Canadian women finish season with strong performance at cyclocross world championships
Maghalie Rochette, Ruby West and Sidney McGill competed at the
The three Canadian women competing in the UCI cyclocross world championships finished off their seasons with a strong performance.
The Elite Canadian women are rolling into the end of the season having collectively racked up 2308 points. That puts them in fourth place out of 34 nations, just behind the Netherlands, the United States and Belgium. Maghalie Rochette, who finished her season fifth overall, collected 1446 of those points herself. Jennifer Jackson brought in 425 and U23 racer Ruby West contributed 437.
The Canadian U23 women together currently have the seventh highest points out of thirty nations. With Ruby West’s 437 points, Sidney McGill’s 147 and Dana Gilligan’s 129 the group of 22-year-olds have collected a total of 713 points.
Maghalie Rochette is motivated
Maghalie Rochette finished 16th in her race, a result she said was, “not amazing”, but the Pan American champion was still very positive in an Instagram post. “That bridge,” she said. “The sand. The wind, the rain, the cold… What a crazy sport!? And I love it just like that! 16th for me at yesterday’s World Championships, which is not amazing, but I had a great fighting spirit and I’m proud of that. It’s been one of my worst season in the last few years, but somehow, I’m ending this season more motivated than ever.”
“Stay tuned in the next few days as I’ll share a few season wrap up stories,” she said, referring to either her podcast or CxFever newsletter.
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Ruby West
West finished 21st out of the 37 starters in the U23 women’s race. The Ontario cyclist, who will be joining Cycling Canada’s Track NextGen program in 2021, said in an Instagram post last week that she was, “hoping to finish the season on a high note.” Though West didn’t beat her world championship result from last year (when she finished ninth) the race was still her best result of the season.
RELATED: The Dutch go three for three at Worlds, with van Empel claiming the U23 women’s title
Sidney McGill
McGill, who has been self-funding her race season, finished 27th in the U23 women’s race, her best result this season. The young cyclist, who is also balancing school work with her racing, started a GoFundMe to help pay for her expenses this season. She said the event was a “crazy hard race,” in an Instagram story.
