Boulder – A year ago, Boulder cyclist Alison Powers dreamed of becoming a “domestique” in Europe, but it turns out she was selling herself short.
The former U.S. Ski Team downhiller recently returned from her first trip to Europe with the U.S. Cycling Team, playing the domestique’s role of sacrificing herself for a team leader. The aptly named Powers performed “quite well,” in the assessment of USA Cycling endurance program director Jim Miller, and he believes she could become a team leader some day.
“I don’t think a year ago she knew how good she could be,” Miller said. “Absolutely, I think she can be a rider who rides in the front.”
Powers, 27, was just learning the local and domestic racing scenes a year ago. Having spent much of her youth ski-racing in Europe before a shattered kneecap ended her ski career prematurely, Powers longed to return as a cyclist.
Her first trip with the national cycling team took her to the Tour of Flanders, a series of Dutch races and a three-day stage race in San Marino. She competes this week in the Pan American championships in Venezuela, and next month she will race in the women’s Giro d’Italia.
“I got to fulfill my dream of doing a stage race in Europe,” Powers said. “Now I have to come up with a new goal.”
Powers wasn’t sure if she liked racing in Europe at first, because the tactics are much more aggressive than the domestic scene and the carnage reminded her of nasty ski crashes.
“You see crashes left and right, all kinds of weird things happening,” Powers said. “I was like, ‘Do I really need to do this again? I’ve already done this kind of thing.’ But then you start to get used to it, you know what to expect, you know how to prepare yourself physically and mentally. I started liking it more and more. My fitness started getting better, the racing started getting easier, and we came together really well as a team. Then I liked it a lot.”
It was a little hard on the ego, because her results weren’t necessarily indicative of her performances. A good domestique forces other teams to work hard, burning herself out while the team leader conserves energy.
“My results were so bad, but it’s because I was doing so much work for the team,” Powers said. “Like in La Fleche Wallone (Holland), the second-to-last climb, I was done. I blew up. I come in like five minutes behind the pack, but I’ve done my job. Not everybody knows you raced a really awesome race.”
Team leader Kristin Armstrong of Boise, Idaho, the reigning world champion, finished fifth that day.
“We got all kinds of press saying how great Team USA rode,” Powers said. “It was such a satisfying day to know I had done so well.”
Powers spent seven years with the U.S. Ski Team, really a collection of individuals who travel with – and compete against – each other.
“The ski team is not a team,” Powers said. “We traveled together, we trained together, but it was you versus me. You always looked out for your own benefit, your own training, your own diet. In cycling you have to look out for each other and make it work for each other. It feels really good when you’re able to help your teammate get a really good result.”
After working with Powers at a talent identification camp in Colorado Springs last summer, Miller saw enough to tell Powers that if she was willing to commit to the sport, he would make the commitment to support her. He was more than satisfied with her performance on the European trip.
“The (peloton) bunches are a little bit bigger and a little bit faster than they are in America, the roads are a little smaller, so the skill level is quite a bit higher,” Miller said. “Coming from her (ski) background, she has good spatial awareness. She has zero problems with the skills of it. Physiologically, she’s always been good.”
Powers also got to be part of the first group of athletes to use USA Cycling’s new European base for women in Lucca, Italy. The residence center, a remodeled pool house with four apartments, is in Tuscany near Pisa. Former Italian cycling great Mario Cippolini lives nearby.
“It was great,” Powers said. “The first day we rode to Pisa, saw the Leaning Tower. The second day we rode to the beach, to the Mediterranean, with Mario Cippolini. It was like a fairy tale going there the first time. It’s so beautiful and I felt so lucky.”
