TEAM CANADA STARTS SANTIAGO 2023 PAN AMERICAN GAMES WITH DOUBLE MOUNTAIN BIKE GOLD
Santiago, CHE (Oct. 21, 2023) – Mountain bikers Gunnar Holmgren of Orillia, ON, and Jenn Jackson of Barrie, ON, put the first two gold medals on the board for Team Canada at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games on Oct. 21 in Chile.
The atmosphere at the Club Deportivo Universidad Católicas for the cross-country Olympic (XCO) final was electric, with over two thousand spectators estimated to be in attendance. They watched athletes tackle a challenging course with features including a switchback climb, rocks, a wood wall and jump.
In a nail-biting men’s race, Holmgren, 24, rode the majority of the seven laps closely battling Chile’s own Martín Vidaurre Kossmann. He pulled away with two laps remaining to ultimately cross the finish line first, clinching gold with a time of 1:17:59hr.
Photo Credit: Dave Holland/CSI Calgary
“We have a pretty unique opportunity to be one of the first events and I hope my performance can inspire and motivate the rest of the Canadians here,” commented Holmgren, who won silver in the Men’s Elite XCO at April’s Pan American Mountain Bike Championship in Brazil. “[Martín and I] have raced each other all season long in the World Cup circuit so I spent the first three laps just checking out where he was strong, where I was maybe a bit stronger and put it to work with two laps to go. I really fed off the Chilean crowd, they were amazing out there.”
Vidaurre Kossman earned the silver step of the podium with a time of 1:18:52hr, while bronze went to Brazil’s Jose Gabriel Marques de Almeida (1:20:13hr). Holmgren’s teammate, 21-year-old Carter Woods of Cumberland, BC, unfortunately suffered a mechanical issue and was forced to withdraw after completing four laps.
Jackson, 28, set a blistering pace right off the bat in the women’s race. She managed to maintain her lead the entirety of the six laps, stopping the clock with a final winning time of 1:20:35hr.
Photo Credit: Dave Holland/CSI Calgary
“It feels like a perfect day,” said Jackson, who currently holds the title of Women’s Canadian XCO Champion and is coming off of an incredibly strong and consistent UCI XCO World Cup season. “Off Gunnar’s win, I had a lot of motivation coming into this race to race for a medal but then there’s just that little bit of seeing one of your friends, someone you’ve grown up riding with, achieve the best result they could here and have a life career performance. It just makes you believe, you’re like, ‘Alright it’s my turn, let’s get to it.’ It was maybe the longest hour twenty of my life out there but I just got to the front, set my pace, tried to have a really calm ride, push where it was safe, just relax and make sure I wasn’t making any silly mistakes.”
Joining Jackson in the top 10 was teammate Sandra Walter, 43, of Coquitlam, BC, who finished seventh with a time of 1:30:48hr. The rest of the women’s podium repeated the Canadian-Chilean-Brazilian pattern of the men’s, with Chile’s Catalina María Vidaurre Kossmann (1:23:20hr) securing silver and Brazil’s Raiza Goulao Henrique taking home bronze (1:24:57hr).
“We’re super happy with being able to turn recent World Cup success into medal performances here in Chile,” said Catharine Pendrel, Canadian National Cycling Team Coach. “Both Jenn and Gunnar were able to take control of the race after two laps and ride to their strength, putting in impressive efforts to pull away from the competition with decisive wins. Sandra found her best on the day with a consistent ride for seventh. Carter had a great lap one but unfortunately picked up a nail in his tire lap two and his new tire also developed a slow leak. This will for sure motivate him to seek out some big performances next season.”
The first day of cycling competition in Santiago also included the BMX racing seeding runs that set the stage for tomorrow’s finals. Molly Simpson, 20, placed third for the women with a time of 35.880s, a scant 0.73s behind leader Mariana Pajón Londoño (COL). The Red Deer, AB, native commented, “We were all so close so it’s kind of nice to see that it’s only tenths of a second apart from us, so definitely can clean up a few things around the track and then I’ll be ready and good to go.”
Photo Credit: Claudio Santana/Getty Images
Teigen Pascual, 20, of Squamish, BC, placed 10th. In the men’s heat, Ryan Tougas, 21, of Pitt Meadows, BC, also earned 10th and Curtis Krey, 20, of Etobicoke, ON, finished in 14th place.
More information, including results and the full schedule of events, can be found at www.santiago2023.org. Competition for Team Canada’s cyclists continues Oct. 22 with BMX racing finals and the individual time trial for road.
