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Pendrel and Batty podium at UCI World Cup La Bresse

Canadians storm the podium and move up in the world cup overall standings

May 29, 2016
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Two Canadians stood on the podium after a thrilling battle for the win in the women’s race at the third round of the UCI mountain bike world cup in La Bresse, France. Heading into the race, Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) was second overall in the world cup standings after placing fourth and third at the first two rounds. Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) had a fantastic start to the race and earned herself a third place finish and Pendrel completed a strong comeback to earn second on the day.

Overnight, rain made the course extremely slippery. In the five-lap women’s race Jolanda Neff (Stöckli Pro Team) lead the race early with Batty establishing herself as the second rider on course by the second lap. Neff missed the first two rounds of the world cup because of road commitments and illness. Catharine Pendrel started slow and was as far back as 20th on the first lap. With Batty chasing hard, Neff lost control on a technical section on lap-3 but was quick to get up. Neff’s bad luck continued suffering a flat on lap 4 but was fortunate it happened near the pits and was again back on course. Batty passed Neff to lead the race briefly but the duo were back together heading into the final lap with Pendrel narrowing the gap to the two leaders to 9-seconds. On the final lap, Pendrel was able to catch the duo and made a move to the front of the race.

Pendrel was unable to stay with reigning world cup winner Neff who opened up a gap to Pendrel with Batty third on the course. With a resilient race, the 23-year-old Swiss rider came in 25-seconds ahead of Pendrel to take her seventh world cup win. Batty secured herself a podium position in third.

Pendrel’s performance moved her up in the world cup overall standings. Now sitting in second place just 66-points behind Annika Langvad (Specialized Racing). Batty’s strong performance moved her up to fourth in the overall standings.

In the men’s elite race it was a French sweep of the podium. Hometown favourite Julien Absalon (BMC) rode to a convincing victory while behind BH-SRSuntour-KMC teammates Marcotte and Koretzky, who rode the last lap on a tire that was losing air, rode onto the podium. Nino Schurter (Scott-Odlo) suffered a costly flat and finished in fourth. Leandre Bouchard was the top Canadian in 20th with Raphaël Gagné in 34th. Peter Diseria earned a 16th place finish the day before in the U23 men’s race.

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Elite men