Yukon’s Mara Roldan was signed recently by Cynisca Cycling, a non-profit organization that aims to promote women cyclists to elite levels in their sport.

Roldan, 19, was officialy signed by the team in late August.

Unfortunately, she had to return to Canada after a bad crash in Ireland.

The Star spoke to her recently and asked her how she was feeling during her recovery.

“Feeling good,” she replied. “It was a bit of a disappointing end of the season for sure to have to come back home after an injury. And now if I want to keep this in the long term, I’ve got to prioritize my health and so get back to full time, back to school and training now, which feels good, feeling definitely more like myself.

“I’ve been fortunate to have a really helpful community, coach and healthcare professionals around me to help me get back to top shape and obviously, it’s the offseason right now, so I’m taking it pretty easy, but feeling back to 100 per cent now.”

Roldan is in her second year in Kinesiology at Camosun College in Victoria on Vancouver Island.

She was with her previous team, Red Truck Racing, until the end of the season.

“They were super great, super supportive. Really, I think were pretty initial on my development of an athlete in terms of learning how to work with a team, how to be part of a team, using tactics and strategies to build into racing. I really got to learn how to really become a better racer.

“Because I want to keep moving forward in the sport, I knew that, for next season, I was wanting to reach out to a team that was racing more overseas and had a bit higher level of racing opportunities for athletes. So I was reaching out to a few different teams that I knew of, continental teams, all around North America.”

Cynisca was one of them.

“Thankfully, to my surprise, my DS (directeur sportif or sports director Gillian Ellsay) that was on my team for TaG Cycling race team, the team I was on during both my junior years, she was actually working as a DS for Cynisca, which I actually was unaware of until I got on a call with that team and figured out that she was the one DS’ing the team out in Europe. They’re based out of the United States, but she’s Canadian and so I worked with her before and so it was really a good contact to have, since she has done some work with me, and I think had some good things to say, which I was thankful for. They offered me this last minute opportunity to go and be a stagiaire for them in Europe, which is kind of like signing a short contract just for the end of the season. And getting an opportunity to go and race and be part of the team up until October, and so they offered me that which I obviously was super, super grateful for and super excited for and so that was when I was over in Belgium and Ireland.”

Roldan had some credentials that impressed the Cynisca folks.

“When I initially talked with them, they were looking for someone who was a good sprinter who could do fast finishes. And so my result of finishing sixth in the Gastown Grand Prix in Vancouver was something that they were definitely pretty happy to see when I reached out to them, knowing that I could keep up with a bunch that fast, especially at a big race like Gastown, was something that they definitely took into account when signing me on.”

Roldan also finished seventh at the Redlands bicycle classic at Redlands, Calif.

“That was another pretty big race that needs some good power to finish on,” said Roldan.

In addition, Roldan finished first in the B.C. Provincials, further adding to her impressive racing resume.

The Cynisca signing is based on Roldan’s potential.

“They know that as a young rider who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience yet, there’s a lot I can still develop and work on. They decided to sign me as a way to take a chance and see what they can help me improve and work on, see how I can best attribute their team and be the best teammate I can for them.”

Despite some trials, Roldan gained some valuable experience in Europe.

“Obviously I didn’t exactly get the performances I wished and I didn’t stay there nearly as long as I would have hoped. But for the amount of racing that I was able to do with the circumstances, I was pretty proud of being able to be so comfortable getting to the front of a really big peloton like the races that we did in Belgium, with over 130 women for example, being able to throw out attacks and be in the top 10 wheels and really feel like I’m a part of the race and not just straggling in the back and hanging on for dear life.”

Roldan said the Cynisca team has a lot of European riders, which allows her to race with people who have grown up in Europe and have all that experience. In fact, one of her teammates, Pauline Allin, has raced in the women’s Tour de France.

“To be able to have a conversation with her, getting her input on my skills or the way that I ride in the pack and seeing what to learn from them is really, really incredible.”

Roldan spoke about her experience with the team, including her accident. She said adjusting to the time change was difficult at first.

