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Ecstacy to Agony: A conversation with Katheryn Curi-Mattis
America's latest World Cup winner is not on the Olympic long team
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Dede Barry’s 2002 win in Montreal stood as America’s sole women’s road World Cup victory before Katheryn Curi-Mattis out-sprinted breakaway companion Emma Rickards to take Australia’s 2008 Geelong World Cup last month.
The two attacked with 75km remaining in the 120km race, then held off a hard-charging Team High Road — looking to set up sprinter Ina Teutenburg. The finished a minute ahead of the pack in the Feb. 24 race.
For Barry, the World Cup win began a string of international success that culminated with her silver medal time trial at the 2004 Olympics. The immediate future appears less bright for Curi-Mattis, the 2005 national road champ. USA Cycling left the 33-year-old off the 2008 Olympic long team, meaning the games were out of the question even before her World Cup win.
And a week after her win in Geelong, Curi-Mattis was flung off her bicycle by a gust of wind during the prologue of the Tour of New Zealand, breaking her collarbone. She’ll likely spend the next four to six weeks away from racing, meaning she’ll also miss a chance to defend her World Cup leader’s jersey.
VeloNews caught up with Curi-Mattis as she was preparing for her Webcor Builders team camp in San Luis Obispo, California.
VN: How did you guys hold off the pack for 75 kilometers?
Katheryn Curi-Mattis: When Emma attacked it was a little bit of an effort for me to bridge to her, but immediately we worked really well together. I knew Cervelo-Lifeforce didn’t have a sprinter and would want to go to a break. To be honest I didn’t think they’d give us that much time, though. I figured they’d give us two minutes and then the sprinter’s teams would take over and get us a few kilometers before the line. But first we had 1:30, then 3:00 and suddenly we had six minutes with three laps to go.
I joked with Emma ‘Are they having a tea party back there?’ But we just kept riding like they were hot on our heels. On the last lap we had three minutes, so I knew it was going to be close. I attacked her up the hill with about 5k to go but she got right on me. So I knew it was going to be a sprint. We were literally track standing before the sprint. I think she got a bit nervous with 400 meters go to and went and I just put my head down and gave it my all.
VN:How does this result feel knowing that USA Cycling didn’t include you in the Olympic Long Team?
KCM:Well, I’m sure it was political, like everything. I think the depth of U.S. cycling is phenomenal right now. I did some calculations and Jim Miller took 15 different women to race in Europe last year, so to narrow the Long Team down to just seven riders must have been difficult. For me personally, I’m disappointed. I felt like my results both personally and as a teammate had earned me a spot on that team. I think the challenge for me is to not feel as though my accomplishments have been devalued. If they were looking for riders capable of winning medals, I thought I had proved myself as one of those riders. I always remind myself that it’s about the process and not the goal, but I’m still bummed.
VN:What happened in your crash?
KCM:Well, we knew it was going to be windy. They call Wellington [New Zealand] “Windy Wellington” and they aren’t joking. I was maybe halfway through the prologue, fighting a really strong cross wind. It sucked because it took me half the race to get my head into the race because I was focused so much on fighting the wind. Just when I started to feel solid on my bike I just got splayed out on the ground. It was a tsunami-like wind. I have never gone down that fast. It was like someone pulled a rug out from under me.
Some spectator helped pull me off of the road and I knew immediately that the collarbone was broken — it was making a crunching noise. It was a major disappointment going from the high of victory one weekend and then crashing out the next. It sucks, but it could be worse. I was disappointed because I couldn’t help the team. Erinne [Willock] fought really hard to finish third and I couldn’t support her.
VN:I assume it must be tough knowing you won’t even get a chance to defend your World Cup leader’s jersey.
KCM:Yeah. I was planning to go to Italy with Jim Miller and the National Team. It’s hard for me to come to terms with the fact that I won’t be there on the starting line in Italy wearing the leader’s jersey. Who knows, the break is a fracture and it’s supposed to heal quickly. But the last thing I want to do is go to Italy and start the race and not be able to finish. I can’t take that risk. If I’m never in the [World Cup leader’s] jersey ever again, well that’s OK. I did it once.
VN:It looks like there are some glaring scheduling overlaps with the schedule this year. Mt. Hood, now a UCI race, conflicts with the Tour de l’Aude, and the National championships conflicts with the Olympics. What are your thoughts?
KCM: It’s great to see the [Mt. Hood] promoter giving us opportunities to get UCI points in the United States, because most teams don’t have the budget to go to the Tour de l’Aude. We need that kind of support and opportunities to get UCI points in this country. I don’t think we’ll see any Europeans coming over for it but it will be great for North American women who are looking to rise to the top. I’ll be at l’Aude, so I’ll have to see who does well at Hood. It’s a challenge when the only races we have are [the] Montreal [World Cup] and [the Liberty Classic] Philly. It would be great if we could get another race like the HP Women’s Challenge back. I think that is completely within reason.
But the Olympics and Nationals? I don’t know why they chose those dates. They would never do that for the men, and the fact that they have done it for the women is insulting. The top three American women won’t be at the national championships this year. If I were to win nationals this year, I’d know that something was missing. I wouldn’t have Kristin Armstrong or Amber [Neben] there to challenge. I know we will never have parity with the pro men, but it seems like women are an afterthought with USA Cycling at times. And when you see something like this, it is so blatant it is hard to digest.
