Cory Wallace and Sandra Walter win Canadian Marathon mountain bike champs
Cory Wallace defended his Canadian Marathon Mountain Bike Championship title in Whistler, B.C., on the weekend. Sandra Walter won her first-ever Canadian title, in the women’s event.
Wallace is no stranger to marathon mountain bike racing, traveling the world to race the discipline and major mountain bike stage races. A late push on a course measuring over 60km saw Wallace take the lead. He built a gap and finished in a time of three hours, 39 minutes, 55.8 seconds.
Congratulations Cory Wallace, successfully chopping more wood and eating more pancakes with maple syrup than both… http://t.co/h7CvNhQD32
— MarathonMTB.com (@marathonmtb) August 17, 2014
Wallace crossed the finish line 1:15.8 ahead of Kona teammate and second place finisher Kris Sneddon. Third place went to Scott-3Rox racer and 2014 Canadian XCO Champion, Geoff Kabush.
Respect to all Marathon Nats finishers today in Squamish. Beauty & tough singletrack. Not enough bullets left. Lights went out w/ 10km left.
— Geoff Kabush (@GeoffKabush) August 16, 2014
Norco riders Evan McNeely and Evan Guthrie finished fourth and fifth. Guthrie was crowned Canada Cup men’s champion at the final round of the Canada Cup series the day prior.
New suffer level achieved at Marathon Nats today after XCO yesterday. A&W family sized fries took the edge off..
— Evan Guthrie (@EvanwGuthrie) August 17, 2014
Six of the top ten riders in the men’s race hail from BC, with three coming from Ontario, and Mathieu Bélanger-Barette the lone Québec rider in the top ten.
Sandra Walter came into the marathon race having just won a third consecutive Canada Cup title the day before.
Congrats @EvanwGuthrie @SandraWalterMTB Canada cup champions! Good luck today at Canadian Marathon Nationals! 2 titles 2 days?
— Catharine Pendrel (@cpendrel) August 16, 2014
The Liv/Giant rider put on a clinic in the women’s race, smashing through the competition to finish the race in 4:20:26.0. The victory marks Walter’s first at a national championship event.
Congrats to these two @sandrawaltermtb and Cory Wallace on winning #jabr #canadianXCMchamps http://t.co/DUwhpMRcYI
— Jean Ann Berkenpas (@jaberkenpas) August 17, 2014
@sinamanda Great job on an epic ride! #Squamish rocks!!
— Sandra Walter (@SandraWalterMTB) August 17, 2014
@jaberkenpas Thank you! Congrats on your solid performance! #podiumbuddies
— Sandra Walter (@SandraWalterMTB) August 17, 2014
Amanda Sin finished second for Scott-3Rox, more than 13 minutes back from Walter. Jean Ann Berkenpas of Xprezo-Borsao finished just over 35 minutes back to claim third overall.
