"I like to push myself mentally and physically." says Catherine Powers of Team Richard Sachs.
Photo credit: Jonathan S.  McElvery / www.jsmcelvery.com

Tell us about your background in cycling. 

I was an athlete in High School (swimming, basketball, track) and rowed crew for a year in college.  But then I spent about 6 years doing nothing at all.  It just didn't seem like there was a future for women in sports.  I'd never heard of professional athletic careers for women outside of tennis or gymnastics, so I wasn't really motivated to pursue anything.  I also had other interests. 

I ended up getting into cycling in Costa Rica.  I went there in 1998 to work as a translator for a women's organization and I took my bike so I could be independent and ride around and see things.  As it turned out, there wasn't too much work for me to do—maybe four hours a day.  I started swimming at a local pool and asking around about where I could ride (I'd been told it wasn't always safe for a woman to ride alone there). 

Someone recommended a local triathlon club.  The coach for the was an Olympic swimmer and he started giving me detailed workouts every day.  It was the first time in my life when I'd had a real coach (in high school the coaches were my science and math teachers).  I got hooked right away.  I won my second triathlon, the Triathlon del Coco. 

After about 5 months of triathlon training my job in Costa Rica ended and I returned to New York City.  There was no way I could train for three sports here (pool membership alone was out of my price range).  I hate running and cycling has always felt very natural for me.  But I really knew I wanted to be a cyclist when I saw my first bike race.  So I started riding in the park a lot and one day I jumped into a group of guys who were pacelining.  I didn't have any idea what a paceline was and they started yelling at me. 

Luckily, one of the riders was Kyoo Min.  He explained how the paceline worked and started talking to me about racing.  A week later I'd joined the CRCA Renaissance team.  I trained all winter with the guys and with the new women's team we formed.  My first season was 1999.  I did well and was a Cat 2 by the end of that season. 

The season is still young yet you have already scored some impressive early season results - 1st at the Monson Road Race; 3rd at the Palmer Road Race; 3rd at Jiminy Peak; 4th at the Grant's Tomb Criterium and three wins in local New York City races.  Not too shabby.  How would you grade your early season so far and which result are you most proud of? 

I'm pretty happy with my early season—especially considering I crashed on my face at Redlands, so I've had to come back from that mentally and physically.  I'd give it a B+.  I'm most proud of my win.  A win is a win.  Everything else is not quite there. 

You suffered a very serious crash on the 4th stage of the Redlands Bicycle Classic Stage Race.  Tell us what happened and how you are recovering? 

I crashed on the fourth day on a descent.  We were all strung out and had just finished a climb that involved a long drag into a short 20% grade piece (maybe 200meters) followed by a brief reprieve and more climbing with switchbacks.  I was hanging on for dear life to the wheel in front of me. 

We came around a turn and the race organizers had decided to narrow the road right there with cones.  They weren't the little ones or the tall squishy rubber ones, but rather the ones with the big black base (like 2 feet in diameter and 4 inches high) with an orange pole in the middle.  I hit one and went flying off my bike.  I landed on my face and heard my teeth scrape the asphalt.  I broke 4 teeth off and pushed what was left of them back into my mouth.  Other than that I had some road rash on my face and a deep cut above my lip. 

I tried to get them to put me back in the race, but they called my coach and he said to get in the ambulance.  I made the medics put my bike in with me.  At the hospital they gave me stitches and a shot that made the whole thing seem really funny.  My friend Liz Begosh came and sat in the emergency room with me and then drove me to a dentist recommended by our host family.  That guy was an angel.  He put what was left of my teeth back in place, built them up with composite and braced them.  And he only charged me $110.00!! 

We told the race organizers about it and they sent him a bunch of schwag and wrote a story about him in the local paper.  His name is Dr. Hoffer, if anyone's ever out in Redlands and in need of a dentist. 

