PCC Athletes podium at Windsor Crit

Parker Swanstrom on his way to victory. Photo by Jay Wallace

The last Windsor Park Criterium of the season took place on Sunday and two U19 PCC-coached athletes – Parker Swanstrom and Luke Hubner – placed first and second in Category A.

It was an exciting race with a fast field. Three laps from the end Luke launched a counter attack followed by Parker. They opened up a 15 second gap – enough to take the top two spots from the breakaway.

The Windsor Park Criterium is a popular race on the Victoria cycling scene held every July and August and hosted by the Victoria Wheelers Cycling Club. Windsor Park has a rich cycling history. It was established in 1890 as the Oak Bay Recreation Park and in 1895 a bicycle racing track was built by the Victoria Railway and Electric Lighting Company to encourage use of the streetcar system.

PCC Athletes Podium at Provincials

Holly Simonson – Elite BC Provincial Champion. Photo courtesy: TLBVelo Photography

PCC Athletes had a successful day at the BC Road Race Provincial Championships last weekend. Holly Simonson was crowned champion in the elite women’s race and Luke Hubner in the Junior Boys category. Keisha Besler was fifth in the women’s elite race. Micaiah Besler won the U23 Women category but as a non-BC resident couldn’t claim the championship title. She was sixth overall in the race.

Other top ten athletes were: Amiel Flett-Brown (seventh) and Chris MacLeod (ninth) in the Elite Men. Caleb Bender was fourth in the U23 and Brenna Pauly 10th in the Elite Women/U23 Cat 1/2/3.

Congratulations to everyone.

Luke Hubner – Junior Boys BC Provincial Champion. Photo courtesy: TLBVelo Photography

Busy Race Season for Zoe Saccio

Zoe (right) on the podium at the Tour of America’s Dairyland. Photo courtesy Karl Hendriske, ToAD Official Photographer

PCC riders have been keeping busy this year despite the pandemic. Many races in the U.S. have been happening enabling riders to continue their training and racing. Zoe Saccio has been racing a lot – mainly criteriums. Her season started in Arlington, VA at the Armed Forces Cycling Classic, then she raced Tour of America’s Dairyland, a 10-day criterium series in Wisconsin. “I had some great racing including a top 10 at the Manitowoc Maritime Bay Classic, third place in the series sprint competition, and got lots of primes,” she said.

This past weekend she was in the Boise Twilight Criterium, which is part of the USA Crit Series and the USA Cycling Pro Road Tour. Next up for Zoe is the Intelligentsia Cup in Chicago from July 16 – 25. This a series of nine races (criteriums and road races) in the metropolitan Chicago area.

PCC Resumes Training and Services

With BC now into Return to Sport Restart 2.0 Pacific Cycling Centre athletes are back training as a group on the track and road. PCC will be following the guidelines as posted by ViaSport on indoor and outdoor sport.

Track sessions are Tuesdays and Fridays from 4 – 6 pm at the Westshore Velodrome in Victoria and group rides have resumed on Saturday mornings from PISE at Commonwealth Place.

PCC Head Coach has also announced that all services including VO2 Max and Wingate testing, and bike fitting is open. Check out the services here.

During the pandemic PCC athletes have continued their training and racing when they have been able, but being in stage 3 of the BC Restart, and with more provinces opening up, they will be able to compete more.

Coming up later this month is Trackfest at the Westshore Velodrome from July 23 – 25.

PCC Announces Coach Mentorship Program

Pacific Cycling Centre (PCC) is excited to announce that it is now offering a PCC Coach Mentorship Program to coaches. This program is aimed to assist the development and the personal and professional growth of a mentee coach who wants to take his/her knowledge and skill to the next level.

Through the program coaches will gain practical work and advice, learn from the experience of a mentor, increase their coaching confidence and ability in a real working dynamic environment, be empowered to make appropriate decisions, and establish a sense of direction for themselves and their athletes moving forward.

“While classroom and / or online coaching courses are important academically, nothing can replace working with a coach mentor who can equip you with the important tools necessary to perform to your highest capability,” says PCC Head Coach Houshang Amiri who will lead the program. “Our goal is to identify and achieve career development and personal and professional growth goals with the view to make you a successful coach.”

The program will create opportunities to meet and work with athletes giving coaches hands-on experience with PCC programs. Coaches will learn and gain inside knowledge of working in an organizational setting, as well as running their own coaching business.

The PCC Coach Mentorship Program will cover and is not limited to the following:

  • Coaching art, confidence building, decision making
  • Coaching science and technology, latest tools, and gauges
  • Communications, protocol development, program, training feedback, log keeping
  • Training program development, individual and group
  • Developing athletes’ assessment protocols, in-field, and laboratory
  • Goal setting session
  • Developing short term, mid and long term goals: individual and group
  • Training program monitoring: individual and group
  • Planning and running a training session, pre, during and post session communication
  • Race preparation, coaching at races
  • Observing your mentor coaching at training sessions, training camps and races
  • Engaging with existing training sessions and programs at PCC
  • Engaging with your mentor’s athlete coaching programs (confidentiality clause will apply)
  • Creating your own coaching business or working in an organization setting

These elements of the program will be personalized and adapted to the coach’s needs, working with the mentor in a variety of ways such as one-on-one consultation, two-way communications, in person, online and by phone.

