Christie Tracy’s 24 Hours in Texas
Don’t let her perpetual smile and friendly demeanor fool you — Christie Tracy (Saris + The Pros Closet [eSports] & Panaracer/Factor p/b Bicycle X-Change [IRL]) can ride you and most of your friends into the ground.
ERacing fans will recognize Tracy as one of the top-ranked female Zwift racers, regularly lighting up Elite races with her Saris + TPC teammates and well-known for her loooonnnggg sprint. Ultra-cycling fans will remember her for her World Championship wins at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships in 2017, 2018, & 2019. Fans of traditional US road racing will know her from her years on the domestic race circuit as a Category 1 racer, specializing in long road races of attrition and time trials, and as a 2 x Master’s National Time Trial Champion in the USA Cycling 40K TT.
In September 2020, Tracy added to her long list of cycling accomplishments by winning the 2020 Texas Time Trials 24-hour TT outright. The race was also held as the 2020 24 Hour US National Time Trial Championship, giving her another National Title to her palmarès. Tracy covered a staggering distance in the race, riding 448.8 miles in 23 hours and 39 minutes.
“I had a really good day. I won the women’s 24-hour National Championship title, and I actually ended up winning the 24-hour race outright overall. I’m still in shock!”
That’s right — not only did Tracy outride all of the women who entered the race, but she outrode all of the men as well. In the process, she also beat the event’s previous record of 424 miles, held by Ultra-Endurance legend Sarah Cooper. Tracy spoke about besting that record by 24.8 miles, “Sarah Cooper is an absolute legend in the ultra-cycling community—she’s a friend and someone that I look up to as a genuine and nice person, but just a beast out there racing. She held the course record and one of my targets was that if everything went right, I wanted a shot at taking that course record down. And it was the overall men’s and women’s record. It was just a really really good day.”
When asked if she’d made any changes to her training to prepare for this year’s 24 hour Time Trial, Tracy credited the increase in Zwift Racing with Saris + TPC as an integral piece of her preparation.
“You wouldn’t think that 60-90 min punchy, all-out Zwift Races would help to prepare someone for a 24 hour Time Trial effort (the exact opposite - long and steady), but I feel like Zwift has helped a lot with my mental training - learning to suffer better, ignore the pain, find a quiet place in your head, and just push through.”
This mental toughness came in handy especially in the final lap of the 24-hour race. “In the final lap of the race, the 1st place man was hunting me down and closing in fast. I'd had up to a 20 minute gap on him at one point, but going into that final lap, he was less than 1 minute behind me. I was in his sights. I knew that they ONLY way that I had a chance of holding him off was to tune out all the pain and focus very single-mindedly on forcing myself to hold a # that my body should not be capable of holding at that point in the race. As I crossed the start line of that final lap, I went ALL IN. I was in such an unbelievable amount of pain that I can't even put it into words. I was literally screaming in agony as I tried to focus on anything else except for the pain, and somehow I managed to complete the final 1hr18min of a 24 hour race at 3.2 W/Kg. No amount of IRL training can replicate that, but the feeling was very similar to what I experience toward the end of the Elite Zwift Races when I'm racing girls half my age and just emptying myself in an attempt to find one more match.”
Expect to find Tracy, and her STPC teammates, lighting up the upcoming Zwift Racing League this November and December — lining up against some of the strongest cyclists worldwide in an 8-race series taking place each Monday beginning October 12th and culminating on November 30th. You can be sure that Christie will be drawing on the mental toughness endured in her 24-hour race to go all-in for the win on Zwift.