it works into her mountain bike career.

Cyclocrossworld: How hard is it getting used to racing a ‘cross event? Today’s race was only 35 minutes.

Mary McConneloug: It’s so different from mountain biking, it’s over like that. I think my fitness from the season is still up at the next notch. But I still need to train for ‘cross: shorter, harder stuff. I feel like I have the base from the mountain bike season.

CW: When did you start training for the ‘cross season?

MM: When I got back from Europe I spent two weeks just chilling out. Then I went for my first ‘cross ride right before Interbike, which was last week. I needed to feel what it was like to move with the bike and do transitions.

CW: Last year after the Northampton race you said you were done for the series, but then you came back and won the jersey.

MM: Well, the Rhode Island race got cancelled and that gave me the break I needed. It’s hard for me to sit still.

CW: How do you think racing ‘cross has helped you mountain biking?

MM: Bike handling skills for sure. It takes that to the next level. It’s really hard to control a ‘cross bike in the mud, it’s so different. Also, just to stay fit in the winter is good. Once you get out of shape it’s really hard to get it back.

CW: Are you considering ‘cross worlds this year?

MM: It’s too late in the season, I’ll be training for mountain bikes. But I am considering nationals. Last year I was so focused on getting ready for the big mountain bike season.

CW: Is nationals a race you’d like to win?

MM: I would, it would be a little dream come true again. We’ll see how it goes. We really need to focus on putting our team together again for next year. It’s a full-time job and this is the time of year to get it done. That takes a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to come and race ‘cross every weekend. So we’re just going to take it as it comes. I’d like to do the whole Verge series, but the priority is to be set for next year.

VeloNews: Reaching for the Rings—McConneloug Closes in on Olympic Dream

Reaching for the Rings

It was just one moment among many in her season-long UCI points-chase battle with Sue Haywood and Alison Dunlap, but for Mary McConneloug it may have been the most important. Midway through the first of five laps in the Calgary cross-country, the Seven Cycles rider came up behind Dunlap and politely asked to pass.

“She was in her granny gear,” recalled McConneloug, who rolled by Dunlap on one of the short climbs on the 5.5km course. “I got around her, caught up to Annabella [Stropparo], and slowly pulled away.”

An hour and a half later McConneloug crossed the finish line at Canada Olympic Park, a mile-wide smile beaming from beneath her curly brown hair. She had just finished second, only 46 seconds behind Olympic favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle, to solidify her chances at grabbing America’s lone women’s start spot in Athens. Clearly it had been the race of her life.

“Basically this is a win for her.” said Michael Broderick, McConneloug’s boyfriend and travel partner for what has been a five-month mountain-bike racing odyssey that included events in at least a dozen countries. “I always thought she was the best all along, but I think this will finally shut up all the squawking from other people.”

At times McConneloug was accused of running scared, choosing to spend most of the year racing in Europe instead of facing her rivals on the NORBA circuit. But McConneloug brushed off the criticism, traveling around Europe in a rented RV and hitting as many high-value races as she could. Still, it clearly felt good to prove herself in a race with so much on the line, against a field that did include her chief Olympic rivals. The reigning U.S. national champion’s second-place equaled Dunlap’s best World Cup result of the season (although McConneloug’s effort came against a weaker field).

“Anyone who didn’t think I deserved to be in this position can see what I’m capable of,” said McConneloug. “Today I was out there thinking, ‘I can medal in Athens.'”

The End of the Road

On the other side of the spectrum was an emotionally spent Dunlap, who finished seventh, 4:25 behind Dahle. Though she had been mathematically eliminated the week before at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup, the race in Calgary truly brought things to an end for the former world champion and two-time Olympian.

“This has been a really long, hard haul,” said Dunlap, who was a longshot for Athens after losing so much ground in 2003 because of a separated shoulder. “I’m done. I’m out of it. Now I’m going to go home and go camping for a week. I just hope in four years [USA Cycling] can find a better way to pick the Olympic team because this was crazy.”

Asked if she might be around for one more shot at the Games, Dunlap answered with an emphatic “no.”

“I’ll be lucky if I’m at the races next year,” she added, hinting that her 15-year cycling career might be coming to an end. “There are other things I want to do. I want to start a family. I want to be with my family more. The decision isn’t made yet—[Luna] wants me to keep racing. But I’m definitely going to give it some serious thought.”

Then there was Haywood, who was a distant 15th in Calgary but still had one more shot at overtaking McConneloug in the UCI standings at the ensuing weekend’s marathon world championships in Austria. The Trek-Volkswagen pro trailed McConneloug by 56 points in the July 7 UCI rankings. But even with hope still alive, Haywood was ready for the Olympic qualifying ordeal to be over. “I’m just f-ing exhausted,” she said. “I want to go home and rest but I’ve still got another week to go. It’s an Olympic year and you’re not supposed to change that much, but everything’s been different.”

Unstoppable Dahle

The one thing that hasn’t changed this year is Dahle’s dominance. Week after week for the last two years, the Norwegian has been the best in the world. Her victory in Calgary gave her 10 World Cup wins in 10 starts (she sat out World Cup No.4 in Austria to take a midseason break in Colorado), and she’ll head into Athens as the overwhelming favorite. But Dahle (Multivan-Merida) discourages that tag.

“There were a lot of good riders missing today,” she said, after locking up her second straight overall World Cup title. “I know I have beaten them before, but I still must maintain my focus.”

As usual, that focus of Dahle’s was centered on a quick start in Calgary. After finishing the start loop in a comfortable third place, she proceeded to post the fastest three laps of the day, and was 1:10 up on McConneloug by the time she hit two laps to go. Not until the final turn on the course that ran below the base of the 90-meter Nordic ski jump used in the 1988 Olympic Winter Games did Dahle ease off the gas. And at least a few of those surrendered seconds were spent getting off her bike and raising it over her head for what has become her trademark victory salute. It’s an act that we could see again come the end of August.