Amiri has extensive experience as an educator and mentor. He was coach educator and instructor for Level 1, 2 and 3 NCCP (National Coaching Certification Program) as well as being a Coach Certifier for NCCP Level 3 coach candidates at Cycling Canada for over 10 years.  He became a coach mentor at the National Coaching Institute in the University of Victoria mentoring level 4 and 5 NCCP coach candidates, as well as international coaches at NCI from 2004-2008. From 2009 he worked as Coach educator at UCI and international Olympic Solidarity program, traveling around the world running coaching course for coaches.

For more information on the PCC mentorship program contact info@pacificcyclingcentre.ca

Virtual win for Zoe Saccio

PCC coached rider Zoe Saccio successfully rode her first virtual race with the Echelon Racing League last weekend. On Saturday was the Virtual Indy Crit and Sunday the Dirty Reiver Road Race. These were staged on the racing platform RGT Cycling.

Zoe – who cycles on the Pickle Juice Pro Cycling Team – is based in Portland, Oregon. She was excited but also nervous to race these virtually as she heard they were quite hard. At the Crit start line her heart rate went over zone 2! “When the race started, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as challenging as I expected. By about halfway through I was in the front group of 10 riders, and it stayed that way until the bunch sprint, which was the most challenging part of the race because I am still learning the physics of the game and did not know when to jump.”

The road race the next day though was “super fun,” she said. “From the gun, my teammate, myself, and another rider we had marked from the day before were in a three woman break. Pretty quickly we had a huge gap and knew there was no way anyone else was going to catch back on. Still the pace was high and every rider was throwing attacks – myself included – trying to fatigue the others or maybe get away. This was when I had to face one of my biggest mental challenges: the knowledge that even if I got dropped from the break, I would still be “on the podium.”

She then remembered a phone call with coach Houshang Amiri a few weeks before. “He told me a story about a rider in a match sprint who said that he wasn’t worried after qualifying for the gold medal ride because worst case he would be second. Houshang told me that is the worst possible mentality because you have lost before giving yourself a chance to win. So there I was, on the trainer, setting some season personal bests for power and heart rate, yelling at myself to keep going. I kept telling myself ‘you will win’ as I felt like I was about to explode. My legs were on fire, my lungs were burning, but I kept talking to myself, and hearing Houshang’s voice in my head. After two hours of racing on the trainer, it was finally the sprint. I got a lead out from my teammate and took the win, with her coming in second place.”

Houshang has been Zoe’s coach since the 2018-2019 season. “From the start she showed a great deal of potential and ability that I believe will take her to the world stage,” he says. “She is very coachable and her commitment and work ethic is what every coach wants from a rider. This is very motivating for me and it is a pleasure working with Zoe.”

Zoe is looking forward to more virtual races. “I learned a lot about myself this past weekend and got to practice the self-talking strategies Houshang has been teaching me all winter. I am excited to race more, which is good because my placings this weekend qualified me for the pro races next weekend.”

Group Rides Suspended

Due to the current province-wide restrictions and the Provincial Health Orders, all PCC group rides and the December training camp are cancelled until at least January 8, 2021.

Information on the PHO Orders.

PCC’s announces 2021 Clothing Kit

Pacific Cycling Centre has revealed its 2021 team training kit. Designed by Jakroo Canada the kit features a cycling jersey, thermal jersey, pro bib shorts, wind vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and a neck wrap. Prices are discounted by 20% but the more orders placed the bigger the discount. To guarantee delivery by December 22, orders must be in by December 8.

Check out the full kit and price points here:

https://designlab.jakroo.com/store-front?storeId=HyaCRlo5P

PCC holds first group ride

With a new season comes the return of the Saturday group rides for PCC athletes.  Riders, under the guidance of the Pacific Cycling Centre head coach, meet and ride for four-six hours around Victoria. The first ride was on Saturday, November 6. Here is Alex Amiri’s account of the day.

This year rides are a little bit different with reduced numbers of riders because of the pandemic restrictions. Rather than meeting inside the PISE offices at the Commonwealth Pool in Saanich, we convened just outside. Before starting the workout, head coach Houshang Amiri addressed the riders and talked them through COVID-19 guidelines and the safety measures that must be followed during the ride. We then did a series of pre-ride activation techniques.

The biggest cog in a cyclist’s engine is learning how to breathe properly so we began with breathing exercises, focusing on activating the diaphragm. The focus on breathing also brings into play the off-bike work that needs to be kept up with, such as a solid foundation for your core muscles and core stability, as well as upper body and shoulder mobility. All this factors into more efficiency on the bike.

Following this the riders proceeded to take part in a dynamic warmup, consisting of leg swings in all directions. What this does is help bring a conscious mind to the legs, allowing riders to better focus on pedaling dynamics. Leg swings help in other ways as well, by opening the hips and activating the core it helps the riders to feel more relaxed on the bike.

The objective of the ride was base endurance while practising our breathing technique. The four-hour ride took in the peninsula with rolling hills.

For more information on these riding techniques be sure to check out our training tips page regularly, where we will begin uploading tips and tricks learned by head coach Houshang Amiri.

PCC Athletes profiled on Infinit Blog

Infinit Nutrition has profiled U19 athletes Luke Hubner and Parker Swanstrom – Check it out here.

http://blog.infinitcanada.com/2020/10/pacific-cycling-centre-athletes.html

Luke Hubner. Photo by Filip Funk

Parker Swanstrom

 

Pacific Cycling Centre

Pacific Cycling Centre (PCC) provides coaching and training services for Elite, Masters, and Junior athletes in road, mountain bike, track, and cyclo-cross.

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