Catharine Pendrel is World Cup champion
New Brunswick native wins final stop of UCI series, and overall crown
Catharine Pendrel will roll into the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships this week with some added confidence and a new title: World Cup Champion. The 29-year-old from Harvey Station, New Brunswick won the final World Cup race of the year Saturday at Windham, New York to capture the overall series title.
She came into the final event leading the World Cup standings, but still needed to finish second or better to guarantee herself the title. Canada’s Marie-Helene Premont led the race for the first part of the opening lap, but Pendrel took the lead and never looked back, crossing the finish line first with Premont four seconds behind in second. That finish could be a good sign of things to come for this week, when Pendrel and Premont will be the local favourites at the World Championships being held at Mont-Saint Anne.
“Winning a World cup is definitely hard because it takes so much to be there on the day, but to have that consistency is pretty exciting,” Pendrel told the media after Saturday’s race. “I feel good where I am … hopefully I can make that podium at the Worlds and that would definitely be the icing on the cake this year.”
Other Canadians in Saturday’s elite women’s race included Amanda Sin (16th), Catherine Vipond (42nd), Mical Dyck (44th) and Cindy Montambault (52nd). Emily Batty didn’t race Saturday, instead choosing to rest as she prepares for the World championships.
On her blog, she wrote: “Playing it safe this week. Training and prep for Worlds is completely finished and now the waiting game. Super excited for THURSDAY AUG. 2nd at 10AM!! I’ll be headed up to Mount Sainte Anne early this Sunday… Â hopefully see you there!”
In the Men’s Elite race Saturday, Switzerland’s Nino Schurter won the overall World Cup title after finishing second to the Czech Republic’s Jaroslav Kulhavy. Canadians in the race included: Matthew Hadley (38th) Derek Zanstra (41st), Cameron Jette (56th), Eric Batty (63st), Peter Glassford (71st), Felix Cote (74th), Ryan Atkins (86th), Adam Morka (90th), and Geoff Kabush, Andrew Watson, and Zachary Hughes, who were all DNFs with mechanicals.
