ST: Compared to other female pros your race schedule seems very heavy, and it typically includes very tough races such as the Alpe D’Huez Tri, and Embrunman. You were second in the Alpe D’Huez event in 2019 but you were a non-starter at Embrunman. What happened?
Carrie: I know other female pros who race 3 IMs and a few 70.3s in a season, a small handful race 4 IMs, so I’m not sure my schedule is any heavier than theirs. Mine is just more condensed – we usually don’t start racing until May/June and go right through to November. This year, after I qualified for Kona at IRONMAN France we decided to change the summer race schedule to focus a little more on Kona, which meant not racing Embrunman. We chose to race Ironman Mont Tremblant instead, which gave me more practice spending time in the bars and I really wanted to see where my swim and run were at. It was a hard decision giving up Embrunman, but for me it was the right decision this year. All the other events mentioned (ADH, Ventouxman) are more training races for fun and to keep the perspective high in terms of course difficulty.
ST: Do you race the same bike in all of these events or do you change the bike out depending on course?
Carrie: I ride and race the same bike all year - Canyon Speedmax SLX. I switch wheels depending on the course – mountain races I usually just run the Vision 55 front/rear. Flatter races Vision 55 front and 81 rear or Disc. The Canyon Speedmax also allows you to switch the Rake Shift inserts in the fork, which I love especially when we are training and racing in the mountains. Better handling and more agile.
ST: We featured your Kona bike in our
annual Top 15 story and we would love to know how much have you refined that Canyon since you first got it?
Carrie: So far, all I have added are - Vision FSA Powerbox, Vision wheels, Drag2Zero extensions, ISM 3.1 saddle. This year I will be running a Kogel Oversize Pulley system and perhaps playing around with the extensions with the help of the team at Vision.
ST: Have you spent any time in the wind tunnel?
Carrie: No. I’m really happy with how my position feels so I don’t think it’s necessary to confuse the message in a controlled environment, especially after the results I’ve had in the real world, on the race course.