ARIANE BONHOMME
Sport: Track Cycling
Event: women’s team pursuit
Age: 29
Hometown: Gatineau
Residence: Gatineau/Milton
Local Club: Ottawa Bicycle Club
Second Olympics
Instagram: @arianebonhomme
VIEW ARIANE’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Adam Beauchemin
Ottawa Bicycle Club product Ariane Bonhomme of Gatineau is heading to the Paris Olympics for a second chance to capture a medal.
As the sole returning member of the Tokyo Olympic women’s team pursuit track cycling squad that finished in fourth place in 2021, the 29-year-old finds herself occupying a very different role on a brand new team that’s eager to prove themselves in Paris.
“I’m just so excited to see my current teammates – it’s all their first Olympics,” she highlights.
In the previous Games, Bonhomme was the youngest member of the pursuit team and the sole Olympic rookie of the bunch – two of her teammates had already medaled in Rio. For Bonhomme, this added to the expectations.
“It was maybe a sort of pressure of wanting to at least get a bronze or do better than what the team had done the previous year,” she recalls.
After finishing last in the qualifying round, the team rallied in their second race to post a Canadian record and earn a shot at bronze against the United States. In the end, they lost the race for third by 2.5 seconds.
With that defeat came the end of an era. All three of Bonhomme’s teammates — Annie Foreman-Mackey, Allison Beveridge and Georgia Simmerling — decided to retire after the Tokyo Games.
“They’re so happy and they were ready to move on,” she notes. “But, that was quite hard for me.”
Bonhomme, who was just getting started on the Olympic stage, says she was in a very different place than the rest of her team.
“In a way, I really wanted to keep going on the momentum that our Tokyo team had built,” she explains.
Now, despite the turnover, the local cyclist will be competing on the world stage once more. She’ll be joined by Olympic newcomers Sarah Van Dam, Erin Attwell and Maggie Coles-Lyster.
“I just love seeing their excitement, and to be able to be that grounding piece for the team,” she says of her new role as a veteran. “Being like, ‘you know what girl? It’s all gonna come together, we just need to believe that we can do this.’”
Bonhomme says she’s done her best to pass on knowledge to her new colleagues, just as her former teammates did for her.
“Hopefully I did a decent job and they can keep going and passing it down to younger riders one day,” indicates the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and two-time Pan American track championships gold medallist.
Being a young and mostly new team comes with its upsides. For one, Bonhomme says her teammates have brought plenty of energy to the mix.
“They’re just so excited,” she says. “It just makes me so happy.”
Perhaps more importantly, Bonhomme says there’s less pressure on the team this time around.
“I think there’s a bit of a different mindset. We have nothing to lose in a way,” she signals.
While the riders won’t be able to control how fast their opposing teams race, their plan is simple enough: give it everything they’ve got for three days in a row.
“I think we’re going into Paris wanting to ride three amazing rides,” Bonhomme underlines. “We’re pretty sure that if we do that, we can land on the podium.”
‘I just needed some blind faith’
For Bonhomme, getting back to her second Games was a challenge in itself. Her teammates from Tokyo had left with a stark warning: it would be harder to make it to her second Olympics than the first.
Initially, Bonhomme says she had a hard time believing their message, but her outlook quickly changed.
“I was like, ‘That is bulls–t. What are you talking about?’” she recalls. “But it’s so true. So this just makes it so sweet — better than last time.”
Part of the challenge was adjusting to the initial loss of her former teammates. She also feared that she would not be able to achieve the same level of fitness she had reached in 2021.
“I didn’t know if I would ever be able to perform as well as I did in Tokyo. That was quite hard mentally,” she details. “When you’re an endurance athlete, you can’t hold your Olympic form for years.”
While it was difficult to see herself lose some ground in the years between the Games, Bonhomme feels that she’s been able to achieve even greater conditioning than before. She also says that the new team has built up plenty of momentum heading into Paris.
“It’s definitely back now, and it’s even better,” says the member of the squad that finished fifth in the Olympic qualification rankings. “I just needed some blind faith.”
Cultivating a passion
Now based primarily at the national team’s home track in Milton, ON, Bonhomme raced for the Ottawa Bicycle Club as a junior and later for The Cyclery women’s road cycling team. She was part of the same OBC generation as Vincent de Haître and Derek Gee, who both competed at the Tokyo Games in track cycling. Gee, who is currently competing in the Tour de France, will represent Canada in the men’s road race in Paris.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without [OBC], that’s for sure,” Bonhomme states. “I think the way that they cultivated passion for cycling among kids was pretty great. We had the freedom to push ourselves and obviously push each other.
“It’s one of the big reasons why a lot of us made it to the highest level. We had this opportunity to compete with each other in a healthy way.”
COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
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