Anna Megale Has Made a Splash in U.S. Cyclocross This Season
Things have come together this season for the former swimmer from Idaho
There are not many cyclocross racers from Idaho, so when Anna Megale started having success on the UCI level this season, it was hard to not take note of what she had accomplished. Now technically, Megale is not from Boise—she grew up just south of Portland, Oregon—but she still is an athlete who came up through the local scene there and then started to make waves on the national scene.
Megale grew up as a swimmer but started riding bikes due to injury. She raced her first ‘cross race in 2014 and after success locally in Idaho and in the Cyclocross Crusade, she decided to go national as the West Sacramento GP in 2017. She got her first podium at HPCX in 2019 with a 2nd-place finish, but this year she has really broken through on the UCI level.
Megale finished 2nd at Major Taylor on Halloween and then podiumed both days at the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross. That was all prelude to winning a race at the NCGP during the final week of the domestic season.
As we chatted about Megale on the Media Pit podcast, I realized I didn’t know anything about her, so I reached out to learn more about her journey in the sport. There were admittedly not as many potatoes as I expected, but I still enjoyed getting to catch up with the Trek Cyclocross Collective rider.
Interview: Anna Megale on Her Cyclocross Journey
Zach Schuster: Are you originally from Idaho? If not, how'd you end up there?
I grew up in Canby Oregon, which is about 20 miles south of Portland. I moved to Boise for graduate school at Boise State University for a Masters in Mathematics. I had planned to only stay for the two-year program but my husband and I both love Boise and we are still there eight years later!
I have always lived on the West Coast, so racing on the east coast has been a fun way to experience the other side of the country.
Zach Schuster: I see you got your start in 'cross racing some local races, what's the scene like there? I am just going to go ahead and assume everything is called Potato Cross and the prizes are Mr. Potato Heads...
Anna Megale: I did do my first ‘cross race in little Boise, Idaho. The race scene is small but wonderful. We do not have Potato Cross but we have a series called Waffle Cross. And you don’t even have to podium to get a free waffle.
Boise has another series (SICX) and a few one-off races as well. After racing around the country, I can say our local race promoters put on great events and create really fun courses.
Zach Schuster: I saw on your website that you come from a swimming background, how long did you do that for?
Anna Megale: Yes! I love swimming. I started on the swim team when I was maybe nine years old. I was on a team and competed through high school. I had planned to swim on a collegiate team, but was struggling with some injuries and chose to just focus on school. While getting my bachelor's, I continued to swim for exercise and fun but was not competing. When I graduated, I really missed competition and started swimming with a masters group. I did some open water swimming and completed an 11-mile swim in the reservoir near Boise.
Zach Schuster: How'd you end up switching to cycling and specifically cyclocross?
Anna Megale: Growing up swimming was my focus. But my dad is an avid cyclist and loves doing bike tours. My first time pedaling on a long tour I was only seven years old! My family rode down the Oregon coast all the way to San Francisco. I was on a tandem but I pedaled the whole way :)
To keep a long story short, Swimming, cycling, and even running were all things I grew up doing and love. When I moved to Boise I decided I wanted to start doing triathlons and made the goal to do a full Ironman. While training for my first half Ironman, I dealt with multiple injuries and ended up needing hip surgery (arthroscopic to remove a cam lesion).
While I was unable to run, my husband, Ian, suggested I try bike racing. At first, I was not excited about it at all. After my first couple of road races, however, I was quickly hooked. I am super competitive and I loved the strategy involved with road racing. Ian’s favorite cycling discipline is cyclocross, so he set up my old steel frame Serotta, which is also my touring bike, and signed me up for a ‘cross race. We went on my first off-road ride and I had to walk up a gravel hill because I was scared of the tire slipping. Pretty funny if you think about it.
Anyway, after I finished my first cyclocross race I was hooked all over again. Cyclocross is just so awesome how could you not be?
I still have the goal to complete a full Ironman, but my body needs more time before it will let me be a runner!
Zach Schuster: I feel like we often see women start racing and boom! they're racing UCI Elites, but you had a bit more of a grind moving up from local racing to the Cyclocross Crusade to UCI racing. What kept you motivated to stick with it and take on a bigger travel load to compete?
Anna Megale: Honestly, I was happy just racing in Boise. I thought it was so fun and a great way to spend my weekends. We started racing Cyclocross Crusade partly because Ian grew up racing those races and he wanted me to experience them as well. It was a larger scene than in Idaho, which was also fun. It was Ian who thought I had potential in cyclocross, He wanted to see how I would do against some bigger competition.
This is a bit embarrassing, but I did not even really know what a UCI race was when Ian suggested going to Sacramento to race the one west coast UCI race. I was ultra nervous, especially when I saw Katerina Nash roll by warming up but ended up having a great race and finished 12th in my first UCI race! That is when I realized I wanted to see how far I could go. This was in 2017 and we did a couple more UCI weekends and my first Nationals. I did not earn any points, but I think I was 11th three times that season. When you are that close, it definitely motivates you to keep pushing.