So then I spent a couple of days zoned out on Codeine.  I took a day to detox and then went and raced Sea Otter.  The night of the first stage Liz took my stitches out with cuticle scissors.  Obviously, I didn't have any stellar rides at Sea Otter, but I finished.  I'm a little wary on descents now and the sight of a traffic cone makes me shudder. 

I'm sure this is a question you must get asked a lot - what's it like training in New York City and what's a typical training week for you? 

Training in the city's not bad.  If you get up early enough you can train in the park (before 7:00 am) and from my apartment in East Harlem it only takes 20 minutes to get to the George Washington Bridge and over to 9W or River Road in New Jersey.  The hard thing about being a bike racer in NYC is the extra time, energy and money it takes to live here.  A typical in-season training week: off on Monday; regular or light gear sprints on Tuesday; intervals or long ride on Wednesday; easy Thursday; openers Friday; race Saturday and Sunday.  This will change now that the track season is starting. 

This year you are riding for Team Richard Sachs.  While the team is well known nationally on the cyclo-cross circuit not much is known about the road squad.  How is the 2003 team shaping up and what are your team's strengths?

Richard Sachs is a great team to ride for!  The bikes are beautiful.  I mean, the guy's an artist.  I had people stopping me in California asking me about Richard Sachs' bikes.  This is the first year he's sponsored a women's road team.  We're small—just four riders. 

Katrina Davis and Alicia Genest both had great cyclo-cross seasons with Richard Sachs.  They're both super experienced and fun to race with.  Katrina is teaching me the value of patience and how to work with a team.  Leah Toffolon is finishing up her last year of college, but she'll be back East by Liberty.  She's a former Junior National champion on the road and she's someone I've enjoyed racing with in the past.  So far the team has really worked well together.  I worked for Katrina at Grant's Tomb where she won and she led me out at Monson where I won so we know we can be successful when we work together. 

What events are on your schedule for the rest of the year? 

I'm going to be racing on the track a lot.  I'll be focusing on track nationals.  As a team, we're doing the Tour of Somerville, Liberty Classic, and Fitchburg-Longsjo—basically most of the big East Coast races. 

What female rider do you admire most and why?

The female rider I admire most is Laura Van Gilder.  I like her independent spirit and her tenacity. 

What do you like best about cycling?  What do you like least? 

I like competing.  I like traveling.  I love host housing (you meet people you'd never ever come across otherwise).  And I love the smooth, strong, fast feeling you get in your legs in a good sprint or a good attack or a time trial.  I like to push myself mentally and physically. 

The thing I like least is the sacrifices and the balancing act.  It has been really hard to live in New York City and try to balance work and cycling and social life.  In the end it's worth it, though. 

What are your long term goals in cycling?

I'd like to see how far I can go with this.  I'd like to ride for a professional team.  I want to medal at the track national championships this year and develop into a competitive rider at the national level on the road. 

Catherine Powers Bio

Birthdate:	July 9, 1971
Born:	New Haven, CT
Resides:	New York City
Category:	1
Current Team:	Richard Sachs/CYBC
Maximum HR:	213
Resting HR:	52
Watts/KG:	I dunno.
Height:	5' 9"
Weight:	145 lbs.
Do you have a full-time coach?:	Yes, Matt Koschara
Do you train with a hear rate monitor?:	Yes
Favorite Food:	Dried apricots
Favorite Book:	I have so many!  Right now I'm reading "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy.  I loved Willa Cather "My Antonia" and Toni Morrison's "Paradise" and I like historical novels, like "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier.  I like biographies too, like Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson and Blanche Weisen Cooke's book on Eleanor Roosevelt.  I'm also a huge Mario Vargas Llosa fan.  I read slowly if I really like a book because I don't want it to end.
Favorite Type of Music:	I have pretty eclectic tastes.  I'll listen to anything but Country and heavy metal.  I guess I mostly listen to trance/house.  I also like a lot of Latin music and old disco.

Richard Sachs is a craftsman framebuilder who has been refining his skills for over a quarter-century.  For more information, please contact: