Haley Smith grinds out bronze at UCI Pan American mountain bike championships

Haley Smith of Uxbridge, Ontario took the bronze medal for Canada Sunday at the UCI Pan American mountain bike championships in Cota, Colombia. Smith had to scrap her way through the field to take the medal in the U23 race after a wobbly start and an early crash.

After the race, the Norco Factory rider reflected on her effort and was generous in thanking her support: “I had a slow start with a few technical mistakes on the first lap but was able to rally to get myself into a medal position. The course was very challenging with lots of steep climbs and I just put my head down and grinded it out to finish in third. Thanks to Cycling Canada for the awesome support this week. And thanks to Norco bicycles for the 27.5 set up, which was perfect for this style of course.”

The women’s U23 race gold medal went to American Kate Courtney and the silver to Michela Molina of Ecuador. Smith rolled over the finish line 2:25 in arrears of Courtney.

Smith attributed her success in part to a training block at Bear Mountain Resort, the national program’s training site in Victoria, BC: “We had a two-week national team training camp at Bear Mountain where we got to train on some of the toughest trails in the world. It was the perfect environment to hone our technical skill and practice steep ascending. I followed this up with two weeks at altitude with the national team, which was perfect preparation for racing at 2500-metres above sea level.”

National team coach Dan Proulx praised Smith’s effort and pluck: “Haley did an incredible job, racing under pressure at altitude. The medal was definitely hard fought. This is a huge step up from her last altitude race at the Méribel World Cup in 2014.”

Proulx said that Haley would train in Victoria again in preparation for the upcoming opening two UCI World Cup events in Europe, the first of which is at Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, on May 23. The fourth XC World Cup is at Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC, August 1 and 2.