Up Close and Personal With Tara Ross

If you claim to know cyclocross in Ontario and Tara Ross' name doesn't sound familiar, you must have been living under a rock for the past 3 years. Arguably, the best Ontario female crosser this season, Tara had a strong showing at the nationals that assured her a spot on Canada's worlds team for the 2007 Championships. She is also the third top ranked Canadian woman on the UCI list. We interrupted her fitness grooming and focus on training when we met with her in Toronto to learn a little bit about hers early days in cross.

CXO: How did you get involved in cross?

TR: I'd been involved in mountain bike for at least a year with the University of Toronto mountain bike club. I can't remember if I'd raced mountain bikes at that time, but maybe a season of provincial level mountain bike racing.

Neil (Ross, Tara's husband) and I were dating and he had this video of a '96 world cross championships, and this is another example of how Canadians have paved the way for each other over the years, I saw Ray Duggan from Kingston competing at Worlds, Peter Wedge was there too but I can't remember seeing him on the video. I just saw the video and I was absolutely captivated and thought 'that has to be the coolest thing ever'. It was snowy, icy. There was this footage of Ray crashing and falling under a barrier. That was the first cross race I'd seen. It was so ridiculous because you're going full out towards the barriers, trying to get off and run, snow and ice.

It looked fun, so I went to True North with the very last $2000 left in my account and I spent it on the most ridiculous cross bike. Because I'm small - other bike companies were making small bikes with narrow 1.5 tires and mountain bike wheels - I asked Hugh to build me such bike, and I put very expensive mountain bike wheels on it. It was custom painted, black with a bright orange, going to red, flames fork. I think Hugh had fun building it and it turned out to be an awesome bike.

I started practicing and racing cross, but did only 2-3 races a year, since I was racing both mountain and road bikes and it was too much to have a road or mountain bike season and continue into Cross racing.

I was a student at the time, then I worked for a year and went back to Western to get my teaching degree. It was a pretty tough year, as I was very tired and busy with school. I cut my racing season short and took a couple of months off in the summertime and decided to get back in shape by racing the whole cross season. That was in fall of 2003.

I did the full southern series, which I'm pretty sure I won, and I got 2nd place at the Provincials. I crashed on the last lap and Amanda Shaw beat me by 20 seconds. It was good, I had a great season. The next season, I was still getting back into shape - I raced for McMaster and managed to get on a few National Development Team projects. That meant I was able to do some big races. I went to France for a couple of weeks, and I raced Philadelphia that year, but still feeling good for the fall because I was taking a slower approach to training, since I was burnt out the year before.

Later that year, in August, I quit my full time job, signed a contract for the road with a sponsored team that was really into cross - the sponsor is Cheerwine, from North Carolina, and they have a strong cross program that goes into January. They sponsored me for a full season of cross, even though I hadn't raced any UCI races... I had a really great year, even though I was nervous.

I was 7th in my first UCI race - a big race in NE, one of the Verge races. It really surprised me that I was top 10 right away. So I think I raced 10 races... the first races were really strong like they are now.

Thought to myself I might never get to do it again, so I took the opportunity and decided to go.

I got 3rd at the Nationals that year in Dieppe, again a big surprise. I made the worlds team, since top 3 at Nationals were an automatic selection to the national team. I thought to myself I might never get to do it again, so I took the opportunity and decided to go.

I also re-signed with Cheerwine for the following year. Going to worlds at the end of January (2005), my goal was to not get lapped. I'd manage to do that in a couple of World Cups and finished on the lead lap. Unfortunately at the Championships race I got caught on the last lap and couldn't hold her off. I think I finished 38th. After the race I took two 2 weeks off and started training for my road season with a camp before then end of January in California.

I road raced all season last year and I was exhausted so I decided not to focus on going to worlds, since I realized I'd raced 11 months of that year, and almost a year and a half straight. There was a lot of racing in that period.

The 2006 racing season was different. On the road I raced for Victory Brewing team and I kept my place on the Cheerwine cross team. I had a good season but for next year I want to focus more on road racing. As a domestique you do a lot of work and I also want to get good results.

CXO: You seem to be a very driven and highly motivated person. That plays a role in your fast rise from zero to where you are now?
TR: I guess. I set my self a goal and I do my best to get it. I am also very disciplined and a hard worker.

CXO: I know that Neil doesn't take any credit for your success. Do you give him any?
TR: Absolutely. Without his support and understanding it would be much harder. I spend a lot of time traveling and being away from home. Many relationships wouldn't survive that kind of lifestyle. Often, I would prefer not to go away, but he encourages me and I am ready. Thanks to Skype these days we manage to stay in touch more often and it saves on long distance charges (laughs). Also, him being involved in cycling helps because he knows all that is necessary to succeed in this world.

CXO: Is being a professional cyclist like you imagined it to be?
TR: I really didn't know much and didn't expect anything special. You can live from it. There is a big camaraderie among the girls on the team. We spend a lot of time together traveling in the van, doing silly things and racing our brains out. It's good, fun.

CXO: What can we expect from Tara in the near future?
TR: Neil, Kyle (Douglas) and I are leaving for Europe on the 20th of December. I am planning to race a lot before the Worlds (Christmas, World Cup and UCI races) and this time I will finish better than in 2005. I am not even sure who else will be racing there with me.
Once the race is over I will completely switch focus to road racing. My biggest goal is to make the National Road Team. I've also signed a road contract with Advil-Chapstick, an up and coming pro team under the direction of Laura Charameda.

We wish Tara all the best at the World Championships and knowing how dedicated athlete she is there is no doubts in our mind that she will do in Road Racing what she has does in cross.... Win!