When Haley Smith finished Big Sugar Gravel on Saturday, it secured a major victory for the Canadian, even though she wasn’t at the front of the race. Her result in Bentonville, Ark. was exactly what she needed to claim the first Life Time Grand Prix championship title, fending off a challenge from Sarah Sturm and Sofia Gomez Villafane.
To earn the title, Smith had to ride into uncharted territory. The six-event Grand Prix is split evenly between cross country mountain biking and gravel events. Before her impressive result at Unbound, the Canadian had never raced gravel. Switching disciplines meant more than just getting used to a new bike. The races are longer and, unlike the separate men’s and women’s starts in mountain biking, gravel races use mass starts that cram thousands of riders together on the start line. As Smith explains, that was a little chaotic for the women racing for Life Time’s $25,000 grand prize.
I caught up with Smith over the phone in Chicago O’Hare airport while she was travelling back from Bentonville to Kingston, Ont., where she recently started graduate studies at Queens University.
When we talked after Unbound you said that was your first gravel race. Gravel events ended up being you two of your best results – unbound and a win at Crusher. Is there something about that race format that suits you well? Or was there a learning curve to those results?
There’s still a learning curve that I don’t think I’ve figured out yet. Does it suit me? I don’t know exactly, but I think one of my strengths is fatigue resistance. I’m pretty good at putting out the same type of power at hour 10 as I am at hour two, so that suits me well. Also, having mountain bike handling skills is a really big advantage.
The biggest challenge for me is still the mass starts in and amongst the men. I have trouble navigating that field of hundreds of people. It’s just chaotic.
How stressful is a mass start when you’re chasing series points and trying to keep track of people you’re competing against?
That’s actually quite stressful. That’s what I was most worried about Saturday [Big Sugar] and I didn’t quite do that successfully. I totally lost track of where everyone was.
It’s crazy because we can go so much faster when we’re in with the guys on those starts because of the drafting effect and they can put out…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…