What it Takes to Be a National Champion with Erica Carney – Ask a Cycling Coach 306
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Erica Carney is one of the all-time best American crit racers, but her goal of winning a pro national criterium championship took years of hard work to achieve. Tune in as we answer your questions about tactics, bike handling and more, and discuss what Erica did to improve her tactics and abilities each year to finally win the 2017 Women’s Pro Criterium National Championship.
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TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE
00:12 - Erica’s cycling achievements
1:24 - Reflecting on working towards a national championship
3:56 - Doubting her ability to win national crit championships
5:50 - The lessons learned through experience
8:30 - How Erica got started racing
9:50 - How track racing helped with crit skills
11:14 - Specific skills and the difference in training from track to road
13:12 - Learning to train more effectively
14:48 - Shifting responsibilities to be an effective teammate and mentor
17:47 - Erica’s favorite courses
19:14 - Team support vs. individual success
22:06 - Training without power
23:45 - Efficiency and her skills as a sprinter
26:38 - Pre-riding the course and strategizing the finish
27:28 - Practical training and Erica’s favorite workouts
29:28 - Listener Questions: Body type and large fields
32:46 - Being nervous in large fields
34:21 - Tactics for small vs. large fields
35:50 - Racing solo against teams
38:01 - Racing multiple events in a day
40:48 - Cornering, braking, and line choice
45:46 - Training tactics and techniques
47:35 - The ideal final 3 laps of a race
49:29 - What does Erica wish she did more of during her career?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist, the Asuka cycling coach podcast presented by trainer road and coach Jonathan |
| 0:06.2 | Lee. We have a special episode for us here today. We have Erica Carney with us. How you doing, Erica? |
| 0:11.2 | Doing awesome. Thank you. |
| 0:13.3 | I'm going to intro Erica really quickly and just give you some background on who she is. She's currently a fourth grade teacher, |
| 0:20.5 | but she's also a retired pro cyclist and past pro crit national champion, but also has a whole lot of achievements as well. |
| 0:27.3 | Two you you 23 crit titles, one elite crit national championship. Like I mentioned, and you also say after many years of podiuming or crashing out. |
| 0:36.4 | Several collegiate national titles on the road and track and you won the only elite track national championship in the missing now or in 2014 track nationals, |
| 0:46.3 | which is really cool. So you have had a really successful career and this is one actually I spoke with Amber about you. Amber Pierce, who's usually on this podcast and |
| 0:56.7 | she was talking about her admiration for you for being such a good finisher and races, but then also for not being like she said, |
| 1:04.6 | it's sometimes sprinters can adopt that diva personality where they're kind of like if it's my finish, it's my finish, |
| 1:09.9 | and that's all I care about. But she said that you were exemplary and also being a great team member and helping everybody out and just being awesome. |
| 1:18.5 | So I'm really excited to have you on the podcast and thank you for coming on. |
| 1:23.2 | So now you're teaching fourth grade. So we're going to be looking back at your career now. |
| 1:29.0 | And I actually kind of want to start things off by a quote that I heard when you won your 2017 the 2017 national championship crit championship. |
| 1:37.8 | Super cool. You mentioned that you had been working toward that for your whole career. |
| 1:44.6 | So like that seems somewhat logical. Of course, like everybody always is trying to reach to the top, but you've been trying for a long time. |
| 1:50.6 | So what did you actually mean by saying that? |
| 1:53.6 | It's a funny question. It's kind of loaded to it because I feel like I've had conversations with friends and other people. |
| 2:01.4 | And when they realize that I've only won one elite title in my whole time that I was racing, they're kind of shocked. |
| 2:09.2 | Like I've been around for a long time and I've won a lot of bike races, but this national championship has been sort of elusive and always just out of reach. |
| 2:18.0 | And so, you know, I started racing gosh back in 2006. I signed my first pro contract for 2008. |
| 2:27.0 | And then just like really developed my criss-gill and became, you know, exolic criteria. |
... |
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