Léandre Bouchard feeling at home and fast after move to Pivot Cycles-OTE

Quebec team riders already looking towards Mont-Sainte-Anne world championships

Terry McKall April 6, 2019

Canadian Olympian Léandre Bouchard has been on a roll this spring.

The Alma, Que. rider has made five straight podium appearances in his last five races. He was on the top step at the US Cup in California, winning the Vail Lake Short Track XC race.

“It’s a good way to start a season after a long winter of working on the fitness,” Bouchard said of his early success.

It’s also been a great start to a season that has seen him make the move to the Pivot Cycles-OTE team. I caught up with Bouchard at the Bear Mountain Canada Cup to talk about his new team home.

Bear Mountain Canada Cup 2019 — Léandre Bouchard at the end of the Canadian national mountain bike team training camp

The Rio 2016 is back on a Canadian team after spending a year racing with a European outfit.

“It’s more friendly. I’m bit more at home,” Bouchard says of returning to a Quebec-based squad, adding “We’re a small team, but we work well together.”

“I’m a bit north of Alma, but we are all close together with it being just a two hour drive,” says Bouchard. “I’ll try bring them to Alma a couple times, but mostly we’ll see each other at races.”

Bouchard will be gunning for the full World Cup circuit again in 2019, where he’s aiming to move into the top-15 in the competitive men’s elite field. “I think I’m capable of it,” the Alma rider says, adding, “I cannot wait to be back in a World Cup field.”

Bouchard will be joined at the international events by teammates Raphael Auclair and Marc-Andre Fortier. As for how they feel about their new teammate, both younger riders, who are already quite accomplished in their own right, have enjoyed the change.

“It’s real fun to have Dre on the team,” says Auclair. “He brings experience, from having been on a European team he has a bit more knowledge of what they’re doing. And it’s really cool to have someone who’s been to the Olympics on the team, it just brings a bit more maturity to the team.”

All eyes on August: world championships return to Quebec

Being a Quebec-based team, all three are focused on August, when world championships return to Mont-Sainte-Anne for a historic third time.

“This is the most exciting,” says Bouchard, “Mont-Sainte-Anne is special because so many friends of my cycling club can make the trip. That’s not the case at any other World Cup, so it’s it’s really cool to get to hear everyone cheering for me.”

It will be by the Olympian’s second time racing world championships at Mont-Sainte-Anne, after making his first worlds appearance there as a second year junior in 2010. For Auclair and Fortier, it will be their first time racing the legendary Quebec venue as a world championships, and both are looking forward to the experience.

“It’s always fun to race at home because you have your friends and family cheering for you,” says Fortier. “So it’s a great opportunity, especially for the biggest race of the year.”

“Canadians always tend to do well in Mont-Saint-Anne” Auclair adds. “I don’t know if it’s the course or being at home, but it’s really fun to have that there.”