by Maghalie Rochette

If there is one regret that I have from my career it's this: When I was younger, in my U23 years, I was way too hard on myself. I had such big goals that even if I did good, it was never enough for me.

Okay, maybe regret is a wrong word. Maybe I should say "one thing I would do differently". What happened is that by being super hard on myself and never happy with my results (even if sometimes they were pretty good for a newcomer), I think it sucked the fun out of it for me for a while. It added pressure on myself, and above all, I think it took the focus away from progress and put it too much on the outcome. I really struggled in those years.

But now, I'm not a young whipper-snapper anymore, and I've learned from that.

And this my friends, well, this is just a really long prelude to talk to you about what happened THIS weekend. In October of 2023. At the first cyclocross world cup of the season.

So let's bring it!

Nervous, not afraid
I was excited getting into this first World Cup. I so badly wanted to know where I stood amongst the best in the World. Truly I couldn’t wait. I had had some success in North America the past month which helped build my confidence, but it brought no peace of mind. Would this form be enough to compete with the best European riders? I needed to know.

I was also nervous… and I was okay with that. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my nerves over the years and let’s be honest the ratio of love to hate was not 50/50. But this time, I knew it was going to be good nerves, because my stress was not rooted in fear. It was rooted in excitement, in wanting to know: Where do I stand?

And the only way to find out was to go out there and do an honest, solid race. Simple. I was ready for it.

Anyone's guess
On Friday and Saturday, it DUMPED rain in Wisconsin. The course became super muddy. During Saturday’s pre-ride, we were treated to deep but still wet mud. It was fun and challenging and required bike changes every half-lap. But then, it stopped raining and the mud started to dry and became thick as peanut butter (not the organic, most liquid kind…the thick Skippy PB kind). By then, we were back at the hotel, and were left guessing at what kind of conditions we were face in the race. Would it be so thick that you can’t ride anything and it’s a running race? Would it all dry out and become super fast? It was anyone’s guess.

From the race morning pre-ride until the race a few hours later, course conditions still changed. As we were warming up on the trainer, we received the last update from the men advising us to not go with full mud tires, and telling us that some lines that you previously had to run were now ride-able. We were going to discover the conditions on the first lap!

The race
Finally, they said go and we were off! I had a mediocre start right off the line, but it wasn’t a problem as I stayed calm and moved up in the top 3-5 quickly. I wanted to play at the front of the race and had a sense of urgency about moving up QUICKLY before the top girls went away. Unfortunately, in the first few turns, I wasn’t assertive enough. Maybe I should have committed to run the first turns? Maybe I was too calm? I ended up running after a lot of people passed me, but it was too late and the sense of urgency came back as I saw Fem and Puck already riding away. GET. TO. THE. FRONT. NOW. I had good legs and made it back to the end of the pack. But still too far back. I tried to pass Inge van der Heijden on multiple occasions, but she would not have it. This was unfortunate as I think she still had off-camber PTSD from her crash at the Beringen race last weekend. She went down the off-camber slooooowly, so I did too, and by the time we got to the bottom, Fem, Puck, and Ceylin were gone. (Nothing personal against Inge…she was slow in the off-camber, I was slow in the start…we each had our strengths!). I finally passed Inge, and then here I was alone in between packs. Exactly what I didn’t want to do in this race.

Luckily, this motivated me. “You said you wanted to ride with people. GET TO THEM PEOPLE” I told myself.

I got into chase mode. Eventually I caught up to the group riding for 4th of Zoe Backstetd and Manon Bakker. I made a move and we dropped Manon. Riding with Zoe for a bit was cool, I feel like I improved a few lines from following her. I eventually got a little gap on her over the barriers and went with it. The fans were going GORILLAS out there telling me that I was catching Ceylin. I wanted this so bad. This was the podium. Every few meters on the course fans were yelling time gaps. People were crazy out there, I felt so lucky to be cheered on like that. Cyclocross fans, you are the best! They were telling me Ceylin was tiring. I tried my best, but unfortunately, I was also tiring haha. I ended up crossing the line in 4th, 13seconds behind the podium (after loosing 20 seconds in the first lap…).

How do I feel about it? Did I learn anything?
And this my friends, well, this brings us right back to my long prelude. How do I feel about this 4th place? Well, I’m happy to report I’ve learned from my past, but this big-goals/dreamer-attitude of young Maghalie still lives in me. I’m happy about my performance. There are so many things I did well and I’m happy about. But I also see things I can improve upon, and I’m definitely hungry for more. 4th is an awesome result and it also is a bittersweet one.

But as I said, I have learned. Progress over outcome. I wanted to know where I stood, and now I know. We have 1 month until the next World Cup and I know exactly what to work on…. I think that’s a win!

I read this quote last week and I think it expresses well my attitude right now:

"When you're in the middle of the work, set your expectations high. It's unlikely your performance will exceed the standard you set for yourself. High expectations encourage you to keep reaching and fulfill your potential.

Once the work is done, release yourself from your expectations. The fastest way to ruin a good outcome is to tell yourself it's not good enough. Your expectations dictate your happiness more than your results.

Expectations can be helpful as a motivator and unhelpful as a measuring stick. Now that the work is done you can rest easy knowing you tried your best. You've already won.” - James Clear

One more thing, thank you!
It would have been clever to finish this newsletter on this good quote, but I have one more thing to say. I want to say thank you to the Trek people for hosting us and throwing a cyclocross party every year. Waterloo is the only remaining World Cup in North America, and I believe it’s hugely important for our sport to have this North American stop on the calendar. I know hosting a World Cup is expensive and not easy…and that’s why I say thank you! Thank you for the opportunity to showcase our sport in this corner of the world. And thank you to the fans who made this weekend even more fun!

Maghalie

Next : Oct. 28-29: USCX FInale at the Really Rad Festival of cyclocross

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