Canadian mountain biking has a long history of high performance, with multiple world champions, World Cup winners and three Olympic medal winners, including Catharine Pendrel at last year’s Rio de Janeiro Games.
Now it is the start of a new Olympic quadrennial, and Canada’s head coach for mountain bike, Dan Proulx, reflects on the mountain bike program – past and present.
“In 2009 we basically did a rebuild of the program. The previous generations in Canadian mountain biking were extremely successful for many years and in 2009 we had to revisit and rebuild the program so that we could achieve that level of success in the future. I think since that time we have started to create our own dynasty, our own legacy of success at world championships and Olympic Games, particularly on the women’s side. I think another big part of the success has been the depth of riders in the program, and the enthusiasm and drive of those riders to be top international competitors.”
Canada has also instituted a more comprehensive program than just sending teams to the world championships, with projects that include the World Cup participation for developing athletes to learn to race at the highest level.
“Having the ability to run projects at every single World Cup has been critical, and also getting coaches and athletes to understand that part of the success is adapting to that level of racing, and that if you are not at those World Cups you really do miss out on that development. We saw that riders have to climb each and every rung of the ladder if they want to reach the top. So the sooner we can get them into really competitive European racing, and the more exposure they have, the better they tend to do.”
“Quite frankly, we have great funding from Own the Podium and Sport Canada, and obviously through Cycling Canada. So we’ve had the ability to do a lot more then we could in the past. We have a whole bunch of athletes that are invested in working together and trying to see the whole national team program prosper. I think that’s why we are seeing some good results and some really good progressions.”
“Last year at the world championships we had three riders in the Junior men’s category in the top-15 and two in the top-10, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that. That is based on good provincial programs, good private coaches and the motivation of people wanting to be part of the program. It’s attracting the right kind of athletes to our discipline.”
Canada had a very strong year in 2016, with athletes finishing third [Catharine Pendrel] and fourth [Emily Batty] at the Olympics, plus a bronze medal at the world championships and multiple World Cup wins, but Proulx cautions that Canada cannot rest on its laurels.
“I’m extremely happy with how the athletes did last year, but is there more there? Yes, definitely. There is more that the established athletes can accomplish and there are young athletes coming through the system in Elite and Under-23 who have the potential to fill Emily’s [Batty] and Catharine’s [Pendrel] shoes, and even potentially surpass them at some point.”
“I think there is a good, bright future within the program already and, as we look to Tokyo [2020], Emily and Catharine will still be medal contenders, but we will also have other athletes vying for those spots and all of our indicators say we are going to be successful on the world stage for the foreseeable future – 2020 and 2024.”
One area that Proulx points to is the NextGen program, which has become mountain bike specific.
“The NextGen program in Victoria is four years old and has been run by Jeff Ain since the beginning. It started as a multi-disciplinary focus, but since September 2016 it has become part of the mountain bike program and dedicated to our discipline. The idea behind the program is bringing the athletes that are five to eight years from an Olympic podium a quality, daily training environment, where there is a coach, and IST services like massage, sport psychology and nutrition. This has them all in one training environment where they can progress throughout the year and accelerate their learning and perform better at an earlier age.”
“I think the progression of the athletes in that program has been really good, and I think, in the future, that is going to be where all of our top-level athletes come from, because it’s an accelerated model and it’s quality coaching. I think it’s a very good pathway into being a good Elite rider.”
“There are always athletes, who for reasons of school or work or family, will not be able to be in that NextGen program, and part of our mandate is to also watch out for them, and work with their private coaches and their provinces, so that their progression is as efficient as possible. We already have a very good cohort at the Under-23 age group that is already focussed on international competition, and when they switch over to Elite they come into my program.”
“For the Elite athletes we also have a daily training environment, based out of Victoria. The ability to coach them day after day, and to see ‘the whites of their eyes’, and to understand how they develop is making a real difference. It’s basic coaching on a daily basis, and for most athletes in our sport that doesn’t happen, so developing this system has given us the ability to make sure that the athletes are improving in the quickest way possible.”
Now it is the start of a new Olympic Quad, and the mountain bike program is already underway, with training camps at the National Training Centre in Bear Mountain, Victoria, and projects supporting athletes to attend international competitions.
“In every Quad we start out by being more focussed on development, and so we are looking for talent that we can develop in four to eight years. So the first couple of years of the Quad are pretty much devoted to those efforts and the last two years of the Quad tend to be focussed on medal potential athletes and qualification for the Games.”
“One of the things we done a pretty good job on in mountain biking is looking all the way back down the system to Cadet and making sure that there are no gaps; that we have athletes that are potential international riders in each category, and that we can grow into top Elite riders. It is a purposeful development process, and we are building Olympians, not waiting for them to show up or happen by accident. We have a process to consistently produce success.”
