Catharine Pendrel wins gold, Emily Batty silver, in Commonwealth Games XC mountain bike race
On Tuesday, Canada continued its dominance of women’s cross country mountain biking at the Commonwealth Games. Catharine Pendrel won the women’s cross country race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. After six laps of the Cathkin Braes 5.6-km course, she crossed in a time of 1:39:29. Emily Batty crossed 1:10 later securing the second podium spot for Canada. Australia’s Rebecca Henderson, who battled with Batty throughout the race, finish third with 1:22.
After a seemly conservative start, Pendrel took a strong lead in the first lap. There was a slight moment of anxiety when she put her foot down on technical section called Broken Biscuits. She finished that first lap in 17:18, and from there she couldn’t be caught.
With Pendrel running away with things in the third lap continuously increasing her lead, it was left to Batty and Henderson to battle for second and third. Henderson pulled ahead by a few bike lengths, in one of their many skirmishes. Batty, under pressure on a climb, had to put a foot down. Then Batty was off the bike, pushing it up an incline. At the end of the third lap, Batty was tucked in behind Henderson letting the Australian take the lead.
The pair continued to duke it out for the rest of the race. As Pendrel got into the fifth lap, she had almost two minutes on the two chasers. Slower riders started to get pulled as Pendrel lapped them. Batty started to pull ahead of Henderson, but the Australian battled back.
In the last lap, Pendrel stopped to check her back tire before Double Dare, a bermy descent, but then pushed on. She couldn’t be stopped. Batty finally opened up a gap that stuck and took a lead on Henderson that the Australian couldn’t close.
Canada’s record at the Commonwealth Games is strong in women’s XC. At Melbourne in 2006, Marie-Hélène Prémont took gold and Kiara Bisaro took bronze. At Manchester in 2002, Chrissy Redden won gold. There was no mountain biking in Delhi in 2010.
