About Me:

Here are some links to articles on the site of ultracycling (UMCA):

http://www.ultracycling.com/results/bern_bodensee2006.html (here I qualified for RAAM)

http://www.ultracycling.com/results/quadzilla2006.html (here I broke the course record)

https://ultracyc.ipower.com/results/iowa2006.html (here I became North-American champion)

 

Here's a good movie ( you need Quicktime ) to introduce Caroline and her training.

small version (12.8 MB)

normal version (58.3 MB)

Here the same movie in windows .wmv format. normal.wmv (14.9 MB)

The story is quite fascinating. Almost as fascinated is the very prominent role played by the lowly bicycle in the course of her life journey. Caroline was born and grew up in Holland. The bicycle is almost synonymous with Holland as tulips and windmills. As a child she rode her bicycle to school- there were no school busses. She did not enjoy the flat, boring terrain, the rain or the constant wind. In the mid 90s, Caroline and her husband Fred were living in the town of Berkel-Rodenrijs, Holland near Rotterdam. While casually leafing through a magazine, they came across an ad selling a bicycle store in Ontario.

They arrived in Huntsville on March 25 1998. They took over the bicycle store, the Muskoka Bicycle Pro Shop. Huntsville is a triathlon town, and some of Caroline's new friends were tri-athletes. She thought, “I can swim, I can cycle , I can run- I can do that.” She decided to do the Muskoka Triathlon Sprint Course. She owned a bicycle store, but she did not own a road bike. She had to borrow one- two sizes to small- from one of the stores customers. She did the race and enjoyed it. The triathlon hook was in. She did a couple other triathlons that . In 99 she decided to do the Muskoka Triathlon Long Course. She did four other races that season and a “half iron man” . While she was experience success in the sprints, with some top three finishes , she discovered the longer races more liking. The 2000 season started out very much likely 1999 season, with a mix of races- sprint and long course triathlons and a half ironman. But in August of that year, her athletic career took a new turn when she did the “lost in the Rocks and Trees” 100 km enduro mountain biking race in Mattawa. Her first mountain bike race She finishes only two minutes behind the winner. Now this was a race of sufficient duration to interest her.

Caroline followed that race with a 36-hours non-stop Adventure Race in a team. They finished third. In the following Winter she did her first Winter Adventure Race solo and finished first. Now she uses the sprint triathlons as part of her training. Once the race has been completed she often goes for a long bike ride. While she has posted some very impressive top-three finishes in triathlons, mountain biking and adventure racing, Caroline's, she also started to do the short races, like the Ontario and Canada Cup mountain bike races. She won most of the Ontario Cup races. Was she getting a speedster? Or maybe both? In 2003 they invited her to race in the North American Eco Challenge, a 6 day non-stop Adventure race. That involved trekking, mountain biking, ropes, canoeing and kayaking with an average of 1 ½ hrs sleep a night. Her team of four, survived and finished 7 th . The 24 hours of Adrenalin race, in the next Summer was significant. This is the race in which she qualified for the Worlds Solo 24 hours of adrenalin in California. She took top honors in the women's solo category, she was the second top Canadian women in the race. In the next two years she won her category in the same Worlds 24 hours solo Championship. Then she found that solo racing was a great challenge. She did for two seasons the Solo stage races from” Sea the Summit”

Now she surprised herself again. She won or was in the top 3 by every race. In '03, '04 and '05 she raced the 7 day stage race “Trans Rockies” in a team of two. The last year her team mate and she finished 4 th in the women category. In the beginning of 2006 she traveled to South Africa for the “Cape-Epic” a 8 day stage race on the mtb. In 2005 she started to ride more on her road bike for training. Her first road race was the European Championship Ultracycling in Switserland. She rode the 720 km in 32 hours, what was giving her a third place. A month later she raced the “Quadzilla” 600km race with 10,000 m of climbing, and again she surprised herself with the first place and a course record. In September of 2006 she did her first 24 hours on the road bike in the U.S. A first place in this North American Championship of the 2006 Ultra Marathon Cycling Association was giving her a great end of this racing season .