“So far I have won everything I have been going for,” she admitted. “Why not again?”

Mary McConneloug Earns Olympic Spot

Mary McConneloug in Athens

Team Seven’s Mary McConneloug has been chosen to represent the U.S. in the women’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens this August.

Mary has had a remarkable season and is currently ranked #2 in the world (behind Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle). In World Cup competition—which is generally regarded as the closest approximation of Olympic mountain bike competition—Mary has established herself as one of the world’s elite cross country racers. Her 2nd place finish in the most recent round in Calgary, Alberta on July 4th proves she is capable of an Olympic medal.

Congratulations, Mary, from all your friends at Seven Cycles. We’ll be cheering loudly for you in Athens.

A Real Nail Biter

In the continuing saga of who will represent the USA in the women’s mountain bike event at the 2004 summer Olympics, team Seven’s Mary McConneloug took one step closer by finishing 7th this past weekend at the Mont Saint Anne World Cup in Quebec. This was enough to regain the points lead over Sue Hayward, who finished 12th. The third Olympic hopeful, Alison Dunlap, finished 22nd, leaving her well below Mary and Sue in the points and most likely out of contention.

With just two races left before Olympic selection on July 12, and a razor thin margin separating Mary’s and Sue’s points, the next week and a half promises to be very exciting.

VeloNews: To the Ends of the Earth—McConneloug taking the long road to Athens

They started mapping their plan last November. It wasn’t exact, but Mary McConneloug and her boyfriend Mike Broderick knew they couldn’t stay home if McConneloug was going to realize her dream of racing the cross-country at this summer’s Olympics.

“When I found out that I had a shot at making the team, I knew I had to—and wanted to—do everything in my power to get there,” recalled McConneloug, the reigning US national cross-country champion. “I wrote to USA Cycling to make sure of the qualification criteria and they said ‘UCI points.’ Mike and I looked at the UCI web site and it was clear, there was no promise of high-ranked races in the US, so we had to go to Europe.

Seven months and more than 25,000 kilometers in a rented RV later, the Seven Cycles rider has thrust herself into a neck-and-neck battle with fellow American Sue Haywood for the country’s lone female start spot at the race in Athens. In the UCI rankings released on June 14, McConneloug was one point behind Haywood, in seventh place overall, with only 28 points separating them.

To get to that point, McConneloug has spent all but five days of the 2004 season in Europe, grabbing 10 wins along the way. Her one sortie away from Europe was a quick silver-metal yielding trip to Ecuador for the Pan American Championships. But ask her about lasting memories and McConneloug is quick to point to the journey, not the destination.

“It’s been such an amazing opportunity to travel all over Europe and see the subtle differences of each country we’ve visited,” she explained. “One of the most amazing things is the strength of the bike culture in Europe. Bike paths are everywhere and it seems like everyone rides.”

McConneloug and Broderick, who also races and serves as the two-rider team’s mechanic, started the year in Cyprus, and have since competed in France, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Scotland, and Austria. And while the trip has been a resounding success thus far, there have definitely been some pitfalls, too.

“We definitely have our ups and downs, like any couple,” admitted McConneloug. “It always seems like our list of things to do is a mile long. We usually get along great, but there have been times when the RV seems a little too small. But that’s when you have to think, ‘what else would we rather be doing?” The answer, she says, is the same every time. “Nothing.”

Not everyone has been so enamored with McConneloug’s journey, though. Alison Dunlap, who some feel should go to Athens no matter what happens with the UCI rankings, has accused McConneloug of running scared, choosing to race in Europe instead of competing head-to-head in the States. But McConneloug quickly brushes this notion aside. When the pair have gone head up, McConneloug has held her own. Dunlap has the year’s best World Cup results thus far, a second-place effort in Houffalize, but at the next stop, at Fort William, Dunlap slipped all the way to 20th, while McConneloug posted a solid 11th. In the overall Dunlap is sixth after three events while McConneloug is 12th and Haywood is 16th.

“For the record, staying in Europe is much easier on the budget, not to mention the stress traveling back and forth from the States,” McConneloug contended. “But I think my results speak for themselves. It’s pretty clear that my fitness is on par.”

McConneloug’s path to the brink of an Olympic berth has been very non-traditional. She didn’t grow up racing bikes, but instead had an eye on a singing career. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Vocal performance from California’s Santa Clara University in 1993, and spent the ensuing years “working odd jobs, singing a lot of opera, and drinking good beer.”

It wasn’t until she moved to Bend, Oregon in 1997 that she caught the bike-racing bug.

“It’s just a really special town with great terrain and a thriving bike culture,” explained McConneloug. “That’s where I got into racing mountain bikes and doing cyclocross.”

Progress came slowly, though, and it wasn’t until 2003 that McConneloug broke through with her first NORBA win. “I feel like my racing success is a natural progression of time and dedication,” she said.

And then there’s the freedom that comes from racing for such a small team. Unlike her peers, McConneloug doesn’t face a ton of pressure from her sponsors (Dunlap who is on the big-budget Luna team, raced in Scotland one weekend, flew back to the U.S. for the Snowshoe NORBA, and then went back to Europe to race in the Austria World Cup).

“I don’t know if I would ever be able to race for a big trade team unless they offered me complete freedom and a sizeable salary,” admitted McConneloug. “I love being in control of where and when I race, and love being self-employed.”

Of course what McConneloug would love most is to add Greece to the dozen new stamps she already has on her passport.

“I really hope I’m the one who gets to go to Athens,” she said. “But either way this will be an adventure that I will never regret or forget.