Dalby Mountain Bike World Cup

After battling some trying and stressful travel issues, a large number of Canadian mountain bikers lined up for the first mountain bike World Cup of the season.

Emily Batty (Trek World Team) placed second in the U23 women’s race and 15th overall. Other results in the women’s race include, Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) in 6th, Marie-Helene Premont (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) in 8th, Amanda Sin (Canadian National Team) in 31st and Catherine Vipond (Canadian National Team) in 42nd.

About her race, Pendrel said in a Cyclingnews.com interview, “I don’t really know what happened at the start,” commented Pendrel. “I had good position on the start line, but in the first lap lost a lot of places, and then it was difficult to pass and work your way back up. Then, on the last lap, I crashed and lost some time. It was a bit disappointing, but I know my form is good, and I hope to do better in the next round.”

On the men’s side, Geoff Kabush (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) finished 28th, Derek Zandstra (Canadian National Team) finished 34th, Andrew Watson (Canadian National Team) finished in 75th, Matthew Hadley (Canadian National Team) finished in 101st and Cody Canning (Canadian National Team) finished in 141st.

Kabush told Cyclingnews.com, “I definitely didn’t have the form that I had at Sea Otter. I had a good start, but then I just didn’t have the power to keep up. Maybe it was because of all the travel problems to get here; it took me three days, and that didn’t help.” This morning, Kabush posted the following on Twitter, “Not exactly what I was hoping for World Cup #1; will take it after this week. Hope we return. Riding boat tonight; in beer country tomorrow.”

Kabush and the rest of the Canadian athletes are now on their way to Houffalize, Belgium for the second World Cup of the season. It is expected that Canadian athletes who were not able to get flights to the U.K., for this past weekend’s racing will be able to travel to Belgium for the May 1-2 racing.