After a Shocking Victory at Paris-Roubaix ’23, Alison Jackson Wants to Win It All Again
Last year, Canadian cyclist Alison Jackson sprinted to a historic win on the third edition of the cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix Femmes, after leading a long breakaway that miraculously stuck all the way to the finish at the Roubaix Velodrome. Following the sprint, Jackson celebrated with a memorable victory dance—a classic for the 35-year-old, whose popularity in racing is matched by her social media following thanks to her dancing, comedy routines, and general bonhomie.
With Paris-Roubaix looming in the not-so-distant future, we caught up with Jackson during her altitude training camp in Tenerife, Spain, to find out what her first season with the new EF Education-Cannondale team has been like and her plans for the Spring Classics, the Olympic Games, and the Tour de France Femmes.
Jackson sits outside soaking up sunlight and low oxygen in Tenerife while we talk over Zoom. She pans the camera to point in the general direction of the dormant volcano in the area. “You can’t ride up the volcano,” she clarifies. “But you can take a cable car if you want to get up to 4000 meters of elevation.” At 12,198 feet (3,718 meters), it is the highest point on Spanish soil.
Altitude training is new for the team this year—one of the perks of now being tied with the men’s EF Education First team, with a big budget and more pooled resources. More women’s teams are seeking out altitude camps to prepare for races. Canyon//SRAM was one of the first last year, but now, it seems almost required for a team to be successful. Jackson’s experience with the altitude so far has been good: “One of my superpowers is being able to sleep anywhere at any time,” she says. So I think that really helps. But I haven’t done much altitude training yet, so it’s all an experiment.”
The team’s shift is caused by the new partnership with the men’s side of the program. Last year, Jackson was part of EF Education-SVB-TIBCO, founded by the first Canadian cyclist to be nicknamed Action Jackson. The team was absorbed into the EF umbrella after TIBCO and SVB withdrew sponsorship last year, and while many riders stayed the same on the roster, it was still a big shift.
“I do feel like I have to make sure that I’m sharp if I want to be a leader in any of these races,” she says. “But the atmosphere is super good. We really support each other. I think we’re just going to go up from here.”
The men’s and women’s training camps have been combined, the teams stay in the same hotels, and resources are shared. “It’s a great way to make new friends,” says Jackson. “I think it also just shows that we’re on the level playing field. We’re not lesser. We both take the sport really seriously and the management has been great about offering the same resources and respect to both the men’s and women’s teams.”
Strade Bianche and Paris Olympic Goals
The first major race of the year, Strade Bianche, may not have looked like a great race for Jackson, but it really did go according to plan. It’s a long season, and it’s normal for riders to do their work for the team and then pull out of the race to preserve their legs. Don’t let the DNF fool you. (Case in point: around two-thirds of the peloton did not finish the race.)
“It’s such a great race, a beautiful race, and it is so iconic with its white roads,” Jackson says. “We came out with a good result; we had a really committed team effort, and I’m proud of the team and Kristen [Faulkner] for finishing it off the way she did, in full fight mode.”
“There were three of us in this support role at the beginning of the race, and basically, our job is to guide everyone into a good position, especially into the long sector five sections at San Martino,” she explains. “That was basically my job. Once we got there, we just rode back to Sienna so we could see the finish. We rode this shortcut back, and the fans were unreal.”
But, Can She Win Paris-Roubaix Again?
“I’m so excited to race Paris-Roubaix with the number one bib. It’s a race where there’s so much you cannot control,” Jackson says. “And I think every time you go into it, whether you want to or not, you have to recognize that you have to make a lot of choices in the race and just keep going.”
It’s tempting to assume it’s her only goal this season, but that’s far from the case. At the moment, the goal is a training block followed by Flanders, to see if the altitude training is helpful. “It’s a bit of an experiment to do it in this part of the season, but then we can use it for the Olympics if things go well,” she says. “The goal is to be able to adjust things to what works well and what can we do better for that Olympic road race.”
Fans of the sport may remember how Anna Kiesenhofer dramatically won the Tokyo Olympic Road Race in a solo breakaway victory, thanks to one bold move really early in the race. This sounds a lot like how Paris-Roubaix played out for Jackson in 2023.
“I’m not racing a lot this spring,” Jackson adds. “I’m trying to really focus on some good training and then go full gas into some key races. Flanders and Paris-Roubaix will be my key races, then Amstel Gold, and then we move on into the stage races for the summer.”
“I’m not going to ever win in the same way that I did the first year,” she adds. “There’s no way that the peloton will allow a break of 20 riders at the front, they’ll never allow me in a breakaway on the front either. So, I’m training to be able to make the move when things get really hard. It’s going to be further in the race, and it’s going to take all that Paris-Roubaix grit to be a champion there again.”
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