{"id":543409,"date":"2026-03-18T00:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543409\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:24:18","slug":"jenn-jackson-on-learning-to-live-at-the-front-of-a-world-cup-and-getting-ready-for-a-big-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543409\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenn Jackson on learning to live at the front of a World Cup and getting ready for a big 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

2025 was a sensational year for Jenn Jackson<\/a>, another break-out year in what feels like a series of break-out years for the Canadian as she continues her steady march towards the top of cross country racing. The season culminated with a world championship podium in Switzerland in the short track race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a season spent at the front, Jackson\u2019s heading into 2026 looking to build on that momentum. While getting to the the front of a World Cup was hard, learning to live there also had its own challenges. We talked to Jackson about how that changed her preparation for 2026, the group of under-23 Canadians thriving internationally, two of whom were chasing her in Langford, and her off-season spent on Orbea\u2019s big bike.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jenn Jackson drops in at Jordie Lunn Bike Park
\nCanada Cup previews potential Canadian nationals course changes \u2013 and rivals<\/p>\n

We caught up with Jackson after she doubled up with two wins at the Langford Bike Fest \/ Canada Cup season opener over the weekend. The Orbea Factory Team rider said she liked the course changes, saying adding an extra descent made racing more dynamic, \u201ceven though that climb up was mega hard, it was worth it.\u201d That is likely a preview of what the nationals course will look like when championship racing returns to Langford this summer, with Jackson looking well positioned to repeat her XCC\/XCO sweep from 2025.<\/p>\n

Two of the riders that will be looking to challenge Jackson were also in Langford over the weekend. Marin Lowe and Ella Macphee are part of a growing group of Canadian women that are making waves internationally with World Cup wins and world championships titles. Lowe, Macphee, Nicole Bradbury and Isabella and Ava Holmgren are all under-23. Jackson says she\u2019s more focused on her own way forward than worrying when they might try take her crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone\u2019s chasing each other. I really only got towards the front last year, so it\u2019s still really new for me and I have a lot of improvements I\u2019m excited to keep working on,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting seeing them mature and progress as well. I think we\u2019re all on our own journey, but hopefully converging closer to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Early start in Spain to set the stage for 2026 season<\/p>\n

The Canada Cup opener delivered her first wins of the season, but not her first races. The double-national champion already has a few starts at the early season Spanish races where she was right back up at the front of the field. She says that, after 2025, part of the reason for starting her season in overseas was to re-acclimatize to the pace, and mindset, of racing at the front of an international field.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason I wanted to do those preseason races in Spain was to race against other podium-level racers. Just to check that last year wasn\u2019t a fluke. To make sure that, Okay, I\u2019m still at this level,\u201d Jackson explains, adding \u201cBut also to normalize competing with them. So that when I show up in Korea it isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve seen these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the combination of top Canadian U23\u2019s and the U.S.A.\u2019s growing roster of top elite riders is a challenge, Jackson says its still a different feeling racing against the variety of athletes in Europe. Getting used to being up front in a race is part of the plan to take the next step up on the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeeling more comfortable doesn\u2019t make it any easier,\u201d Jackson adds. \u201cEven if you are psychologically more comfortable in that position, it\u2019s still extremely hard racing and being able to make the effort and the decisions you need to strategically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Making it to the front versus dealing with the strategy<\/p>\n

One of the changes the Orbea riders found last season was the switch not just in speed, but in strategy at the front of a World Cup field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you\u2019re racing close to the front and there\u2019s more interaction, rider to rider. You are racing against each other and testing each other a bit more, whereas when you\u2019re mid pack, it\u2019s way more fluid, with people moving forward dropping back,\u201d Jackson explains. \u201cIt ends up being more of a time trial effort, whereas closer to the front, I think there\u2019s more shifts in pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

As somone whose never seen the front of a World Cup race, I admit to her than I would have though the opposite. That the lack of traffic would have allowed a steadier pace than when you\u2019re working through a crowd in the mid-20s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re at the front, it can be more cagey. Once you\u2019re in a podium position you want to win, but you also don\u2019t want to lose. You have to be a bit more strategic. Whereas if you\u2019re in 20th, everyone feels like they have a lot to gain if you chase forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, the pace at the front is still super high, higher than in 20th, but there are extra surges and efforts that you have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparing her effort Saturday, where she won posting lap times that we\u2019re consistently within eight seconds, Jackson says an international win would require a different effort. \u201cBeing able to have those consistent times is great but I know that at a World Cup I would have to knock off another 20 seconds a lap in the last two laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off-season on the Rallon: \u201cI didn\u2019t touch my cross country bike at all\u201d<\/p>\n

While some cross country racer spend the off-season on a road bike, and you might think those kind of grueling winter-miles would be the focus after such a big year at the races, Jackson went as far in the other direction as she could. After Mont-Sainte-Anne, she skipped over Orbea\u2019s trail bike and spent the rest of the fall riding the 180-mm-travel Rallon on the trails of her now-home on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rode it from the end of the season until December. I didn\u2019t touch my cross country bike at all,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cIt was such a big difference from the cross country bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Jackson says she \u201clearned a lot\u201d while riding the Rallon, the reason she asked her sponsor for one was a little simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was new, and it was super-sick,\u201d Jackson says with a laugh. \u201cI reached out to see if it was possible, I said I swear I\u2019m going to use it a ton. And they were really excited that I was interested.\u00a0Its also just really cool to know how capable a bike it is, and, like, I have infinite space to grow on that, because that\u2019s not my skillset, but it\u2019s so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 was a sensational year for Jenn Jackson, another break-out year in what feels like a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,210614,635,80424,1700,181396,212032,82],"class_list":["post-543409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-cup","tag-cycling","tag-jenn-jackson","tag-mtb-features","tag-orbea","tag-orbea-factory-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}