Katie Compton dishes the dirt

As the Cyclo Cross World Championships approach here’s an extract from a recent chat with the American Queen of Dirt - Katie Compton

ST; What drew you to cross, and especially to Europe – where the racing is very intense and where outsiders rarely get a look in?

KC; I like the technical bit of cross. I like the speed of it, the suffering, the on and off the bike, the stairs, the barriers, just the variety of it.

From the track I had the speed, the skills from the mountainbike and the endurance from the road. The combination just made me a really good cross racer, and also it was what I really liked. I was also a bigger rider, and so not having a bunch of climbs helped.

I was just good at it from the get go, and naturally if you’re good at something you like it. I was racing domestically and decided to go to Europe because I needed more completion. I got to the point where I was winning races in the US easily enough and I just needed to race better people.

My first trip to Europe to race World Cups was in 2007, and I raced the World Championship in 2007 and got 2nd. Later in 2007 I went for World Cups and started winning them. I just love the European racing; it’s hard, it’s technical and the women are super fast. It’s the challenge of trying to perform and being part of that. 

It’s a Belgian sport, and a European sport, and you have to be in the heart of it to feel like you’ve succeeded.

ST; You’ve won a staggering 24 World Cup races, and over a long period of time (13 years). There aren’t too many with such palmares and longevity. The sport is very much a young riders game right now, how do you handle that?

KC; That’s a constant battle. Even when I was younger it seemed to change every year. I’m pretty aware of my energy levels and training, and the older I get the more I have to rest and recover. 

I just don’t recover as quickly as I used to, and I don’t have the speed any more and so I have to focus on the intensity and my sprint. Before I used to have an amazing start, now I have to put a lot more effort into it.

I don’t have the sheer horsepower fitness that I used to have, but that’s just getting older, you lose a bit of spunk. I’m kind of figuring that out, and I now need to have more long miles in the spring for my base and to keep having fun at it. Doing the road and the mountainbike also gives me that intensity

I also have to make sure that I get enough recovery and sleep, and that I’m eating well and getting enough protein. I’m trying to stay on top of it so that I still feel good; I want to be 60 or 80 years old and still feel good.