HARDWOOD SKI & BIKE, June 21, 2017 – The fifth round of the Mountain Bike Canada Cup for Cross-country took place on Sunday at Hardwood Ski & Bike, north of Barrie, Ontario, and the site of the 2015 Pan Am Games XCO competition.  Once again, there were new faces on the top step of the Elite categories, with Andrew L’Esperance (Forward Racing-Norco) winning the men’s race and Cindy Montambault (Equipe du Quebec/Trek GPL) the women’s.

Montambault took the lead on the opening lap of the women’s four lap race and never looked back, winning by nearly one minute.  A chase group of three formed behind her containing Canada Cup series leader Soren Meeuwisse (Trek Canada), Round 4 winner Haley Smith (Norco Factory) and Anne-Julie Tremblay (Equipe du Quebec/Cyclone d’Alma).  Tremblay was dropped by Meeuwisse and Smith on the second lap, with Meeuwisse pulling clear for second on the final lap.  Meeuwisse padded her lead in the overall standings to 740 points and has now mathematically won the women’s title, since she is over 200 points ahead of second place Marine Lewis of Quebec (515 points) with one race remaining.  Smith and Montambault are tied for third with 495 points.

In the Elite Men’s five lap race it was a battle between Round 2 winner Evan Guthrie of B.C. and L’Esperance for the first three and a half laps before the Halifax rider made an attack that stuck.  Guthrie was also overtaken in the final two laps by Canadian champion Derek Zandstra (Cannondale-3Rox), who finished second for the second consecutive week in Canada Cup competition, 35 seconds back.  Quinton Disera (Norco Factory) continues to hold the overall lead in the series, despite finishing a distant 14th, with 670 points, however, Guthrie is only 20 points back, with Zandstra at 505.  This title will not be decided until the final round in Whistler, B.C., next weekend.

“I was very pleased to have a solid ride on the weekend as I am just finishing up a training block in preparation for the next World Cups,” said L’Esperance.  “Hardwood put together an awesome course and despite the rain it rode really well and it was a blast to race. Evan Guthrie and I rode well together until I made a decisive attack towards the end of Lap 4 that established a gap. The highlight of the weekend was seeing our young teammate for Forward Racing-Norco, Sean Fincham, get on his first Elite Canada Cup podium with a heavy ride for fifth.”

In the Junior Expert Men’s competition, Gunnar Holmgren (Centurion Next Wave) took his third victory of the season.  Holmgren and Tyler Clark (KMS Cycling) rode together for the first half of the race before Holmgren began to pull away in the last two laps, winning by 26 seconds.  Holmgren’s team mate, Brody Sanderson, finished third, and relinquished his Canada Cup leader’s jersey to Holmgren, who now has 345 points, 20 more than Sanderson, with Clark in third at 285.  This title will also be decided at the final round.

The Junior Expert Women’s three lap race was led from start to finish by Leya Masson (Equipe du Quebec/CC Mont-Ste-Anne), who finished 57 seconds ahead of team mate Roxane Vermette, with Mireille Larose-Gingras (Equipe du Quebec/CVM Sigma Assurances) taking third.  Masson moves into the lead for the overall standings with her win at 345 points, followed by former leader Dana Gilligan (Progressive Sports/3Rox/Maverix) and Vermette, both at 275.

Canadian mountain biking has a long history of high performance, with multiple world champions, World Cup winners and three Olympic medal winners, including Catharine Pendrel at last year’s Rio de Janeiro Games.

Now it is the start of a new Olympic quadrennial, and Canada’s head coach for mountain bike, Dan Proulx, reflects on the mountain bike program – past and present.

“In 2009 we basically did a rebuild of the program.  The previous generations in Canadian mountain biking were extremely successful for many years and in 2009 we had to revisit and rebuild the program so that we could achieve that level of success in the future.  I think since that time we have started to create our own dynasty, our own legacy of success at world championships and Olympic Games, particularly on the women’s side.  I think another big part of the success has been the depth of riders in the program, and the enthusiasm and drive of those riders to be top international competitors.”

Canada has also instituted a more comprehensive program than just sending teams to the world championships, with projects that include the World Cup participation for developing athletes to learn to race at the highest level.

“Having the ability to run projects at every single World Cup has been critical, and also getting coaches and athletes to understand that part of the success is adapting to that level of racing, and that if you are not at those World Cups you really do miss out on that development.  We saw that riders have to climb each and every rung of the ladder if they want to reach the top.  So the sooner we can get them into really competitive European racing, and the more exposure they have, the better they tend to do.”

“Quite frankly, we have great funding from Own the Podium and Sport Canada, and obviously through Cycling Canada.  So we’ve had the ability to do a lot more then we could in the past.  We have a whole bunch of athletes that are invested in working together and trying to see the whole national team program prosper.  I think that’s why we are seeing some good results and some really good progressions.”

