Interview with Tara Whitten post-Cali

Article courtesy of Pedal Magazine
original article/article originel

by Chris Reid

December 13, 2008 – Following her double bronze performance at the Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia, Tara Whitten graciously called us for a brief interview from the Dallas Airport where she was on a stop-over returning home. Whitten is on fire having placed 3rd in both the Points race and the Pursuit (the two Olympic endurance track events for women) in Cali. This follows her stellar double silver scores at round #1 of the Track World Cup in Manchester in early November. Despite only a couple of hours of sleep in the hectic life of an elite athlete she was kind enough to answer our questions.

How was Cali, Columbia as a venue?
Tara Whitten: It was really cool. It’s the first time I’ve been to South America. The track is a wooden 250m velodrome, but it’s open-air with just a roof covering it – you could even see the mountains while you were riding on it.

Give us a bit of a low down on how the Points race went (Whitten finished third behind Italian Georgia Bronzini).
TW: It was an interesting race - I am still gaining experience in bunch racing, and to be honest it wasn’t a super fast competition but it was a very aggressive one, with a couple of crashes. At one point two girls ran into me and the one crashed herself! I managed to score a few points early on, and then attacked after one of the sprints to stay away for the next one and take the full five points. In the end that was enough for third.

Will your focus shift a bit now that you have had such success in the bunch races as well?
TW: I think that the Pursuit will still remain my focus. I enjoy the bunch racing but Pursuit is my main event.

What are you goals this year and in the future?
TW: I think for this year my goals are more time based in the Pursuit. I want to see a good progression from last year, and try and develop steadier lap times. Next year my goals will be more results based - to try and shoot for the podium at Worlds.

Will we see you doing more road races next year?
TW: Definitely more so than in the past. I actually did a fair bit of road racing last year but it was all in Alberta. I want to do a few bigger races outside the province next summer but my focus is still definitely on track.

You were a good cross-country skier before you became a trackie - what level did you compete at?
TW: I was on the junior national team for two years, and then on the senior team for one. I competed at the senior Nordic Worlds one year and actually won silver at the U23 Worlds in the sprints. But the sprints in skiing are more like a track pursuit – they’re 2-3 minutes long.

With such great success what made you decide to cross over?
TW: I felt like I had stopped progressing, I was not at the level that I wanted to be at, and I decided to take a bit of a break and re-evaluate. During that break I started racing more track and decided that I felt like I had more potential on the track.

What does the rest of your track season look like?
TW: I am going to skip the Beijing round and probably race Copenhagen. And then focus on the Track Worlds which are in Poland this year.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us and good luck!
TW: You’re welcome and thanks.