zerailleur.com / Zach Bell

Well I have traveled home from my time overseas and I am looking forward to some much needed rest and rejuvenation. The Olympic qualification period is over after a whole year and I have to say it is a bit of a weight of the chest. It is not that the qualification ever REALLY stressed me out, but it is one of those things that is just on the back of your mind the whole year weather you are in good position or not. Now it is just a matter of waiting for the official release of the qualified individuals.

So with my spare time I took my girlfriend, Rebecca up to the Yukon for the first time. It was not all sunshine and fun times though. She was basically acting as my media liaison for the first 2 days. I got of the plane and went straight down to the CBC studio and to do a live on air interview. From there I went to Sport Yukon, this is where I have received the majority of my support from over the past 10 year. Over the past week I had been organizing some speaking opportunities with the local high schools in Whitehorse. It was great to hear we had been able to organize 2 large groups (>100) to speak to at the two biggest schools in the territory. Fantastic!!!!

Both speaking sets were filled with good questions good stories and old friends who were now teachers or coaches working this the kids. I was able to speak with each group for an hour and I hope I at least gave them a good afternoon if not an inspirational peace of punctuation in there life.

These talks brought on a sea of media attention. The CBC showed up at my home to do a TV interview on our dangerously unstable deck. CBC radio came by again and recorded an hour long “insight” into the brain of Zach Bell and then recorded Wii playing and dog barking in the house. And finally 2 news papers did interviews that will hopefully highlight the lack of sponsorship available to summer sport at the moment in Canada. IT was good to find someone who was interested in the hardships facing Canadian cyclist today. Even if the stories will only run in the Yukon.

I would like to thank all the support and private people who contributed to my training and living this week. It was really unexpected. But I guess that is what is so great about the Yukon. We always look after our own. Without this kind of generosity and support I would never have made it out of the country…never mind to 11th over all in the world after only a few years.

THANKS