Alex Tougas started riding a bike at 2 ½ years old and began racing at Ridge Meadows BMX in 2005 at the age of 7. He joined the Cycling BC BMX Development team in 2012, and has since joined the High Performance team. He has been on the top of the podium at the UCI BMX World Championships numerous times, and raced his first World Cup races this year.
Alex talks about the 2015 race season, and his plans for 2016:
My off-season has been rather busy with lots of school to catch up on, and lots of time focusing on getting both stronger and faster for next season. Since returning from Worlds in July, I have had quite a busy couple of months. In August I traveled to Alberta for the Canada Cup final where I managed to finish up the Canada Cup series undefeated. I immediately left Calgary with the National team to travel to Santiago Del Estero, Argentina, and then Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA for the 4th and 5th stop of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup Series. It was really awesome to experience my first World Cup series this year and get a taste of competing at such a high level.
Following Rock Hill, I headed to Rio De Janero, Brazil as part of the Canadian National Team for the Olympic Test Event. It was an honor to be selected by Cycling Canada to travel to this event. Rio was an amazing experience, having a chance to ride the track that the Olympic Games will be raced on next summer.
2016 is looking to be another busy year with lots of traveling for both competing and training, and also keeping up with school for my Grade 12 graduation in June. As of now it is looking like the National Team will be spending some time in California training and then probably heading over to Europe where stops two and three of the World Cup series will be held. My goal for next year is to have a good performance at the World Champs in Columbia in May, hopefully making it into that main event and defending my National Champs title in Calgary in August. Aside from that I am going to keep trying to get to as many races as possible as I think racing is the best training of all.
Lately on top of my regular training, I have really been working on the fundamentals of riding, and keeping it fun. I’ve done this by doing more riding off of the track, from riding dirt jumps & even hopping on a mountain bike with my friends. The different aspects of riding keep it fun and also hone in skills that are often forgotten about, and this has made me feel a lot better on the track, while also keeping riding more social and non-competitive during our off season.
Lastly, I’d like to give a shout-out and thank you to everyone that helps make it happen, my sponsors (Yess BMX, Gara Construction, Fly Racing, Oakley, Tangent, Leatt & Stealth), my coaches, Cycling BC and Cycling Canada and a huge thank you to my family for all that they have done to support my dream!
Social Media:
Instagram/Twitter: @alextougas55
Facebook: Alex Tougas
