June 24, 2011 (Belfountain, ON) – We caught up with Erinne Willock (Team Tibco/To The Top) after her ninth-place time trial effort in the 21.67km race at 2011 Canadian Road Nationals in Belfountain, Ontario. She reflected on her race and shared her thoughts on Friday’s main event, the Elite Women’s 103km road race.

How did the ITT race go?
Erinne Willock: Well, not so well, I had a stomach ache in the first 15 minutes, so just rode a big gear and pushed through it. It is what it is, not a great ride, but that happens.

Hopefully it will just help open up your legs for the road race on Friday which is more suited towards your strengths.
EW: Yes, I’m looking forward to the road race. I really would like to be a National Champion before I retire.

Do you have a team plan?
EW: No, not yet, but we still have 24 hours. We’ll work together for sure and we are all riding really well right now. We want to keep the jersey within our team.

What do you think of the course?
EW: I haven’t actually ridden the course, we just drove it the other day. I hear it can be slippery and it seems narrow, so it will come down to good positioning and some good luck. I could see people dropping their chain and causing slowdowns.

The depth of women’s cycling in Canada seems quite strong, there were some great results in the time trial.
EW: Definitely, the strength of women’s cycling in Canada is getting stronger. It’s very cool to see, and there are a lot of teams in the race (Juvederm, Colavita, Vienne-Futurescope) as well as strong individuals (Anne, Clara) who will make the racing interesting.

Do you think the race will be aggressive from the beginning?
EW: Honestly, I have no idea. Typically Nationals hasn’t been very aggressive. This year’s race seems to be all about the hill, which is hard, but it’s not too long so I’m not sure if it will break up right away. I guess it all depends on how aggressive it is into the climb, but other than the climb, there doesn’t seem to be any other challenges. The course is not technical.

Will you be racing the Crit on Sunday, it’s a great course?
EW: No, I’m heading home on Saturday morning, but Joelle [Numainville] and Tara [Whitten] will be contesting the crit.

Thanks for your time. Good luck to you on Friday, we’ll be there cheering you on!
EW: Thank you.