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Where are the Canadian pros training this winter?

From dry roads to frozen trails, here's were Canada's best are getting ready for 2019

2018’s still wrapping up, but Canada’s top pros are already busy logging serious base miles for the 2019 season.

From cross country to downhill, Canada’s top athletes are riding everything from road to trail, cyclocross and the occasional cross country ski.

Emily Batty’s already hard at work putting in long hours in the saddle to follow up her incredibly successful 2018 XCO season. Batty started with bike skills and trail miles in Arizona. She then headed down to Hawaii for a big block of long distance road miles.

A large group of XCO athlete’s from Cycling Canada’s Mountain Bike program landed in San Francisco’s Bay Area for some early season road miles. Catharine Pendrel, Haley Smith, Sandra Walter, Sean Fincham, Raphaël Gagné, Léandre Bouchard and Andrew L’Esperance banded together into a training group, with Geoff Kabush helping show them routes around one of his warm weather training haunts. Gagné and Bouchard added some bonus miles, tacking on a bit of bikepacking in the area. Between Christmas and NYE, Canada’s NextGen athletes are taking advantage of warm weather and a break from classes to get their own base mile training block down in California.

Squamish’s contingent of pro gravity racers headed south for some dry road miles while the rain poured at home. Miranda Miller, Remi Gauvin and Jesse Melamed logged some serious miles on the skinny tires on their short camp before retreating back to the woods in Canada.

After helping host the Canadian Mountain Bike program in San Francisco, where Kabush has spent part of his winter training season for a few years now, the XC mountain bike elder statesman returned closer to where he grew up around Vancouver Island. Kabush traded in wheels for speed sticks, spending a few days on Mount Washington’s nordic ski trails.

Vancouver Island enduro athletes Mark Wallace and McKay Vezina were down south training on drier ground. The enduro and downhill racers mixed road bikes and trail bikes to get some early season volume before a wet West Coast winter.

Women’s XCO Canada Cup series champion Jenn Jackson has joined the Cycling Canada Christmas Cyclocross program in Belgium, along with a large contingent of Canadian cross, road and mountain bikers. Jackson has already landed an impressive result, finishing in the top 30 in the incredibly competitive Zolder World Cup.

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A proper introduction to European racing.

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Felix Burke, men’s Canada Cup XCO series champion for 2018, has been chasing trails  all down the West Coast this fall. You can read more about his riding on Canadian Cycling Magazine in Where the Trail Leads.

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We showed up to Kings Canyon national park to check out one of the deepest canyons in North-America, but unfortunately the road was closed for construction and only big rigs working the site were going down. Not that I am a big rig, but my bike and I were allowed to go down and I had a ride that is up there with my greatest. 80km through colossal cliffs on a beautiful road all to myself! #lovetheride On est venu à Kings Canyon pour explorer un des canyon les plus creu en Amérique du Nord. Malheureusement la route était en construction et seulement les camions qui travaillaient sur le site pouvait entrer. Peut-être parce que je suis bâti comme un Kenworth, ils m'ont laissé passer et j'ai eu une des plus belle ride. 80km entre des mures colossals et une route tout à moi! #touteuneride

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