Mont-Sainte-Anne

So when I had my second son in 2018, when I was on maternity leave, I was looking for a challenge and something to do that would take me out of my comfort zone.

So I saw, probably on Facebook, this ad for a race in Mont-Sainte-Anne called Le Défi des Couleurs.

So I decided to sign up for the 23k race.

And I remember when I signed up the rush of adrenaline because I was like, oh my God, 23k is such a long race.

Vali's a specialist.

Jackson is a, a big occasion specialist, it seems like, whether it was Mont-Sainte-Anne last year for the final race, whether it's, um, World Champs, whether it's the fact that the, the chips are down and he's had a tough qualies and it's not going his way.

Like, those sorts of scenarios seem to just bring out the very best in Jackson Goldstone.

So yeah, no, h- um, World Champs was so, so interesting and I still-- all I can think about in my head is like how relevant, how relevant is it to Whistler? And all I can think about at the moment is that Jackson and Vali will be absolutely fine at Whistler, and Jackson especially will be out there to dominate his, you know, a true home race for him.

I can add a bit of energy to the system, but not a whole pile.

And then, oh, this steep stuff I have to manage the energy because that's-- it's as steep as is and it's as gnarly as it is.

So I think it's gonna be like, say if we contrast it to somewhere like Mont-Sainte-Anne, which is just that real steady gradient that you can just plow top to bottom.

Whistler's gonna be, I can plow this, but how I actually get the job done between the flatter sections and the steeper sections is, is quite a contrast.

At what point did you know that you had a place on the factory squad?

Like, the chat we had was in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

Okay.

So late-

There's good days and less good days, I guess.

Yeah, yeah.

And I mean, that season ended on a less good day, unfortunately, in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

Yeah.

Um, I watched the World Cups religiously when I was in high school.

And like the closest they ever got to the U.S. on a regular basis is Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, which is on the other side of the continent.

It's a full day of flying away.

There was like 2014, it came to Wyndham.

Well, last time we spoke, you just kind of wrapped up your last season on Union.

You'd taken your best ever result at that point, second in Mont-Saint-Anne.

And unfortunately, the Union finished at the end of that year.

But you found a spot on Trek Factory Racing, which I guess couldn't have been any better, right? Same brand that you were riding on, same suspension.

They were giving me use of their physio.

Okay.

And then, yeah, at the end of the year, straight after Mont-Saint-Anne, we had like a team get together in Wisconsin.

We went to the factory and had a, as well as the XC team, had a big walk through the factory.

I couldn't tell you.

'Cause I remember when I went to, like, world championships in Mont-Sainte Anne in like 2011, I think it was, and it was like, you'd have all these, like, people on trials bikes just, like, zooming everywhere.

Yeah.

Like, screeching on their [laughs] brakes with, with no saddle, like, getting from one station to the next.