“Last year at the world championships we had three riders in the Junior men’s category in the top-15 and two in the top-10, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that.  That is based on good provincial programs, good private coaches and the motivation of people wanting to be part of the program.  It’s attracting the right kind of athletes to our discipline.”

Canada had a very strong year in 2016, with athletes finishing third [Catharine Pendrel] and fourth [Emily Batty] at the Olympics, plus a bronze medal at the world championships and multiple World Cup wins, but Proulx cautions that Canada cannot rest on its laurels.

“I’m extremely happy with how the athletes did last year, but is there more there?  Yes, definitely.  There is more that the established athletes can accomplish and there are young athletes coming through the system in Elite and Under-23 who have the potential to fill Emily’s [Batty] and Catharine’s [Pendrel] shoes, and even potentially surpass them at some point.”

“I think there is a good, bright future within the program already and, as we look to Tokyo [2020], Emily and Catharine will still be medal contenders, but we will also have other athletes vying for those spots and all of our indicators say we are going to be successful on the world stage for the foreseeable future – 2020 and 2024.”

One area that Proulx points to is the NextGen program, which has become mountain bike specific.

“The NextGen program in Victoria is four years old and has been run by Jeff Ain since the beginning.  It started as a multi-disciplinary focus, but since September 2016 it has become part of the mountain bike program and dedicated to our discipline.  The idea behind the program is bringing the athletes that are five to eight years from an Olympic podium a quality, daily training environment, where there is a coach, and IST services like massage, sport psychology and nutrition.  This has them all in one training environment where they can progress throughout the year and accelerate their learning and perform better at an earlier age.”

“I think the progression of the athletes in that program has been really good, and I think, in the future, that is going to be where all of our top-level athletes come from, because it’s an accelerated model and it’s quality coaching.  I think it’s a very good pathway into being a good Elite rider.”

“There are always athletes, who for reasons of school or work or family, will not be able to be in that NextGen program, and part of our mandate is to also watch out for them, and work with their private coaches and their provinces, so that their progression is as efficient as possible.  We already have a very good cohort at the Under-23 age group that is already focussed on international competition, and when they switch over to Elite they come into my program.”

“For the Elite athletes we also have a daily training environment, based out of Victoria.  The ability to coach them day after day, and to see ‘the whites of their eyes’, and to understand how they develop is making a real difference.  It’s basic coaching on a daily basis, and for most athletes in our sport that doesn’t happen, so developing this system has given us the ability to make sure that the athletes are improving in the quickest way possible.”

Now it is the start of a new Olympic Quad, and the mountain bike program is already underway, with training camps at the National Training Centre in Bear Mountain, Victoria, and projects supporting athletes to attend international competitions.

“In every Quad we start out by being more focussed on development, and so we are looking for talent that we can develop in four to eight years.  So the first couple of years of the Quad are pretty much devoted to those efforts and the last two years of the Quad tend to be focussed on medal potential athletes and qualification for the Games.”

“One of the things we done a pretty good job on in mountain biking is looking all the way back down the system to Cadet and making sure that there are no gaps; that we have athletes that are potential international riders in each category, and that we can grow into top Elite riders.  It is a purposeful development process, and we are building Olympians, not waiting for them to show up or happen by accident.  We have a process to consistently produce success.”

ALBSTADT, May 29, 2017 – Canadian riders had multiple top-20 performances on the second day of Round 2 of the Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany, with Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) the best in tenth place, despite a flat on the final lap. Yana Belomoina of Ukraine won the race.

In the Elite women’s race, both Rio Olympians Batty and Catharine Pendrel (Clif Pro Team) started further back on the grid than they usually do, after having problems in the first Round that lowered their ranking in the series.  However, both moved up strongly through the field, with Pendrel reaching fifth before crashing and sliding back to finish 14th.  Batty had moved up to seventh on the final lap before a flat tire dropped her down a few placings.  After two rounds, Batty is 12th in the overall standings and Pendrel 17th.

“Even though I was in the third row it worked out fine for me and I had a good start,” said Batty, “but I lost a lot of time on the first climb because it was so loose.  I got up as far as seventh on the last lap, I think, and then I rear flatted on the second last descent.  So I’m happy with tenth, it’s better than last week and I felt like I was racing more like myself.”

Other Canadian results include Sandra Walter (Team Canada) in 24th, Cindy Montambault (Team Canada) in 39th, Haley Smith (Norco Factory) in 47th and Catherine Fleury (Team Canada) in 48th.

In the Elite men’s competition, Rio Olympian Leandre Bouchard, riding for the French professional BH-SR Suntour-KMC team finished a career-high 16th in a World Cup.  World and Olympic champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland won.  Bouchard started well back but worked his way forward.

“I’m pretty proud, this is my best result ever at the World Cup,” said Bouchard.  “The course is one of the most physical we have on the World Cup, with pretty long and steep climbs.  This wasn’t the best course for me because I am so tall, but when you have the legs, you have the legs.  I started back, but I just kept looking for places to pass and slowly move up.  There was an opportunity with the heat also as people got tired, so the strategy was to just keep moving up when I could.”