“Having to go there, hop on a new bike, be part of a new team is all pretty stressful factors.

“The staff and teammates were super welcoming, making me feel like I was already part of the team. So I was super thankful for that.”

Roldan competed in her first race about a week after she landed in Europe, in Egmont, Belgium, in a 1.2 level race. (1.1 is the highest level.)

“I was definitely pretty nervous,” recalled Roldan. “But my teammates made me feel pretty confident that it was going to be a good experience. I did surprise myself with how natural and easy it felt to be part of such a fast and aggressive peloton again. Belgium is known for cobblestones. So that was also a pretty big, technical aspect of our course for that race.

“I was super happy with how I raced. 25 kilometres in, my teammate Fiona (Mangan) told me to attack and it was a good time to do it. And so I did and really made things move in the pack and felt like I was making people hurt and feeling like I was a part of the race, playing tactics pretty well.”

Roldan ran into big trouble on the 130 kilometre course, though.

“Unfortunately, that day was really warm. And because I was so focused on the racing, I did not drink enough water or eat enough gels and so I ended up bonking from pretty severe heat stroke about 95 kilometres in. We had about a lap to go of our circuit and I completely lost it. I was throwing up on the side of the course and just trying to finish, really, at that point. But I was seeing stars and collapsed pretty much at the end of the finish. I was surprised I managed to finish the race, to be honest. I did get dropped from the peloton, obviously, but did manage to finish eight minutes back or something.”

Roldan was taken to the hospital and given an IV.

“I was pretty chronically dehydrated at that point. So, good learning, but definitely not how I would have loved to end a race that started so well.”

Things got easier for Roldan after that. She competed in a kermesse race in Belgium with another Cynisca neophyte, Nicole Steinmetz. Kermesse is a smaller, more local style of racing in Belgium.

“That was super fun, because it’s a race where the pack is usually smaller, maybe only 70 or 80 of us, but it’s usually still very aggressive, pretty long races as well, about 110 kilometres.

“There’s just less at stake, so it’s easier to race to the front, take risky moves and not have to pay so much for it. And so that was really fun.”

After that, it was on to Ireland, where disaster struck for the young rider.

“On the first day (Sept.6), we were about 30 kilometres into the race and I crashed right above the top of a climb. And it was a big pack crash, the kind of crash that there’s really nothing you can do to avoid. It was two girls somewhere in the front of the pack that clipped wheels together and then it was kind of like a domino effect. Seven to ten of us all ended up the ground at the same time. We were going pretty fast at that point, like 50 kilometres an hour, so I hit the ground hard. Concussed myself, was road-rashed, the entire left side of my body was all blood, and I dented my helmet as well.”

Her injuries were fairly serious.

“I had pretty good gashes in both my left knee and elbow. I needed some paper stitches to close those up. But obviously I was taken out of the race and unfortunately, wasn’t able to continue the following days.”

Roldan’s recovery period was fairly lengthy.

“I have a history of concussions before so I knew to be very careful. Getting back to sport has to be very progressive and thankfully Canada has a really good protocol in place that I was following. That is when I was sent home. The team obviously believed that it was going to be a lot easier and a better decision for me to come back home and get treated here where I can be fully taken care of and rest and really get back on my feet as quickly as possible.”

After flying back home, it took Roldan about a month to recover from her injuries.

Roldan looks up to teammates like Ireland’s Fiona Mangan, who visited her in the hospital when she suffered heat stroke in her first race.

“She was super helpful in the first race … was really impressed with my racing, I think, with the attack that I threw during that first race that we did together and she’s had so much good input, and was super encouraging. Just having teammates like her on Cynisca, among many of the other girls, really just makes me so motivated to want to progress and work on my own skill, my own fitness and keep pushing it to the next level and hopefully be as good as her and some of the others one day.”

Roldan is hoping to head back to Europe next season.

“There’s for sure potential for me to be going over to Europe again. That’s where I’m hoping to be. I have not signed anything with anyone just at this moment. But it is very much a possibility that I will be riding with Cynisca again for the upcoming season.”