Nowlan Considers Victories a Team Effort

Immediately after Juliana Nowlan was presented with three Masters World Cup cycling jerseys Friday night, she walked over to teammates Debbie Durand and Tani Barbour and handed each a jersey.

“I couldn’t have won the points race without you,” Nowlan told them. “You deserve these too.”

Along with the women’s 25-34 points race, Nowlan, of La Mesa, won the one-kilometer time trial, and three-kilometer pursuit at the World Cup track finals at the velodrome.

In the points race, Durand placed second and Barbour placed fourth. All three are members of the South Bay Bicycle team.

“We ride as a team,” Nowlan said. “When somebody wins, we all win.”

Nowlan took up cycling five years ago after a doctor encouraged her to ride as a form of rehabilitation for her knees, which she injured running.

She has been competing for four years and in addition to the track, competes in road races. Nowlan said the endurance training she does on the road aided her in this competition.

“That’s why I was able to do the kilometer then the pursuit 40 minutes later,” Nowlan said. “I’ve worked hard on my endurance.”

Nowlan, who received her undergraduate degree in exercise physiology from San Diego State, is taking classes at Grossmont College to become a cardio-vascular technician. She is currently doing her clinical labs at a hospital, which is taking up some of her training time.

She tries to train at the velodrome at twice a week and will continue to race at the facility every Friday night until Oct. 26, when racing concludes for the season. She said that having the World Cup here was nice but added a little pressure.

“A lot of my friends came out and when your friends are around you feel you have to win,” Nowlan said.

Another world champion who must work her training around a hectic work schedule is Alice Church, who won the women’s 35-39 match sprint and the one-kilometer pursuit and placed third in the criterium.

Church, who has been a flight attendant for American Airlines for 15 years, divides her residence between New York City and Sunny Isles, Fla. She said that although she occasionally competes in the criterium, track racing better fits her busy schedule.

“As a flight attendant it’s very hard to train and sometimes I’m on my feet 14 hours a day,” Church said. “That’s why I chose track and sprint racing. To develop into a good road racer or criterium racer you need to put in more mileage.”

Church, who has been cycling since 1987, already has a pile of medals in her collection. Among them are two silver medals she won in the match sprint and one-kilometer race in the Masters Nationals here in July.