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fourth place finish in the time trials and nationals and
sixth in the road race would be taken as pretty good signs,
all things considered. “The only part of my training
that was really affected (by the pandemic) was that I
was unable to go to any training camps south in the winter,”
said Marcolini.
“I still managed to work around
that. I did a lot of my longer sessions on the trainer,
indoors, which is not ideal – but I definitely did
the best that I could to make it work this year.”
And in the opinion of the person who knows
her cycling the best, Marcolini did indeed make it work
in 2021.
“Ironically, I was able to get some
of my best performances, even better than at times when
I was completely focused on my cycling, so that was good,”
she said. A couple of new voices within her inner circle
clearly helped, adding a pair of new coaches to the fold.
“This year, I was really working
on the mental aspect of cycling: building confidence,
learning better tactics, better race strategies,”
noted Marcolini. “I do realize that my base training
is not quite at the level of others who are racing full-time.
I had to be more strategic about where I was using my
strengths, my one minute power efforts.”
“I knew that I wasn’t going
to be able to recover as quickly, so it was important
to stay calm in races so that I could make better decisions.
I’m still working on that, not quite there yet.
I definitely still made a lot of mistakes this year, but
it’s getting better.”
If the current state of her life has forced
Marcolini to offset her interest in cycling with other
day to day priorities, the perspective that comes with
that has not been all bad. “My coach was super helpful
in working my training around my work schedule,”
she confessed. “Even if I am out working in the
back country, I’m still getting in the sessions
that are needed.”
Marcolini is also more adept at dealing
with a reality of life as a competitive cyclist, the ability
to perform despite pain. “I had to be grittier than
I have been in the past, to learn to be able to hold on
at the top of the climb, things like that,” she
said. “It’s learning to talk myself through
it.”
“It’s only going to hurt for
another two minutes or three minutes, but then something
else happens and you’re right back in the hurt box,”
Marcolini added with a laugh.
After years of competing in the road racing
circuit, the local multi-sport athlete is adding another
twist to her cycling resume, taking a stab at the velodrome
that is the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton
later this month.
“Based on my strength on the bike,
power-wise, I think I would tend to make a good pursuit
rider,” she suggested. “Do I have the bike
handling skills not to crash, not to wipeout? That’s
more the question mark.”
Regardless of how things go, it’s
a pretty safe bet that Marcolini will always enjoy fond
memories of 2021. “The big thing for me this year
was that I really learned to love the sport of cycling;
loved competing, loved racing again. That was something
I had lost a little while ago. I was really just doing
it because I had these expectations that I had put on
myself.”
“It was really cool to re-find that
passion again.”
In the world of cycling, coming full circle
is seldom a bad thing.
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