I came back in 2018 with a goal to just get at least one UCI point; I really just wanted to be a world-ranked athlete. Well, I received my first point at the first race in 2018 at GO Cross in Roanoke. I will never forget that race! Since I achieved my goal so early, I had to make bigger ones. Well, you can probably imagine the rest of the story, I just kept making a new goal.
To answer specifically what kept me motivated, I think it is just the joy of racing and specifically cyclocross. I love it. You don’t really need to be an elite racer to enjoy racing every weekend.
The bigger travel load is really hard, but also so rewarding. Ian and I are traveling together and not only do we get to race bikes but we get to see so much of the country together.
Zach Schuster: Have you had a moment where you felt things were finally starting to "click" for you?
Anna Megale: This is the hardest question to answer. I am not sure if things have clicked yet, ha. Life is so busy that I don’t know that I have time to think about it. I just keep pushing and trying to do my best. This year is the first year I felt like I belong at UCI races. I think my success in ‘cross has been a gradual incline.
Zach Schuster: As a Wisconsin person, I've seen a lot of iterations of the Trek Cyclocross Collective. How did you connect with them and what is the goal of the program right now?
Anna Megale: Finding sponsorship or a team is really hard for a cyclocross athlete. Especially one who is not at the top of the sport and works full time. I tried to privateer my first season and that was more challenging than I thought it would be. A local shop, Tritown Boise, stepped up big for that privateer season, but I also spent a lot of time talking with people and reaching out to brands.
Trek CXC was one team that gave me an offer to join at the end of 2018. I was—and still am—so excited for the offer and opportunity. I think Trek is a really great company doing a lot of good, especially for Women's cycling and I am really grateful for the support. Being on Trek CXC has been instrumental to my career. For example, getting the equipment dialed has been a game-changer. Also, have you seen my bike? I think I got pretty lucky to be racing on the Boone :)
Trek CXC really focuses on grassroots, connection with your local Trek shop, and being a local cyclocross advocate. I work hard to connect with local racers, putting on skills clinics, and working with Junior riders, just really trying to spread the joy that is cyclocross.
Zach Schuster: Looking at your results, this year is clearly your best yet. Did anything change for you or do you feel like this is part of the progression you've shown throughout your career?
It has definitely been part of the progression of my career. I think each year has built on the other both in strength and skills.
I also think recovery has been a big change for me this year. I work a full-time job, so managing racing, training, and recovery is always hard. In past seasons, we flew to every race from Idaho. Flying to the East Coast from Idaho almost every weekend is a lot. I did many late nights getting to races and would fly home late Sunday evening to be back in my cubicle by 8 AM Monday morning. Getting maybe four hours of sleep after a race weekend is not optimal recovery.
This year, we are living and traveling in our camper van with our dog Vito! Due to COVID, I am currently working remotely. Some people might say that sounds harder, but I think being able to get really good sleep and recovery right after a race weekend has made a huge difference for me.
I also have had the same coach Beth Ann Orton since 2019, I think growing this relationship had been a huge benefit.
Zach Schuster: Racing in a World Cup seems like a far cry from a Women's Cat 4 race in Idaho. What was the experience like racing in Fayetteville and what did it mean to you to be selected to race?
Anna Megale: Honestly, it is hard to explain. I didn’t even start the season with the goal to be selected for the World Cups. After a year off racing because of COVID, going into the season, I felt like I didn’t know what my race fitness was going to be. I was able to race a the Tabor World Cup in 2019 but mostly because there were not many other U.S. women there, so to make the selection when it felt like the entire peloton in the U.S. was trying this season felt more like a dream than a goal.
Really, I think it was the first time I started to believe I was not just a pack rider. Ultimately, it was a huge honor to be selected and line up with the best in the world.
Zach Schuster: Also, you won a UCI race! Against a number of former national champions—Lizzy Gunsalus, Jen Malik, Hannah Arensmas, Emily Werner. What was that race and experience like for you?
At every other race this season I have been in the position of chasing—it's something I am used to at this point. At the NCGP, being at the front and having to be the one dictating the pace was a completely new feeling!
It has taken time for me to believe I belong at the front of a race and this win as well as the podiums leading up to it have helped prove that to me. I think this win brings me confidence, happiness, and excitement for what’s ahead.
Zach Schuster: Now that you've won a race and podiumed in four straight, what's next for you in terms of cyclocross goals?
Anna Megale: This is a good question. Nationals is the first thing on my mind right now and after Nationals, I am taking off to Europe for the Kerstperiode block. To finish off the year, it would be amazing to qualify for Worlds, but I am going to focus on each race as it comes for now.
Longer-term, I am not sure about my goals. Working a full-time job and being a full-time athlete is hard. I honestly thought this year could be my last full UCI season but reaching the next step, touching the podium, and racing World Cups, makes me hungry for more!