Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Willock introduced to the sport at age fourteen under the guidance and mentoring of her father Martin Willock, who previously raced for Canada in the men's team time trial at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Her uncle Bernie Willock, the 1980 Canadian road champion, was set to represent the same nation at the Olympic Games in Moscow before his team joined the US-led boycott. Willock started out in track cycling and mountain biking, until she shifted to road racing in her elite level. She first joined Team Rona Esker in 2003, and has landed top three places at the Canadian Championships and at the International Tour de Toona in eastern United States. Willock's career flourished when she rode for the United States' Webcor Builders Cycling Team from 2005 to 2010. Followed by two successful pro seasons, Willock delivered her best results in the entire sporting career with a silver medal in the women's road race at the 2006 Pan American Road and Track Championships in Valencia, Venezuela, and a top twenty finish at the 2007 UCI World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. Continuing her family's Olympic tradition, Willock qualified for the Canadian squad in the women's road race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by receiving the nation's third and final berth from the UCI World Cup. She successfully completed a grueling race with a thirty-seventh-place effort in 3:33:23, surpassing Australia's Sara Carrigan by a scanty, two-second gap. In 2009, Willock scored a career-high, seventh place as the top North American cyclist in the 124-km women's road race at the UCI World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Following the end of 2010 season, Willock announced that she would leave Webcor Builders for the TIBCO-To-The-Top pro cycling team under a bi-annual contract. On January 10, 2012, Willock also decided to put her Olympic bid on hold, as she and her husband Tony Zarsadias, a professional road cyclist, were expecting to have their first newborn child shortly before the Olympic Games in London.
Career highlights
2002 - where she won her very very first race ever anywhere - Hartford, CT criterium riding for then top ranked USA cycling team - Verizon Wireless presented by Cervelo https://www.bikereg.com/Results/s/15543/hartford-downtown-criterium Pro/1/2/3 Women 1 Erinne Willock Verizon Wireless-Cervelo 49:56 after having come in second only two weeks prior to the multi time Laura Van Gilder at the iconic Bear Mountain race just outside NYC https://www.bikereg.com/Results/s/15540/bear-mountain-spring-classic Women 1/2/3 32 Starters 56 Miles 1 Laura Van Gilder Trek Plus 2 Erinne Willock Verizon Wireless and the day before... second again https://www.bikereg.com/Results/s/15539/sterling-classic Women 1/2/3 40m winning time = 1:42:16 42 racers competed 1. Yvonne Ilton Verizon Wireless - Cervelo 2. Erinne Willock Verizon Wireless - Cervelo ;2003 ;2004 ;2005 ;2006 ;2007 ;2008 ;2009 ;2010 ;2011
