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::SPORTS NEWS::
LE Newsletter - May 17, 2012
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Canada’s Zach Bell Ready For Decathlon Of Cycling At London
Olympics
Source:
www.thestar.com - Joseph Hall
(May 14, 2012)
Zach Bell,
a kid from the Klondike, hopes to strike gold at the London
Olympics this summer.
And as a former world champion in cycling’s
omnium event — new to the
Games this year — the Yukon-born Bell is going in as a solid
favourite.
Of course Bell,
soft spoken, modest and judicious
with his words, will only promise to give his all.
“I’m in a position where if I can get it right I can win the
gold medal, but … there’s 10 guys right now that can totally
justify saying the same thing,” he says.
“I just want people in the country to know that I’m going to do
my absolute best to step on the top step and they can count on
that.”
Described as the
decathlon of cycling — the
demanding omnium presents athletes with six very different
velodrome races over two days.
“There’s one event at 250 metres long — 13 seconds long — to the
longest one which is a 30 kilometres points race over 40
minutes,” Bell says.
Indeed, these races represent the omnium’s first two events.
They’re followed by an elimination race — where trailing riders
are pulled out every two laps — a four-kilometre time trial or
pursuit, a 60 lap “scratch” race and a one-kilometre time trial.
Points are awarded according to finish, with first place drawing
one point and so on down. The rider with the lowest point tally
in the end is the winner.
Bell, 29, was world champion in 2011, but took silver this year,
beaten by Australian Glenn O’Shea in the final time trial race
in April.
But he says reports of his disappointment at the loss were
somewhat exaggerated.
“To have a second (world championship) slip through my fingers
in the last event was frustrating,” he allows. “But in a
positive way it kind of inspired me to try and do more.”
You don’t naturally associate cycling with the arctic. Even with
the midnight sun allowing plenty of time to bike in summer,
cycling-friendly infrastructure is woefully limited.
But Bell only took up cycling seriously as a student at the
University of Calgary, which he attended on a wrestling
scholarship.
Bell’s father was a high school gym teacher and wrestling coach
in the town of Watson Lake — sitting just above 63 degrees
latitude — and Bell excelled in the sport as a teenager.
But as he progressed into elite university levels, limitations
in his mat abilities began to show, he says.
“I came to the realization that, for one reason or another, I
just didn’t have it at that highest level,” he says candidly.
“Once I got to the cream of the crop at the top, I wasn’t making
the grade.”
He initially took to biking in a cross-training attempt to
improve his wrestling performance.
But the more he biked, the more he liked it and the more
apparent it became that this was his true, hidden calling.
Pedalling a used road bike, he won a couple of races in the
Yukon in the summer of 2004 and quit the wrestling team soon
after returning to Calgary in the fall to devote all his
athletic efforts to cycling.
In his first year he won several races at a provincial level and
soon moved up to national and professional competitions.
“Once I did that I thought, ‘Well there’s some decent power
here, I can do some things on the bike,’” Bell says.
“So I thought maybe I’ll try to make the national team.”
Initially, his wrestling training that stressed intense efforts
over short durations helped Bell excel in sprint races on the
bike, he says.
“I was really good at events that were two to four minutes long,
which is really similar to the length of a wrestling match.”
But as required by his current, eclectic discipline, Bell has
broadened his racing repertoire to the point where he’s often
known as “Mr. Consistency” over all the omnium’s distances.
“No one can peg me down now and say, ‘He’s more of a sprinter,’
or ‘He’s more of an endurance guy,’” he says.
Bell recalls his youth at the tree line’s edge as a magical
time, and says the Yukon’s seasonal switch between midnight days
and endless nights provides a natural environment for an
athletic life.
“Going out for cross-country skis with headlamps on at 4:30 in
the afternoon was an amazing experience,” he says.
“Conversely, in the summer time we’d play ultimate Frisbee until
2:30 in the morning. You took advantage of either scenario.”
The Yukon’s wild call also bred a love of the land in Bell, and
nurtured a deep environmental sensibility in the cyclist.
And he promises to be a strong promoter of environmental causes
across Canada once his career is over.
“I don’t think I can ethically justify calling myself an
environmentalist because I’m participating in a sport that
involves flying all over the world,” says the Vancouver
resident.
“But I kind of see it as a necessary evil right now, to do what
I’m doing and hopefully that will lead to me being able to do
better work down the road by being a role model with kids
post-cycling.”
Like many Olympians, Bell often gives motivational talks to
school children. And he uses his almost accidental cycling
career as the basis of his message.
“My message is always don’t sell yourself short in the efforts
that you’re doing in sport,” he says.
“Just because you don’t make it in one sport doesn’t mean it
won’t pay dividends later.”
Bell’s unsure what his post-cycling career will hold, but he’ll
have at least one new job soon after his return from London —
father.
He and his wife Rebecca are expecting their first child in
October. |
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::WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADAN TWIST::
