Last year at this time, Alison Jackson had yet to win a race across 18 months. The Canadian veteran grabbed hold of opportunity just 15km from the start of the third edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift when she escaped among an early breakaway group. She then sprinted ahead of six others to claim a career-defining victory at the Roubaix velodrome.
“For me, it was going to have a lot of meaning to win a Monument and also to write my name in the history book as the first Canadian, male or female, to have won any of the Monuments. Yeah, that itself I am really proud of,” Jackson told Cyclingnews before she began racing the spring Classics this season with her new team, EF Education-Cannondale.
“I’ve always wanted to write my name in the history books. So becoming a ‘cycling legend’, yeah, this result will stay with me for a long time.”
The victory has gone beyond the pages of a history book, spilling over to international recognition and social media celebrity for the Canadian champion. She’s known for her storytelling expressed with video dance moves. Using a parody of a Twisted Sister rock song “I Wanna Rock”, changing ‘wanna’ to ‘won a’, Jackson’s Paris-Roubaix celebratory escapade with the iconic cobbled trophy cast her into a new sphere of stardom.
A fierce competitor Jackson used her legs, lungs and aggressiveness to secure a goal she had set for her 2023 spring season. She also won the hearts of many fans, using the spirited ride across the beastly cobbles and the beauty of a single rock to confirm anything is possible.
“It was wild to see the response from the fans and people in the sport love to see a breakaway win. They also love to see a character win. So the way that I raced [Paris-Roubaix], all the videos showed me like being at the front and pulling the group to make the action happen. You could see the effort put in, the grit and the determination that it took,” Jackson reflected.
“It was so close, the drama of the whole race. And at the end pulling off this dance move – which is just how I express my joy, it’s not planned – made a lot of people fall in love with me and want to know more about me and my story. To do all the right things and come away with that win, I think people loved that story.”
Reigning
This year Jackson moved from the WorldTour level to the new Continental-level EF Education-Cannondale squad. On the start line in Denain for the 148.5km ‘Hell of the North’ she’ll wear bib number one on the maple-leaf jersey of the reigning Canadian road race champion.
Jackson who has declared that cycling and racing is fun “but winning is a special type of fun”, talked of the motivation that a taste of victory can offer.
“We will lose so often going to get that little bit of a win, that can take you years and years,” Jackson told Cyclingnews. “That one win that gives you that energy to keep fighting and training hard and riding in the rainy weather. Things like that just validate the journey and that special type of fun.”
Jackson has had a quiet season so far, taking 10th at Trofeo Felanitx in Spain to start the season two months ago. But that is the way she started 2023, with a second place at Clasica de Almeria and then a stunning victory at Paris-Roubaix, which of course she’d like to repeat in 2024 and remain the reigning Queen of the cobbles.
The end of the Monument on Saturday will also mark her transition toward stage racing this summer. Now in her ninth pro season, she looks to compete at Vuelta España Femenina and Tour de France Femmes, with an eye toward representing Canada at the Olympic Games again.
“I’m gonna try to do the Vuelta to get some stage racing in the legs. I’ll be nice not having the Tour right after the Olympics [like 2021 Tokyo]. The Olympics really mean a lot to me and to my country. As a kid, I never dreamed of being a cyclist – I dreamed of being an Olympic medalist. And at first, I was ‘I can be a synchronized swimmer’? Anything you watched that you thought was cool,” Jackson laughed.
“Then we have the Tour de France. If you come away disappointed from the Olympics, you just get into the Tour de France with more grit and more passion, to prove to yourself what you’re capable of. So I think it will be a fun Tour. I love that it starts in the Classics area.”
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