Rider dominates time-trial racing
She’s a record-setting 63-year-old athlete, and her world-class
trainer doesn’t believe she’ll even reach her peak potential for
another seven years.
Hollister’s Haze Thompson has taken the sport of time-trial bike
racing by storm since she first started competing in 2003.
Rider dominates time-trial racing
She’s a record-setting 63-year-old athlete, and her world-class trainer doesn’t believe she’ll even reach her peak potential for another seven years.
Hollister’s Haze Thompson has taken the sport of time-trial bike racing by storm since she first started competing in 2003.
Since then, Thompson has never lost a time-trial race in the United States in the Women’s Masters Division. Nearly every time she competes the records she breaks are her own. Most recently Thompson was the bronze medal winner in the World Masters Time Trials championships, which were held in Austria.
Although Thompson wound up finishing third in that prestigious international meet for women 60 years old or older, which was won by France’s Michelle Charles, Thompson’s time of 30.41.71 in the 20-kilometer (12.5 mile) event still set a new U.S. record – besting her old mark of 31.54.17 that she set the previous year.
Thompson’s time was only two seconds behind the second-place time and 16 seconds behind the winner, all hurdles that she should be able to clear with another year of practice and intense training under her belt. Still, she beat out a score of other world-class athletes to earn a trip to the podium.
“My goal there this year was to set a new record and get to the podium there,” Thompson said. “To do both and finish third in the world at my age was pretty exciting. It was a memorable moment in my life that I’ll never forget.”
Although she has remained humble despite her impressive string of records, Thompson’s feats are beginning to gain more attention. Most recently she was named Geezer Jock of the Year by geezerJock magazine, which is self-dubbed as the magazine and on-line community for all Masters athletes. What’s next, the cover of a Wheatie’s box?
“I think they only do that for young people,” said Thompson with a chuckle.
Although becoming a Wheaties icon seems far-fetched, in the four years that she has been competing, Thompson has reached a major milestone each year.
In 2003, she set the California State time-trials record in the Masters Division, which includes women ranging in age from 60 to 65.
The following year, she broke her own state record. Later that same summer she won the time trials, road race and was named best all-around at the U.S. National Championships, in Park City, Utah, becoming the only person, male or female, in any age group that year to win more than one gold medal.
“At the time-trials that year no one even knew who she was because she went so fast that she passed up everyone in the 55-year old group that had left well ahead of her group,” said her husband, David Thompson. “It’s just amazing.”
A few weeks later that same year, Thompson set a new U.S. national record in Moriarty, NM in the 20k time trials.
In 2005 in the Women’s 40k Tandem Record Time Trials in Moriarty, New Mexico Thompson, along with her partner Julie Kaplan, set a new U.S. women’s tandem record of 55.33 in the 25-mile event.
“The more I learn how to do it, the better I get,” said Thompson, who plans on competing in the sport well into her 80s.
Typically, one doesn’t think of a record-setting athlete as still in the learning stages of the sport, but that’s what her coach, Arnie Baker, believes. And Baker, a 52-year-old retired physician, should know.
Over the years Baker has coached four Olympians in the sport, 120 national champions and 81 U.S. record holders.
“He’s told us that she is the best time-trials woman in the U.S. in her age class,” said David.
Thompson races in both time-trial events and road races. In 20k time trials, riders come out of the starting line in 30-second intervals and go as fast as they can on course in a race against the clock. Should a rider catch another competitor, rules forbid “drafting,” or gaining an advantage by riding in another rider’s slipstream. Most time-trial races take place on flat surfaces.
“Most people call it the race of truth,” said Thompson. “It’s the best way to measure a person’s speed and strength because there is no drafting or strategy or no team to rely on. You just go as hard and as fast as you can.”
It’s also called the race of truth because competitors must have the discipline to hold themselves at their anaerobic threshold. Slower and they’re not competitive and faster and their bodies will rebel long before the end of the race.
In road racing, riders all go off at the same time, racing up and down hills and around corners too. In road racing, it’s all about beating the competition, not beating the clock.
“It’s actually a little bit more fun running road races,” said Thompson, who is getting stronger and setting faster times the more she competes and works at perfecting her technique.
“It’s amazing,” said her husband, who works as a physicist with NASA in Mountain View. “I’m very proud of what she accomplished, but I’m sort of not surprised. She’s a very strong woman.”
Thompson’s road to success started when her husband decided that it would be fun to book a bike riding tour of Tuscany, Italy and see the country.
As a former nationally ranked cross-country skier in the 1970s and a member of the U.S. cross-county ski team, David used to ride during the summer months as part of his cross-training schedule.
Haze, on the other hand, was more into riding her horses and giving lessons-something she did from 1975 until 2001.
Although she always led a very active lifestyle and did everything from rock climbing and swimming to speed skating over the years, bike riding was never her forte because of her short stature.
“I never rode much because I could never find a bike that was comfortable,” said Thompson, who stands 5-foot-3. “Since I’m so short, I would always be stretched out too much and the bikes would never fit me right. I would always hurt a knee, a shoulder or something.”
But that all changed when her husband purchased a custom-fitted Italian Masi bike for her during the couple’s trek through the quaint Italian countryside. The Thompsons enjoyed the bike-riding trip so much that the following year the they booked another vacation through the same company to tour the Pyrenees Mountains in France.
After that Haze, who taught horseback riding at both Stanford and the University of Colorado, was hooked on cycling.
Before long, she competed in her first race: The California State Masters Championship. In that event, Thompson beat the previous state record in her division by four minutes.
Today she competes on a custom-made Cervelo bike, which is made of carbon and weighs roughly 14 pounds.
To be as competitive as she is requires a lot of hard year-round work.
In the winter, Thompson takes several weeks off completely. Then around the beginning of the year she stays fit by riding her bike as much as 300 miles a week on a variety of hilly and flat roads in the Hollister area.
During this period she will also lift weights in order to keep her body and legs as strong as possible to get ready for the upcoming season, which starts in the spring. She also follows a strict diet, which consists of mostly “high-quality lean proteins, vegetables and whole grains.”
As the new season approaches, her workouts become more frequent and more intense. During this period she will also ride on both the road and on a stationary trainer. She rides the stationary bike twice a week for two hours at a time at a high rate of speed.
During the season, she tries to ride roughly 40 miles on Saturday and 70 miles on Sundays and mixes her speed up during each workout.
During those workouts Thompson can often be found riding on Santa Anita Road, Cienega Road, Santa Ana Road and to Fremont Peak.
“The roads are perfect for this here,” said Thompson, who grew up in Capetown, South Africa and moved to the United States in 1962. “We really love it here. The people are nice and I get a lot of support. Austria was beautiful but we love the Hollister, Gilroy and San Juan Bautista area. It’s perfect for riding.”
