Holly Henry’s hard road to a Belgian Waffle Ride podium

When Holly Henry rolled across the line to finish fifth in Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona, it was the most impressive ride of the day. It wasn’t just finishing on the podium with two Olympians, but in the Victoria rider’s first race back in nearly three years after dealing with lingering concussion symptoms. If that return wasn’t enough weight on the start line, Henry set off onto Arizona gravel less than a month tragedy struck the family. Her sister, an accomplished triathlete, was hit by impaired driver while training on the roads of in Phoenix.

“It was the hardest race I’ve ever done in my life,” Henry says.

BWR Arizona is a hard course to start with. At 165km of doubletrack, singletrack and roads, both gravel and paved, and over 2,200m of elevation gain, it’s a demanding race for everyone on the start line. With finish times over six hours, it was also the longest of Henry’s career. Add in everything else happening, and it is an inspiring ride from the Victoria athlete.

We caught up with Henry back at home in Victoria to find out more about the ride, everything leading up to it, and what the aspiring athlete/coach is up to next.

The long road to Arizona

Henry’s road to the Belgian Waffle Ride starts over three years ago. After finishing a season on the road with the Instafund team, she had a hard fall while mountain biking.

“I recovered fairly normally, I had a really good cyclocross season for the first bit, right up to Canadian cyclocross national championships when they were in Victoria,” Henry says. Third in the elite women’s race would be the highlight of any season. The glow didn’t last. “Literally the week after that, I had another fall.”

That fall set the Victoria-based rider up for what would be a string of concussions and concussion symptoms.

“I just kept relapsing, I don’t know,” Henry says, thinking back three years. “I did actually race a little in 2023. I raced Redlands and Joe Martin.”

A crash and broken collarbone ended her run at Joe Martin. Late that summer of ’23, Henry crashed again.

“That was the worst. It seemed like nothing but I had concussion symptoms for two, almost three years after that. I’m only back to feeling normal this year.”

Henry says that, while she was still able to train occasionally, the symptoms kept returning.

“Some days I’d be fine. Some…