In his brief time back in the States after taking third place at his Paralympic debut at the Paris Games and second place at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Elouan Gardon has noticed a change.
“When I’m mountain biking at Galbraith, quite a few people have said hi to me that I don’t even know,” he said on Monday, Oct. 7, a week after he had returned from Europe. “It’s a completely new feeling. It’s been great.”
The 18-year-old from Acme has experienced a meteoric rise on the international para-cycling stage. It was only this spring that he first learned about para-cycling and qualified for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Born with a limb deficiency that made one arm significantly shorter than the other, Gardon started racing downhill and enduro mountain bike events in California, but while he did stand on a podium or two, he claimed not to be very good — his upper body limitations came into play on the technical terrain. Then he started road racing and found his true strength: long, hard, hilly endurance events.
Despite having no track cycling experience as of two months before the Paralympics, Gardon caught the attention of veteran cyclist Bryan Larsen and U.S. Paralympics Cycling track coach Sarah Hammer-Kroening. He was invited to a select national track camp in June and soon joined Team USA as the youngest of 13 Paralympic cyclists, qualifying for the track as well as road events.
“Everything since then has been absolutely incredible,” he said. “It was a whole new experience for me. Luckily some of my road talent went into the track. My first track race ever was in Paris — it helped me in a way but it was very daunting.”
That first track race was in front of a full stadium, packed with thousands of spectators, including Gardon’s parents and all of his French relatives. It almost felt like a home crowd.
After racing a 1,000-meter time trial on the track as a kind of warm-up, Gardon tackled his main track event: the 4,000-meter pursuit, a head-to-head endurance race with two riders at a time that requires both power and consistency. After qualifying with a blazing fast time, Gardon bested his Austrian opponent in the final, pulling away by more than 6 seconds.
“It was definitely some of the most pressure I’ve ever felt in my life but also so much relief and happiness when I crossed the line knowing I had secured the bronze medal,” he said. “Such an ecstatic day.”
In his road events, he took 7th in the individual time trial after sustaining a tire puncture and finished out the week with another 7th place in the road race.
Gardon returned home for a quick respite in September and found the energy to claim second place in the Mt. Baker Hill Climb — and he rode to the race from his house, adding an extra 80 or so miles to his day.
Then it was off to Zurich, Switzerland, in late September for the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships. Gardon was greeted with constant drizzle and overcast skies, conditions that felt like home to the Washington resident. Rainy conditions, punchy climbs and no teammates on course made for an interesting, tactical road race, but Gardon thrived and took silver, losing a finish-line sprint for first by mere inches to a Ukrainian rider.
“The fields are a little smaller, the competition is actually higher in Europe than the domestic pro scene in the U.S.,” he said about international para-cycling. “Racing tactics are different, but it’s kind of the same, just being on a bike, having a good time, racing your buddies.”
Gardon may continue to race track occasionally, but next season he wants to focus on able-bodied road racing abroad in the under-23 category — he loves the culture and intensity of cycling in Europe — and eventually work his way up to the UCI WorldTour, the premier elite men’s road racing series in the world.
“My dream is to do the Tour de France,” Gardon said.
For now, he’s chipping away at an associate’s degree, sending out his resume to professional road teams and enjoying autumnal riding in Whatcom County.
“You can do anything here, from road cycling in the countryside to hitting flow trails and jumps at Galbraith,” Gardon said. “It’s like therapy, it’s a way to exercise, it’s pretty much anything you can think of.”
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
