Commonwealth Games XC preview – Canadians to watch in Australia
Emily Batty leads a strong contingent of Canadian mountain bikers at the Gold Coast Games
Commonwealth Games are in full swing on Australia’s Gold Coast and, after bringing Canada a pair of bronze medals on the track, cycling heads off the boards and into the dirt for Thursday’s cross country mountain bike race. If you’re looking to follow along at home, the time change means Thursday’s race will be live on Wednesday across Canada.
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With three Canadians looking to hit the podium on the technical, dusty course through Nerang State Forest, this should definitely be a race you’re looking to follow. Here’s a look at Canada’s Commonwealth Games mountain bike team, and who they’ll be up against in the fight for medals in Australia.
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are streaming on DAZN. The subscription sports streaming service is paid-access, but monthly subscriptions come with a free month of viewing. Sign up if you want to watch any of the Commonwealth Games, and what you do after that month is up to you.
Commonwealth Games Women’s Cross Country (XCO) – Thursday, April 12 (Wednesday April 11 in Canada)
Returning Commonwealth Games medallist and Canadian national champion Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) leads Canada’s off-road team in Australia. Batty won Silver at the last games in Glasgow, Scotland behind Catharine Pendrel, who will not be competing at the Gold Coast, and is coming into the race with good early season form after a 15th place at the first World Cup round in South Africa. Batty has shown she can pull out big results at big events over the last couple years, earning a bronze at 2016 world championships in an all out spring against Annika Langvad, and placing fourth within sight of a podium finish later that summer at the Rio Olympic Games. She was on track for a great showing at last years Cairns world championships before a crash in the deep dust left her with a deep cut to her knee. Batty lost places, but toughed out the final laps to finish seventh.
Haley Smith (Norco Factory Racing) will join Batty on the start line Thursday in her first ever Commonwealth Games appearance. Smith rolls up to the Gold Coast course after a strong start to her 2018 campaign, placing 23rd in year’s first World Cup and second behind Pendrel at the opening Canada Cup round in Victoria. The young Canadian has had good luck racing in the Australian dust, finishing 16th at Cairns world championships last year and winning the Crocodile Trophy mountain bike stage race that started the following week.
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The Canadian pair will face strong opposition from Great Britain’s Annie Last and Evie Richards, who lead the G.B. resurgence in cross country racing. Annie Last (KMC-Ekoi-SR Suntour) became the first British woman ever to win a World Cup XCO when she won last year’s Lenzerheide round. Last followed up that breakthrough performance with a silver medal at Cairns world championships in September behind Swiss XC phenom, Jolanda Neff. After finishing fourth in her previous Commonwealth Games appearance, Last will surely be looking to jump up a place, or three.
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Australian national champion Rebecca McConnell will be hoping to make the most of the home track advantage to add to the host nations medal tally, and to improve on her bronze from Glasgow Commonwealth Games. McConnell has consistently hit top ten World Cup results over the last several years, including a podium the last time the series visited Australia, but has struggled with fitness and motivation after a busy early season of travel. Racing close to home has a way of adding free watts to the legs, though, so look for McConnell to make her way to the front of the race.
The wildcard in the women’s race will be Great Britain’s Evie Richards. The U23 cyclocross world champion was third U23 at the first World Cup round in South Africa and could be capable of holding her own racing in the strong field of Senior elite riders. Richards shouldn’t expect any favours from her fellow Trek Factory Racing teammate, Batty, though, as all the racers will be racing for national pride over trade team allegiances.
Commonwealth Games Men’s Cross Country (XCO) – Thursday, April 12 (Wednesday April 11 in Canada)
Léandre Bouchard, who races for the same KMC-Ekoi-SR Suntour team as Annie Last, is the lone Canadian man competing in the cross country event in Australia, but the Canadian Olympian has been on good form lately. He fought through much of the field at Stellenbosch World Cup to finish 36th, an impressive result on a tight course with little room for passing. Bouchard is no stranger to racing in Australia, either, with a solid 24th at Cairns world championships followed by a win at the Crocodile Trophy alongside fellow Canadian Haley Smith.
New Zealand’s Samuel Gaze arrives on the Gold Coast as the man to watch, having recently ended Nino Schurter’s historic winning streak at the early season Stellenbosch World Cup. Schurter slipped a pedal in the sprint, sure, but Gaze was looking strong and had position, so it’s debatable whether the untimely unclipping was the deciding factor. Either way, it’s a very short list of racers who have bested, or even kept up with Schurter’s pace in recent years, and Gaze is the only one on that select list who will be in Australia on Thursday. The Kiwi has been clear that the Commonwealth Games are his early season focus, and that he’d like to step up from his 2014 Glasgow silver and bring home the Gold.
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The man who beat Gaze in Glasgow was his fellow countryman, Anton Cooper. Cooper returns to represent New Zealand at the Gold Coast games looking to defend his Commonwealth Games title. He’ll have his work cut out for him, but he wasn’t far off the pace of Gaze’s dramatic win, finishing sixth in South Africa.
The bronze medal in Glasgow went to Daniel McConnell, who will have the home track advantage this time around. McConnell has a long string of World Cup results to his name, and will bring that experience together with the motivation to perform in front of the home crowd this Thursday on the Nerang course. McConnell was ninth at Cairns world championships last fall, proving he can pull out a big result when it matters most.
