GLASGOW, Scotland – Whether Canmore’s Sara Poidevin is gunning it on a breakaway or leading through a technical section, the elite road cyclist is ready to make an impact at “Super Worlds.”
The UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, from Aug. 3-13, which is also being dubbed “Super Worlds”, features all 13 disciplines of cycling being brought together in one event for the first time with world title races on the line.
“The world championships are such a cool event just because the crowds are so big and especially a race that has such a big circuit like this one,” said Poidevin, who was an Olympic alternate at the Tokyo Summer Games.
“This year, with it being “Super Worlds”, I really expect it to be a really great atmosphere around racing and I think that makes it so special.”
A top women’s racer for the past decade, it’s the 27-year-old “Poido’s” first world championship selection since 2020.
Competing in the elite women’s road race Aug. 13, the field will pedal the 154-kilometre course, with 2,300 metres of climbing, through countryside and city.
Poidevin hasn’t raced the Scottish course before, but has gotten some insight into some of its finer details.
“[Inside Glasgow], the challenge is just the number of corners there are. Like, there are only a couple stretches of straight and no turning, so positioning will be crucial,” she said.
Teams strategize and use tactics in cycling, such as one rider drafting in front, to decrease wind resistance, or breaking away to put pressure on other teams to burn energy.
Poidevin’s support role aids her teammates’ success.
“The best role I can play is support for my teammates in a race,” said Poidevin.
“This race is going to depend a lot on bunch skills and positioning work. A big part of my role is helping with positioning and the lead-in to the circuit the for team.”
So far this season, Poidevin’s racing at the Canadian Road Championships in Edmonton helped set up teammate Alison Jackson’s win, with a solo breakaway for most of the 124 km course.
The Canmore rider also had a big role in securing a second general classification win for her pink jersey race team, EF Pro Cycling, at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas, USA.
Poidevin said she has found more consistent results this season following a change in her diet. For the past eight years, she was living with amenorrhea, or RED-S. Symptoms affect athletes in many different ways including a lack of energy in sport. It’s brought on by a lack of calorie intake, or eating the bare minimum, which athletes sometimes do in order to maintain a certain weight.
It took a doctor and dietitian working with Poidevin to discover that she was unknowingly living with RED-S, which she has since recovered from.
“I want to make sure young riders are focused on all the other aspects in racing in order to be successful,” said Poidevin. “There’s just too much emphasis on weight and body composition.”
Two other familiar faces to the Bow Valley were also selected to Canada’s road roster at “Super Worlds”, including Calgary’s Alexandra Volstad, a regular at the Canmore Road Festival, who’ll be in the junior women’s race, and Edmonton’s Paula Findlay.
Findlay, an Olympic triathlete, who occasionally trains and gets race-ready in the Bow Valley, makes her world championship debut in Glasgow in the Aug. 10 individual time trial.
“I’ve been competing for so long in my life that I can’t remember a time when I’ve felt like such a rookie at an event, but I am looking forward to putting myself out there and learning from the best in the world,” said Findlay in a social media post.
From Glasgow, Findlay heads to Finland to get ready for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships later this month.
