Van den Ham proud of second national title

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This article was published 15/11/2018 (2739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A relieved Michael van den Ham is the national cyclo-cross champion once again.

Van den Ham defended his elite men’s title at the Canadian cyclo-cross championships, edging Geoff Kabush by six seconds on Saturday in Peterborough, Ont. For the former Brandonite, it felt a lot different than the first time he took home gold a year ago.

“In a lot of ways it’s harder to repeat than it is to win for the first time,” he said. “There’s so much pressure going into the race and I have a lot more expectations on myself.

“You go into an event like that knowing ‘if I don’t come out winning, that’s going to be a disappointment. That’s a tricky position to put yourself into, but that’s where I was. It was hugely exciting to win, it was also a bit of a relief.”

Cyclo-cross athletes ride six to 10 laps on a three-to-four kilometre course that features pavement, sand, mud and grass hills. It also includes obstacles that require riders to dismount and carry their bikes at times. Tight turns test the competitors’ handling abilities.

To return to the podium, the biggest challenge van den Ham faced was the course conditions. Temperatures dropped and snow fell the night before the race, which doesn’t make for an easy surface.

“We had frozen ground with slick mud overtop of it, which is some of the most challenging conditions to race in, because it’s where you have the least amount of traction.”

Especially in sub-optimal conditions, each rider has a team working to keep their wheels turning, literally. The bikes send mud flying into chains and gears and it builds up on tires quickly throughout the race. That’s where the team comes in.

They are similar to a NASCAR pit crew, though the transition is quicker as they simply hand their rider a new bike. Then, they wash it, tune it up and make sure it’s ready to take another beating on the course.

“You hand someone this mud-covered, barely-functioning bike. Then, eight minutes later, wanting to grab it as a sparkling, clean bike, that’s a lot of work,” van den Ham said.

Van den Ham credited his team for more than just keeping him in front during the race. He swapped his bike out four times during his seven laps of the course, and Derek Chipping and Doug van den Ham were able to limit his pit stops to two-to-three seconds each.

Doug — his brother — helped out while also competing on the weekend. Doug finished 12th in the master’s men’s (age 35-44) category.

“That’s pretty cool,” Michael said. “He was the one who got me into cycling the better part of 10 years ago, so it’s cool to have him there.”

The 26-year-old would have been a clear favourite to win the title on a warmer, sunnier day, but the slick track played into Kabush’s hand. The 41-year-old trailed by 15 seconds with two laps to go, but cut the gap in half entering the final lap.

“He’s one of the oldest on the circuit by a long shot, but when the conditions get messy, he has years of experience to draw on,” van den Ham said. “This is someone I was looking up to when I started riding. It’s an interesting that now, seven or eight years later, I’m racing against him for national championships.

“I was able to make it through that last lap without making any mistakes and hold him off, but it was definitely tense.”

Van den Ham is now a two-time national champion and will wear the national jersey for another year. A week prior to the Canadian event, he nearly took the Pan-American jersey home to Abbotsford, B.C. as well.

At the Pan-American championships in Midland, Ont., he passed Curtis White of the United States to take the lead late and held it until the 200-metre paved finishing stretch. White fought back to win by less than a second.

“That one was pretty much down to the finish line,” van den Ham said. “We ended up in a drag-race sprint to the line and he ended up getting me by a foot.”

Given the choice, van den Ham wouldn’t trade in the uniform sporting a Maple Leaf for the Pan Am crown.

“Technically that’s a bigger race than the national championship, but if you talk to just about anyone, there’s a certain amount of pride that goes with wearing the national-championship jersey,” he said.

Van den Ham will be in Dallas for the first weekend in December and then will head back south for Tulsa, Okla., the following weekend.

Then he’s off to Belgium for a month. Belgium hosts Union Cyclists Internationale (UCI) Cyclo-cross world cup events nearly every day during the holiday season.

“It’s like a big NFL-style tailgating event,” van den Ham said. “Some of these events have 30-50,000 fans out there with giant beer tents and techno music blasting. It’s a festival-type atmosphere, and there’s races almost every single day.”

Van den Ham made the trip in 2015, and returns for the first time since then. His expectations aren’t as high for those races.

“You’re competing against the very best in the world,” he said. “A win isn’t realistic for me at those events, but sneaking inside the top 20 would be a really good achievement.”

Now Canada’s top rider, what makes his journey more impressive is he only got into the sport after moving to Edmonton for university. He was 20 when he entered his first race, now he has almost crossed all his personal cyclo-cross goals off the list.

“It’s normal for cyclists to hit their peak in their late 20s, so I feel like I’m just entering that stage. There’s so much that can be improved upon,” he said. “The first goal would be to come back and win that Pan-American jersey.”

He admits he might have started too late to reach the top of the sport. Though his best years of competitive racing are ahead of him, he is focused on the next generation of athletes. He says there’s room at the top for those willing to work.

“If I can look at the sport 15 years down the road, and whether it was through direct mentorship, or just blazing a trail … that would be the goal,” he said. “There’s no reason why Canadians can’t be World Cup champions and on the World Cup podium.

“As far as aspiring young athletes, just keep at it,” he said. “Had you looked at what I was doing five years ago, I don’t think anyone would have said ‘that guy’s going to be a two-time national champion.’”

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