In other Canadian results, Derek Zandstra (Cannondale-3Rox) was 24th, Raphael Gagne (Cannondale-3Rox) was 41st, Andrew L’Esperance (Team Canada) was 68th and Evan McNeely (Team Canada) was 113th.

In the Under-23 women’s race held earlier in the day, Anne-Julie Tremblay (Equipe du Quebec / Cyclone d’Alma) finished 16th and is 20th overall in the standings.

Canadian head coach Dan Proulx summarized the project by saying:  “The first two World Cups of the year are always challenging – especially after an Olympic Games. New riders emerge and established riders are still rebuilding fitness.”

“The rides that Peter [Disera – 3rd in Under-23 Men] and Leandre did were exceptional. They’ve invested a lot of time and energy into gaining European experience since they were Juniors. They’ve climbed each and every rung of the ladder over here. You can only gain their level of experience by being here – and working your way through the ranks. We aim to give as many riders as possible this experience in the hopes of finding other riders who can rise to the challenge like they did.”

“Catharine and Emily are still very much on track with where we feel they should be in a post-Olympic year. The higher the level of performer, the more important the periodization of rest and recovery across the entire quadrennial becomes. They’re where we need them to be right now. I have total confidence in them.”

OTTAWA, May 22, 2017 – After a break of over two months, the Canada Cup national mountain bike series resumed with VéloMotion at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, on May 21-22 with the second round of the Cross-country series and the opening round of the Downhill competition.

Mont Tremblant is one of the longest running venues on the Canada Cup circuit, known for its lengthy climbs and the cobbled sections through the Tremblant village on the cross-country circuit.  However, this year the course was changed significantly, reducing the amount of singletrack in favour of gravel fire roads.  With rain on the days leading into racing there was some very slippery sections in the trees on the roots and rocks, while the open sections were dry and fast. A perfect mix of conditions that had riders debating on tires choices. Many of Canada’s top pros were absent, competing in Europe at the opening round of the World Cup.

The Cross-country competition took place on Sunday, with Evan Guthrie (Team Solo Evan) taking his first win of the season in the Elite Men’s race, a vindication after suffering a mechanical while in second place at the opening round in Bear Mountain, Victoria.  American Sandy Floren (Bear Development Team) was second, over a minute back, with Raphael Auclair (Pivot Cycles-Ote) in third, a further 38 seconds in arrears.

“Mont-Tremblant has been the longest standing Canada Cup I’ve attended since 2008,” said Guthrie, “and I was happy to be back after missing it last year. The old course used to be one of my favourites before they shortened it to meet the new school course designs. It was unfortunate this year that we descended on gravel roads, but a race is a race and always gets sorted by the riders’ legs.”

In the overall standings, Guthrie leads with 320 points, followed by Floren at 265 and Quinton Disera (Norco Factory) at 250.

The Elite Women’s race saw two B.C. riders take the top spots, with Jayne Rossworn (Independent) beating Emily Unterberger (Independent) by 13 seconds.  Frederique Trudel (Pivot Cycles-Ote) took third, 1:32 behind the winner.  With 305 points, Rossworn takes over the lead in the standings from the absent Catharine Pendrel (Clif Bar), followed by Unterberger at 244 and Soren Meeuwisse (Trek Canada) at 235.

In the Junior Expert races, Holden Jones (Cycling BC) was the men’s winner ahead of American Gaelen Kilburn (Hot Tubes), and also becomes the Series’ leader with 160 points to Round 1 winner Gunner Holmgren’s (Centurion Next Wave) 100 points – Holmgren did not finish at Mont Tremblant.

In the Junior Women’s category, Leya Masson (CC Mont-Sainte-Anne) won by nearly a minute over visiting Czech rider Tereza Saskova (Ceska Sporitelna Specialized Junior MTB Team).  In the overall standings, Sidney Mcgill (Focus CX Canada) moves into the lead after a second in the first round and third at Tremblant, with 155 points.  U.S. national team rider Gwendalyn Gibson is second, five points back.

The opening round of the Downhill Canada Cup saw Sarah Konefal (Independent) become the first to don the leader’s jersey in Elite Women, finishing 2.128 seconds ahead of Audrée Vaillancourt (Independent) with Maxine Bergeron (Independent) finishing third.

In the combined Elite and Junior Men’s field, Samuel Thibault (Independent) finished 4.005 seconds ahead of Jonthan Lefrancois (Independent), with Benjamin Despres-Morin (Roost Racing / Sports Aux Puces) finishing third.  The top Junior rider was Blake Bunting (Cycles St-Onge) in tenth place.

The Cross-country series continues on May 27th at Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, site of last year’s national championships.  Baie-Saint-Paul will also include a UCI Junior XCO race.  On the same date, the second round of the Downhill series takes place with the East Coast Open at Blue Mountain, Ontario.