Cole Punchard grew up in Novar, Ontario. A quiet speck of a place just north of Huntsville. The kind of town with a grocery store, a gas station and not much else. But from those humble beginnings, he\u2019s now wearing the Canadian champ\u2019s jersey and lining up against the best in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m from Novar actually,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cIt\u2019s like 25 minutes north of Huntsville. Middle of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
He started riding at Buckwallow<\/a>, a local trail centre many Ontario riders cut their teeth on. It\u2019s gone now, but Punchard\u2019s career certainly isn\u2019t. He just took the elite men\u2019s XCO title at Canadian Nationals<\/a>. His first time winning the big one. And he\u2019s feeling pretty good about it.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year I won the short track, but it was sort of unexpected,\u201d he says. \u201cThis year, nationals was a big goal. I wear the jersey with a lot of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n A jersey that means more<\/p>\n The elite national champion\u2019s jersey means a lot in cross-country mountain biking. And for Punchard, it marks a shift in mindset.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like the short track doesn\u2019t count,\u201d he says. \u201cBut this is the real one. The big one that you want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t come easy, even if the course wasn\u2019t the most technical.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just a double track climb and then a green trail down,\u201d he says of the Langford course. \u201cThere was one rock in the descent that a lot of people were catching. I don\u2019t really know what happened, but Carter Woods flatted on it and I came out of the descent with a big gap.\u201d<\/p>\n He held that gap to the finish.<\/p>\n The deep end: choosing elite over U23s<\/p>\n Punchard is still technically U23, but chose to race elite this year with Cannondale Factory Racing. It\u2019s a bold move. But it\u2019s how Cannodale Factory does it. Charlie Adridge did the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a bit scary, because I mean, you\u2019re just gonna get the crap kicked out of you for an entire year,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I thought that in the long term, this would be better for me. So I just committed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cannondale made the offer and with teammates like Jolanda Neff and Charlie Aldridge, it was a no-brainer. He showed up at team camp in South Africa, wide-eyed and ready.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty cool when I showed up to team camp for the first time\u2026 all the staff, all the riders, all the bikes. It was just unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n Still learning, still hungry<\/p>\n Racing elite comes with hard lessons. But Punchard\u2019s already had his moments.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the short track in Nove Mesto, on the second-last lap, Nino [Schurter] was on my wheel and I was able to drop him and bridge to the next group. That was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n And then, reality.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Val di Sole, I saw Nino, passed him on the first lap feeling good. Two laps later, I\u2019m dying and he comes flying past me. I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got a lot to learn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The goal: World champs<\/p>\n Despite racing elite all season, Punchard will return to U23 for world championships this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the big goal. The target of the season,\u201d he says. \u201cI haven\u2019t raced any of the guys all year, so it\u2019s a bit of an unknown where I\u2019m at, where they\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n His ranking puts him in a good start position. And yeah, of course, he\u2019s gunning for the win.<\/p>\n Luck, hard work and hair plans<\/p>\n So is it luck, or did he work for all this?<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely worked for it. You have to train your butt off. But you also have to be at the right place at the right time. And have the confidence to talk to people and put yourself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s done that. And the payoff\u2019s real: an international contract, a national title and a spot at the world\u2019s biggest race.<\/p>\n Oh, and watch for him on the start line.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got some ideas for the hair for world champs,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019ll be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Punchard grew up in Novar, Ontario. A quiet speck of a place just north of Huntsville. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,1700,82],"class_list":["post-85252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-features","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85252","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=85252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}