Caroline Tory

What are your goals for 2024?

It’s exciting to have another go at the Life Time Grand Prix because I learned so much in 2023. I’m fairly new to racing at this level, so my goal is to apply everything that I took away from the series last year in terms of race craft, training, nutrition, equipment, etc, and improve my performance in 2024. I’ve also added a significant skimo goal to my winter calendar with the Patrouille des Glaciers world championships teams race in Switzerland. I hope that our team can be competitive with some of the best in the world. It should be a really interesting challenge to compete at a high level in both skimo and cycling in 2024!

Who is your favorite author and what is their best work? 

This is a tough question since my day job is working for a literary organization, but I have to go with Donna Tartt and her novel The Secret History.

What’s the best training advice you’ve ever received and who gave it to you?

It seems so simple, but my coach Sarah Kaufmann regularly reminds me that “a happy athlete is a fast athlete.” Yes, there will always be times when you need to just grind out a workout, but I also try not to beat myself up about choosing the fun option even if it might not be perfectly optimal for training. Choosing fun usually leads to higher motivation over the course of a long season.

How did you get started in your sport?

When I was 16, a classmate invited me to join a group riding across America from Seattle to Maine to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Center. Up to that point, I’d never ridden a bike more than 30 miles. On Day 2 of the ride, we did the iconic Washington Pass route east of Seattle from Marblemount to Mazama, 70+ miles and 7500 feet of climbing. Thank goodness I had no bike computer or real sense of what stats like that even meant at the time. That day over Washington Pass not only taught me the value of a good chamois, but it also introduced me to bikes as a means of adventure and discovery. It took me another decade before I ever raced on a bike, but the love for the sport was established on that cross-country adventure in high school.

If you could have one superpower, which would you choose and why?

Time travel. Life moves so fast, I’d love to be able to experience some of the special moments over again, or visit different eras in history.

Proudest sporting moment? Proudest life moment?

My proudest sporting moment was finishing Unbound in 2023. It was a race that I was intensely nervous for because it was relatively early in the season coming off a long, harsh Colorado winter, and on paper, I knew it wasn’t the race that suited me best in the Life Time Grand Prix. My 13th place result was nothing to write home about, but I was proud of my ability to persevere through tough conditions and amidst the most competitive field I’d ever lined up against.

Guilty pleasure song? 

Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Actually, the entire Star is Born soundtrack is my guilty pleasure.

Where is your “happy” place?

My Dad’s family is originally from the eastern shore of Nova Scotia in a tiny town called Guysborough. I’ve visited every summer since I was born, so it holds so many happy family memories of sailing, fishing, kayaking and playing with cousins. Plus, there’s some amazing and completely off-the-radar road and gravel riding.

Finish this sentence: “The world would be a better place if….”

Everyone read more books. Books and stories build empathy, and we need more of that.