Ruby West's Unique and Challenging Cyclocross Study Abroad Season
Canadian Ruby West ventured into rarely traveled territory, racing for a European team during the 2020/21 pandemic season
The list of North Americans who have lived in Europe and raced for European cyclocross teams is an extremely short one. Elle Anderson, Jonathan Page, and Katie Compton are among the few that have taken the bold leap to navigate not just living in the Motherland of cyclocross but racing for teams with cultures that are far removed from what they know back home.
This past winter, Canada’s Ruby West joined the short list of North American renners by racing for the Proximus - Alphamotorhomes - Doltcini team based in Belgium. Not only did West race for a European team, she did so during a global pandemic and while just 21 years of age. One could say it was your not-so-average college study abroad program.
West has been an up-and-coming talent out of Ontario for years now, capturing Canadian U23 National Championships in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and taking perhaps her biggest cyclocross result to date when she won the U23 Pan-American Championships in Midland in 2019.
After finishing 9th at the 2020 World Championships in Dubendorf, and with a goal of trying the full European immersion, West started talking with Euro teams and ultimately signed a contract with the Proximus squad.
“I think I’d always known I wanted to give Europe a shot,” she said. “I knew that to race at the top level in ‘cross, you need to be in Europe and racing your bike against the best in the world week in and out. I had always seen my final year in the U23 category as a good chance to do this.”
We wanted to learn more about West’s experience last season, so we took some time to catch up with her after a stint of track racing she was doing here in the U.S. We talked about last season and the upcoming season, along with some diversions to her family farm and the burden of representing for ginger cyclists across Canada and greater North America.
Interview: Ruby West, Belgian Cyclocross Study Abroad
Zach Schuster: How are things on the farm? Is it your family's? I just did some brief IG stalking, tbh.
Ruby West: Things on the farm are wonderful! This property really is a little paradise on earth; it is my happy place for sure.
Yes, the property belongs to my parents. They bought it a few years ago when they wanted to get a little farther out of town than our previous house was. We had always had chickens and a big garden, but moving here has obviously given us the chance to expand on the animal and garden front!
There is actually a secondary little farmhouse on the property next to the cabin my parents live in that rental tenants used to live in. As soon as covid hit last year, my boyfriend and I scoped it out and realized with a bit of work (and a lot of cleaning and painting) we could make it a cozy little home for us, so we are super fortunate to live on the beautiful farm property as well.
Zach Schuster: Backing up a year ago, what made you decide to pursue racing in Europe full time?
Ruby West: I think I’d always known I wanted to give Europe a shot. I knew that to race at the top level in ‘cross, you need to be in Europe and racing your bike against the best in the world week in and out. I had always seen my final year in the U23 category as a good chance to do this, as then I could hit most of the World Cups and shoot for a good result in the overall classification. That didn’t quite pan out the way I had always dreamed it might, but I knew that I would always wonder “what if,” if I didn’t give the European move a shot.
Zach Schuster: How did that come together for you? How did you land with the Proximus team?
Ruby West: I was first in communication with the Proximus team right after the World Championships in 2020, where I had a solid result. I was talking to a few European teams at that point, knowing that the results I banked in Europe that year showed a glimmer of what I was capable of. I remained in communication with them throughout the spring and signed my contract in the summer to race for them in the 2020/21 season.
Zach Schuster: The number of North Americans who have raced with European teams is pretty short. Did you reach out to any of them for advice before you headed to Europe?
Ruby West: It sure is … and this scared me big time! I certainly did, knowing that going over there and doing the whole season for a European team was a big jump and clearly not a common one, so I was desperate to find people who had lived this experience to ask for advice.
Because there are so few cyclocross racers that have made this move, especially Canadians, I ended up leaning on my good friend Leah Kirchman, who is a pro roadie over in Europe, and she helped a lot sympathizing with the struggles I was having and just being away in a different culture so far from home for so long. My coach, Jeremy Powers, also helped a lot, he has a lot of experience racing in Europe and so it was nice to be able to talk about the good and bad times with him as someone who has been in that position himself.
Zach Schuster: What was your setup like? Where did you live? Did you train with the team regularly?
Ruby West: I lived in Ouudenarde, Belgium, with a few other cyclists. I stayed with an Irish woman who rents out rooms in her home, so and fellow North American cyclocrosser Corey Coogen Cisek and I were staying there. It was a perfect location and a very comfortable place to stay—we all spoke English and she even had a dog, so it was a great setup for housing.
