Just in time for the 2009 Alberta CX season, we've got an interview with the reigning Alberta champion (and our favourite Dutch/Albert transplant) Tim Heemskerk.

Tim has been leading the pack (and striking terror into their hearts) in Alberta cyclocross for the past several years as he has made his home in Edmonton. He's now packing up to move back to Holland, so we took the opportunity to ask him some questions about racing here, his "Canada House in Holland" project, and some other sort-of related stuff...

1. Tell us a bit about how the Canada House in Holland project got started? What was the motivation?

--> this project got started after a Dutch MTB-team asked me to come and race MTB for them. My response was that I was not pursuing this anymore but wanted to experience a Euro cross season for coaching purposes. They agreed but I did have one condition...I wanted to bring some talent with me to experience this as well. This happen to be 2 of my TTP- athletes, who also qualified for Worlds in Hoogerheide, NL.

2. What were the selection criteria for athletes interested in participating last year? What was it that made Brian Robinson and Andrew Thomas stand out from the crowd and get selected?

--> For this first edition it had to be athletes who qualified for Worlds in the U23 category, since Worlds participation was going to be important for the team in Holland. It also happen to be 2 guys I do coach as well. They worked hard for it and deserved selection for the first edition. Both are very social guys and that’s what you need if you’re going to be together out there for 2 months. People that are easy to work with and willing to do such a thing. They both realized it was not going to be a long (sponsored) vacation

3. The goals for the project were (among other things) to expose the athletes to racing at a higher level in Holland and Belgium. What, in your opinion, were some of the biggest challenges faced by the Canadians on this project in these bigger races? How did they react/adapt?

--> biggest challenges were: being in a different culture who lives and breathes cycling, not speaking the (Dutch) language, a super high level of racers in general, being away from home for 6 weeks or longer is not an easy thing when you are 20 years young, aggressive style of racing where every second and every spot counts, make a mistake in a corner and you might loose 2 or 3 spots, and performing in front of 10.000+ spectators making a lot of noise and sometimes making fun of the racers in the back, and this list can go on and on!

I definitely saw 2 different personalities, one coping and dealing faster with a few things compared to the other person. When things go wrong you have to start over the next day, and not walk around with it for too long. You want those things to make you a stronger and more experienced rider so this does not happen the next time, always grow!

4. The athletes received some great support from Team Jan Terpstra in Holland. Do you think that the Team's expectations were met?

--> Yes and No. Before we left for Holland I talked to the team manager and said that we were not going to put much pressure on the guys, it was going to be a steep learning curve for the riders at such a young age. We saw them progressing, but due to bad luck in a few races we did not always perform to our potential. Andrew had a bad start position at Worlds and crashed in the first lap, otherwise he was going to crack top 30 for sure. I think the team had some good exposure from it as well in newspapers etc. but the team also invested quite some $$ into this first edition. I was happy to win 2 cross races for them and a top 20 in a Super Prestige race in the sponsor region, which was good for the team exposure.

5. What were some of the highlights of the project?

--> finishing a 2- month racing period in Holland, Germany and Belgium doing the biggest races out there and being fully supported with bikes, a team bus, mechanics, massages, rent of house, clothing, equipment etc. was a big highlight for the team and myself. We even had free access to an exercise centre for spinning classes, gym, for the rainy days. Every race that was finished can be considered a highlight for the boys and another step forward in the development. Another highlight was seeing a progress between the first month of December compared to the 2nd month or January.

6. Moving forward, do you foresee the project continuing this season? If so, are there plans to increase the numbers of athletes? Any other significant changes?

--> I really do hope so, but support from Canadian sponsors is needed. If there’s more budget I would like to see 4- 5 racers going over, kind of like the US and A approach. When having more riders over chances are bigger someone will really step things up and will put Canada on the map of international cross racing, like Jonathan Page did for cross in the USA. One possible change would be the location of the house, but that all depends on the available budget off course.

7. You've been here in Alberta for several years now, and have dominated on both the CX and MTB race circuits. Have you seen much in the way of progression from racers in Alberta/Western Canada?

--> For sure in cross! 5 years ago when I first raced cross over here not many people took cross as seriously as it is now. Most people raced older bikes, clinchers tires, and the cross season was kind of an addition to the Road/ MTB season before heading into a long and cold winter period. Now the level is definitely higher compared to 5 years ago and people show up with excellent equipment and lots of racers are racing tubulars and carbon fiber wheels. You even see people show up with spare bikes etc. Also there’s more cross races and race courses are becoming more professional. Keith Bailey for example, builds awesome race courses in Calgary! You also see more people travel to international cross races in the US or in Europe, and we do have our own UCI race in Edmonton with the UCI races in Toronto. I do teach weekly cross clinics in Edmonton for the past 4 years now and each year the group seems to be getting bigger.

8. Alberta has had some great success in the past few years at the National Championships. Are there any changes you would like to see made to cyclocross racing in Alberta to push athletes to progress even more?

--> for racers to do well in Europe they have to specifically focus on preparing for cross racing. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the riders that stay here) we do not have the same weather conditions like the races over there in Holland and Belgium, no frozen and icy corners, no muddy courses where you do need a bike change each lap. I would love to see a few fast plus technical race courses. Over here most courses that are technical are pretty slow. So more fast sections with technical cornering would be great preparation for the races over there. Also, introducing kids to cross is very important. Last season I had a kids race included within the cross race I organized here in Edmonton. The kids race was quite a success and it would be nice to see that more often and I’m sure you will be generating quite some talent from it.