After spending the last month on the sidelines, Team SmartStop captain Zach Bell is raring to get back on the road this weekend.

The 32-year-old Watson Lake cyclist decided to sit out a few races this month after pedalling through a heavy spring schedule.

“It was a lot of racing,” Bell told the Star yesterday. “In my career, I’ve never run a schedule quite like that. I was like: ‘Well, it’s either going to pay off big-time or we might end up having to eat our words a little bit.’

“In the end, that’s sort of what happened. ... It was one of the gambles that didn’t pay this year.”

In late April, Bell realized during the Joe Martin stage race in Arizona that he wasn’t himself.

“I was digging myself a hole,” he said. “In the last couple weeks of racing leading into that, I would basically rest completely between one weekend and another. I’d bounce back for one or two days and then I’d be back in a hole.”

After a time, he was only able to muster 70 per cent of his usual pace and stamina. He decided to rest his body, based on his numbers.

“There’s different kinds of fatigue, and the fatigue that I had was a bit more nervous-system fatigue,” explained Bell, who now resides in North Vancouver. “The muscles and everything were recovering, but getting them to fire and do the things I needed them to do wasn’t happening.

“When you get that, you have to kind of shut it right down.”

Bell said he was disappointed to miss the Tour of California held this month, as he is a key cog when it comes to race strategy.

Today, he returns to the team in preparation for the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic in North Carolina this weekend.

“I’m as refreshed as I can be,” he said, noting he is a father now, so refreshment is relative.

Last season, Bell was also knocked off tour for a month by a broken collarbone.

An Olympian in 2012 and 2008, Bell is also a former Canadian champion in both road and track.

He also represented Canada at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland last summer.

“I came into this year a bit stronger than last year,” Bell said. “I was climbing really well ... I did have the performances and numbers, they were just in ambiguous venues (Dominican Republic, Taiwan).

“I was a little disappointed with the first batch of North American stuff. But this next block suits me pretty well, and it’s probably the one I can have the biggest impact on, results-wise.”

His personal goal is to perform well in the Thompson Bucks County Classic in September – a race he won last year – as well as the Tour de Beauce in Quebec and the Tour of Alberta.

Team SmartStop is facing tougher competition this season after turning heads last year on the UCI Professional Continental circuit.

“There’s definitely been some building and the dynamic in which the team races together is better,” said Bell, though the team results haven’t quite been there.

“It’s more of a commentary on the depth of field in North America this year. There’s been a lot of teams that made signings and reacted to how we performed last year. ... The competition is much higher.”

Last Saturday, the team announced the signing of USA Elite Road Race National Champion Emerson Oronte.

The 25-year-old Massachusetts native has enjoyed a promising campaign and joins the 14-man roster for the rest of the year.

A string of first-half injuries and illnesses for Team SmartStop cued the signing, team director Michael Creed said in a press release.

Oronte joins the roster that includes Bell, Rob Britton, Chris Butler, Kristofer Dahl, Flavio de Luna, Evan Huffman, Shane Kline, Jure Kocjan, Julian Kyer, Travis Livermon, current U.S. champion Eric Marcotte, Travis McCabe, Bobby Sweeting and Juan Pablo Villegas.

Meanwhile, Bell said he is looking to compete in the Canadian road championships this season, and isn’t counting out competing for the track title, either.

However, track is no longer Bell’s focus, he admitted.

“The national team’s sort of taken a new direction with the track program,” he said. “They’re really focused on a 2020 timeline for the men’s side.

“I had discussions with them after the Commonwealth Games last year about what my goals were within track, and basically they didn’t align with what the national team wanted to do. It wasn’t something I wanted to leave behind, but there wasn’t a lot of options left for me there.”

Bell also noted that SmartStop is a major sponsor for the Zach and Emily Rural Youth Sport Development Program, which has supported two initiatives in the territory this year.

The fund is also aiming to bring an Olympic cyclist – not Bell – to the Yukon this summer.