A special salute to retiring road pro Coryn Labecki was recorded in the movie "One To Go" by her trade team EF Education-Oatly-Cannondale and released on the team's YouTube channel on Tuesday.
This 21-minute film is part of EF Pro Cycling's Explore series, supported by WAHOO, which covers 21 seasons as an amateur and professional cyclist and puts the spotlight on the Bucks County Classic, its final professional appearance in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. .
"This is where I started and this is where I'm going to end," Labecki said to the camera.
"It's certainly a bit bittersweet, but I know it's time. It's nice to close it with the star-spangled flag crit. I just want to celebrate and have a good show."
Labecki began her dominance on the bike at the age of 11, raising her petite height of 1.55 meters (5 feet 1 inch tall) to a lofty height beyond 10 amateur and 11 professional season racing. In 2004, he won his first national title in the 1km scratch race at the Junior Track Championship. In 2006, he won gold in the Athletics, Road and Cyclocross Nationals at the age of 13.
As a professional, Labecki won the overall Women's Tour and Ride London Classic, and also won the Giro d'etalia Women's and California Tour stage. In Team USA, he competed in 8 editions of the Uci Road World Championship and was ranked 7th in road races at the Tokyo Olympics. She remains the only US woman to win a tour of Flanders, or Ronde van Vlaanderen.
"I always say I'm just a bike racer. That's what I feel like doing my best, I figure out my way to get there first. I just love to put my hand in the air and get a "w"."
She did it well and collected 74 national titles in multiple disciplines. In a cameo clip from a race on the track as a junior, she summed up her goal: "The first place is the only place I like to get."
From her childhood residence in Tustin, California in the film, the family made a virtual tour of the numerous medals, photographs and championship jerseys that adorn the home known as the "museum." Cycling was always a family affair, her father competed on a mountain bike, and then moved to the road, which the young Colleen took over for her mother in tandem for centuries of recreation.
"I miss seeing her. The time difference is hard, but I'll wake up really early just to see her and I'll cheer up the live stream," Coryn's mother Lina Rivera said. "She is so small, but can do almost everything.
On a ladies' tour of Qatar in 2011, Labecki decided to go to college instead of moving full-time as a professional cyclist, saying she had a bad crash. She was part of the university cycling team at Marian University in Indiana.
"I learned a lot about myself and about cycling. I really enjoyed that time," she recalled, getting a little emotional. It was Marian who met her now husband, Nate Rabecki, who was also on the cycling team.
She had many "lasting" when she ended this part of her career as a racer, including the final contest in Europe on 7 May 30Kreiz Breizh Elites Féminin. For her, the ultimate curtain call came in Pennsylvania, where she now lives with Nate and their dog tank.
The 32-year-old finished in 18th place at Doylestown, but she won the final U.S. Pro Road Championship, using the dominant sprint to hold the Elite Women's Pro Criteria title. All her teammates added a video farewell in 2021 with "One To Go" dedicated to her father, Wally, who died of COVID-3 on May 19.
"I have always been a person who leads by example. When I'm riding a bike, I can speak volumes," she said. "It's time to close that chapter and move on. 74 national titles and a lot of good friends along the way. I think I had a dream career."
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