I didn’t train with my team often as I didn’t have a vehicle for most of the trip, and I wasn’t very close in location to the other riders, plus everyone was on pretty independent schedules, so it never really lined up for us to train together. They also trained with their National teams throughout the week, which unfortunately as a non-Benelux rider, I wasn’t invited to. I stuck mostly to training solo or with some British friends I had staying nearby. Covid also meant that there wasn’t a whole lot of group riding going on and within our house especially, we were trying to be very careful, so we didn’t train with many people.
Zach Schuster: What was the most eye-opening aspect of the experience?
Ruby West: All of it! Honestly, it was nothing like I expected it to be, so I would say pretty much all of it was eye-opening. From the way of life of cyclists in Europe, to the way European team units function, to the style of racing, to how the race organizers operate, it was all pretty eye-opening.
I know everyone says that Europe is so different from North America and having raced there previously—albeit for only a few weeks at a time—I did understand that. Living there and being there alone was a whole other beast, and I don’t think I would have ever fully understood that unless I lived it.
Zach Schuster: I am guessing living abroad and racing during a pandemic made things much more challenging? How so?
Ruby West: Oh boy did it ever! I like to think this is where most of my struggles from last year came from, as the isolation it caused was like nothing I’ve experienced before. Mostly it was the fact that the whole country was on lockdown, except of course, for cyclocross racing. My days consisted of riding my bike, going to the grocery store, and coming home to do homework or watch Netflix, literally nothing else. This becomes repetitive at the best of times, but when you’re alone it becomes even tougher. I had no family or friends able to visit—which I was counting on before I left, so it was a long time to be alone. The isolation that the pandemic brought I’m sure is nothing new to some people, but compared to living with my boyfriend and on the same property as my parents at home, it was a huge shift.
The stress of the virus itself was a whole other thing. We were getting Covid tests at a minimum once a week, which was expensive and hard to come by, we had limited number of support staff at races, and the constant fear of catching a serious virus in a foreign country so overrun with this virus that you would be shipped to Germany if you needed a hospital bank.
Zach Schuster: With racing canceled in the U.S., deciding to live and race in Europe seems like a fortuitous decision. What are some of the things you think you improved on?
Ruby West: The decision to move to Europe last year certainly worked out due to the cancellation of racing in the U.S. If I hadn’t made that move, I wouldn’t have raced my bike last year, so it did work out for the best.
I think that’s also a long list, on and off the bike I feel like I learned a lot. I would say a lot of what I improved on are “process” type achievements that didn’t quite reflect themselves in terms of results but are things that will help me moving forward. Things like balancing the logistics of a whole season, interacting with and communicating with people from a different culture and who speak a different language, and so much more. I think racing my bike that much in Europe helped me hone some skills like riding those incredibly difficult courses that are so different than what we see back in North America. I think the life skills I learned last year, I will carry with me for a lifetime.
Zach Schuster: What are your plans for the coming season? Will you be back in the U.S. early on or are you doing a full Euro campaign?
Ruby West: That’s a great question and something that I’m actually really excited about! I am not going to be doing a full Euro campaign again this year; I will focus primarily on the North American races. I am still finalizing my schedule for the fall and winter and a lot of when I start my season will depend on how things progress on the track for me, so it is a bit of a wait-and-see situation.
Zach Schuster: What are you hoping for from the coming season? What should we look for to know you are progressing and happy with how you are racing?
Ruby West: I am really excited for this coming season! I think it presents new opportunities to race and prove myself, but also to enjoy cyclocross and the atmosphere it brings, especially in the United States. I am excited to have fans back on courses and the comradery of fellow racers that I missed out on in Europe where I couldn’t communicate very well with the other riders.
This year my goal is to target a few key races rather than race every weekend, so you might see less of me, but that isn’t a bad thing. Now that I’m balancing track and cyclocross, I have to be smart with how I’m spending my energy and that means fewer race days, but more intention behind each of them. I think you’ll know I’m happy with how I’m racing if I am a happy bike racer again, if I have a smile on my face and I’m doing what I love, I’ll be happy! I’m also working on a super exciting project for the upcoming season, so I already know that will bring me a lot of motivation and happiness.
Zach Schuster: Finally, as a ginger, I appreciate you representing for red-headed cyclists everywhere. Do you feel an extra burden with that responsibility?
Ruby West: Haha! I certainly do feel this burden. Although it depends who you ask, but my level of red-headedness has been questioned in the past. When I was born my hair was fiery red, but it has since faded a bit. Luckily, I still have the sass and attitude of a ginger, so it’s not all lost. I just hope to do the gingers proud you know, prove that although soulless, we can still be decent bike racers!