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Maghalie Rochette is a Cyclocross-ing Shred Girl with some AMAZING Advice
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Maghalie Rochette is one of the cyclocross racers I’ve interviewed more than any other—because in addition to winning A TON of races, like the recent Cyclocross World Cup in Iowa City and 2018 Pan-American Championships in Ontario, she also gives back a ton to the sport with her CXFEVER initiative and fun projects like her Faces of Cross interviews (she’s also interviewed me!). I’m obsessed with the neck gaiters (everyone needs a buff!) that she has out this year, and the proceeds from that go back to Cyclocross Canada, which will get a bunch of young racers (a lot of women!) over to Europe for racing this season.
At the recent Waterloo Cyclocross World Cup, she and I sat down and watched her Jingle Cross World Cup win and talked through it, chatted about all things cyclocross, and she told me how she became a Shred Girl IRL. You can check out her Jingle Cross highlights at FloBikes here, or listen to her explain her race at Waterloo here.
How did you get started in cycling?
I started when I was really young—my dad was mountain biking. I loved all different sports. I skateboarded, played basketball… but my dad kept coming home muddy and I thought, ‘that looks pretty fun.’ So I got a bike and started riding with him.
Favorite moment in cycling?
I love it when you’re cornering and you feel your bike is not the perfect tool for the job and you’re right on the limit and about to crash and you save it. Cornering and feeling like you have perfect traction—that feeling is amazing. When you’re going super fast on technical singletrack and barely keeping it together.
How did you choose between cyclocross and MTB?
I’ve been playing in both disciplines for a while and I felt like I had a hard time at being 100% always. I felt like I was always at 90%. So I decided I wanted to see how good I could be if I put everything into cyclocross. I didn’t want to have that—it wasn’t an excuse because it was real—but I didn’t want to have the excuse that I was tired because I was racing. I wanted to be 100% responsible for what happened to me. I wanted to be fully committed, and if I failed, it wouldn’t be because I was tired or because I was racing too much.
Did you miss racing MTB?
I get a bit of FOMO with races I’d like to do but I try to enjoy what I am doing. I got to spend more time at home training and seeing family and friends and I tired to focus on that instead of watching other people racing. But I also drew inspiration seeing so many of my friends crush it this summer.
Tell me about the One Percent!
We made a short documentary to show that training can be fun. We went bikepacking and I wanted to show that there are some days when you don’t want to get on the bike and train. But it is fun, it is intense, and at the end of the day, I’m riding bikes because I enjoy it. I did this with three friends– David (my partner) and two of my friends I grew up training with. I love bikepacking where I’m doing 200 kilometers in one direction, sleeping there, and coming back. I don’t focus on watts, and it’s a great way to get in a bunch of big miles while having fun.
How do you deal with failures?
I’ve had so many failures—all of them, you get so much experience from that. And that leads to the successes. It’s great having those failures because it gives you room to improve.
Best advice for new riders?
The fun thing about cyclocross is that it looks terrifying but it isn’t. No one will judge you for walking or running an obstacle or section. Watch a World Cup race and a lot of the best people in the world will walk a feature. It’s totally OK. I think that’s really key to understand. Sometimes, we’re scared that we’ll be the only one running a section but it’s totally fine. And everyone is doing laps for themselves—we lose track of who is where. If you get three laps or four laps, no one cares. My best advice is to just go try it: see how fun it will be. It’s a very welcoming community, and that’s probably my favorite thing about cyclocross. Everyone is a family.
