Cathy Colyn, short for Catherine (not Catheryn or Katherine, her pet peeve having her name spelled incorrectly) was born up north in Pretoria but has been residing in Paarl since she was 10 years old. Cathy’s all-or-nothing personality is what she utilised to grow her cycling career which started off with her racing mountain bikes as a junior before moving over to road racing.
Having raced both locally and internationally, Catherine has built a good resumé with some highlights being u/23 National Road Champ, finishing on the podium in Belgium, and a Top 3 Best Young Rider in a UCI Cat 2.2 Tour, among others. Cathy was building momentum and it looked like a career in road racing lay ahead before 2020 and a little global pandemic forced her to stay home for a while.
It wasn’t all bad news though for Cathy as this change in pace introduced her to the world of gravel racing – the perfect combination of mountain biking and road racing – and as they say “the rest was history”. Becoming hooked on this fast growing discipline of the sport, she set her sights on a global stage where she could test herself against the best, the LifeTime Grand Prix series in the USA.
The LifeTime Grand Prix series
The LifeTime Grand Prix is a series of the biggest off-road cycling races in the United States of America. Seven races which vary between gravel and mountain biking with the riders top five results counting towards their overall tally and a shot at their share of a very large prize purse of $250 000.
Selection for the series was based on a lottery system where riders needed to apply and motivate their reason to be invited to the series. It’s an Elite group of only 35 men (which includes South Africa’s marathon and gravel powerhouse Matthew Beers) and 35 women from around the world fighting it out for the title!
“Being selected for the LifeTime Grand Prix has completely changed the direction of my cycling career. The goal is to be on as many podiums as I can and be fighting for the win where possible. I’m missing the first two events so I need to make all five events count, in order to do so I will need to remain consistent throughout the months.” says Cathy
Cathy will race the following events in the series:
July 8: Crusher in the Tusher – 111 km / Gravel
Aug 12: Leadville Trail 100 MTB – 160 km / MTB
Sept 16: Chequamegon MTB Festival – 64 km / MTB
Sept 30: The Rad Dirt Fest – 177 km / Gravel
Oct 21: Big Sugal Gravel – 160 km / Gravel
You can follow Cathy on her journey here on her social media!
Cathy’s training with Dr Mike Postumus
“My coach, Dr. Mike Posthumus has tailored my training program to ensure that I am ready for anything that the race day could throw at me. My main goal before I leave was to win the Swartberg 100 as it is a part of the UCI Gravel World Series.
We have been focusing on my race day nutrition, where at Swartberg I had a custom race day nutrition plan made and it worked quite well. I have also been working a lot with my Sport psychologist focusing on that race day mindset and focusing on being more ‘processes driven’ than goal driven. But also the part that not many people speak of is how to cope being away from home and being in a foreign country for a long period of time.
When it comes down to the physical training on the bike and in the gym, it’s mainly about consistency and executing the training exactly to how it’s prescribed. I also do some of my rides and one interval session per week on the indoor trainer for a controlled environment.”
Who is supporting her on her 2023 campaign?
Through the work of One Movement Management, Cathy has a great support structure in the brands that are backing her both with product and finances. She rides for the e-Sports team Rocacorba Collective headed up by South African Ashleigh Moolman Pasio. Through the program Catherine is supported by Specialized for bikes and accessories such as helmets, shoes and tyres as well as Garmin for her computers and indoor training equipment.
Powerbar delivers her nutrition needs and Ciovita has her covered in all the gear to tackle whatever the weather may throw at her while Vide e Caffé sort out her daily caffeine fix – probably every cyclist’s biggest expense!
The big news is that Paarl based Energy Innovation Holdings (EIH), a group of private companies determined to lead the future by being efficient custodians of opportunities that create value, committed to supporting Catherine financially in such a manner that not only would it see her comfortably being able to spend four months in America giving her the best opportunity to perform but beyond that as well.
If you want a quick overview of her bike setup Cathy is rolling a Specialized Diverge for the gravel races with Garmin Power Pedals and Garmin Edge 830 head unit to manage the Watts. As for her mountain bike, she rides the thoroughly race-proven S-Works Epic.
Cathy’s Swartberg 100 gravel race recap
Back on the build up to her American campaign, it couldn’t have been a better result for Cathy winning the UCI Swartberg 100 Gravel Race as well as the event’s Queen of the Mountain award. With 170km and 2900m of climbing, this race was super important for Catherine as she had pinpointed it on her calendar being a UCI rated event.
Cathy dug deep to stay with the lead pack for the first half of the race knowing that the first move would come only 25 km into the race up the first climb. Watching her Garmin for distances to the top of the climb she grit her teeth and pushed on to get over the top with the chasing bunch of men knowing the next few kilometres were going to be fast with a tail wind. Cathy utilised her past road racing experience to be comfortable in the bunch and this was where she initially made a break from the other women.
Catherine stuck to a structured nutrition plan to ensure she was fuelled especially leading into the final climb. Cathy knew from previous experience with the Pass that it is where the race could be won or lost as if you blew on the Pass you could lose a lot of time. She settled into her own tempo watching her wattage to be sure she’d make it over the top without blowing up. Descending from the top of the pass was a bit hair-raising as there was no road closure and it was pretty busy with cars going both up and down the pass.
There were no time splits so Catherine was still unsure on where the other ladies were but wasn’t leaving anything to chance and just hammered the pedals for the last 10 km where she was riding by herself taping out an average of 40km/h for the final 10km to the finish line.
Crossing the line in a time of 5:54:51 would not only see her winning the Elite Ladies category but was also good enough to finish 21st overall on a day when the course record was smashed – her average speed over 170 km was 28,8 km/h. Catherine’s consistent effort over Swartberg Pass also earned her the title of Queen of the Mountain.
Cathy had this to say about the win at Swartberg 100; “It took a while for it to all sink in, even with everyone coming up and congratulating me and standing on the podium it was still a disbelief or dream like feeling, but waking up on Sunday morning and seeing that UCI medal was when it really hit and I was like ‘we did it!’
It was a ‘we’ did it as there are so many people that helped me to get to this point from family, friends, riders, coaches and sponsors – it was really cool to be able to give everyone a win especially with the announcement of Energy Innovation Holdings becoming my title sponsor ahead of my journey to the USA for the LifeTime Grand Prix. This win and performance has definitely silenced any doubt I had in my mind and I’m really looking forward to heading overseas to give it my all at the series.”.
“I have always had maintained that winning isn’t everything as there is so many factors to getting it right but flip it is an awesome feeling when it all comes together!” Cathy added.
Cathy’s ride at Race2TheSun
This sentiment was exactly the case at Race2TheSun the following weekend, 167 km from Hartbeespoort to Sun City. Catherine was in the leading pack of three when an unfortunate mechanical issue saw her having to stop for a repair and then spent the rest of the race chasing hard to try close the 5 min gap, falling short in the end but still putting herself on the podium in 3rd place.
Although for any professional athlete it is the win that counts, it was a good opportunity to test her resilience and drive to chase down the leaders, further placing confidence in her form building up ahead of leaving for the USA.
Catherine’s final preparation race before leaving will be the Ronde Van Riebeek – another 165 km race on 20 May.
Leaving for the USA on 22 June will give Catherine the opportunity to get settled into her base in Boulder, Colorado and more importantly the altitude ahead of her first race on 8 July being the Crusher in the Tusher.
We look forward to seeing Cathy and Matt Beers turn up the heat in the U S of A! Keep an eye on the @wildairbike channel for some updates as they go along!
