This article is in collaboration with Hammerhead.
Canadian cyclocross specialist Maghalie Rochette grew up riding mountain bikes with her dad in search of mud. Now, at 29, she has established herself as one of the biggest names on the cyclocross scene, travelling around Europe and North America with her bike, her husband… and her dog.
How are you feeling now?
To be honest with you, I’ve been struggling with my health for a few months since I got Covid. And then on top of that, I also had food poisoning this week, which didn’t help. So it hasn’t been great. But it is what it is. We’ll get through it.
How did you get into cycling?
Cycling is something I’ve done since I was a little kid. I started racing at the age of maybe seven or ten and the reason I started was that my dad was doing it. When I was a young girl I was a bit of a tomboy. I loved skateboarding and I loved everything that was a bit different than the other girls I used to play with. My dad was always coming back from a mountain bike ride super muddy, and to me the mud was super attractive, like, oh my god, it looks so fun, what he’s doing.
So I started riding with him on mountain bikes, and what I loved the most was doing stuff that scared me. So I was always asking him, like, “Okay, can you teach me how to go down these stairs? Or, can you teach me how to go down this downhill that scares me?” And I liked that because it gave me confidence and I loved pushing myself in that way. So that’s how I started racing. And then I raced triathlon and I raced mountain bikes.How did you discover cyclocross from there?
At some point I got injured from running and so I couldn’t compete in triathlon. I got more involved in cycling that summer, but I didn’t race that much. I was just kind of exploring other facets that cycling could bring. And a friend of mine just told me, “Hey, there’s a cyclocross race close to your house tomorrow, you should come and do it.” And I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know what cyclocross is. But I’ll do it.”
So I bought a bike, a really cheap bike, like, $600, and I went to the race the next day, and I just loved it. I was given a beer on the podium and it was just a cool vibe; everyone was happy and excited. I fell in love with the intensity and the fact that the sport was super dynamic. But also a lot of it was about the vibe around the event, just how festive it was.
From then I started doing more and more, and the more I did…