Pendrel confident after regaining World Cup lead

Catherine Pendrel’s second-place finish in the UCI World Cup event Saturday in Val di Sole, Italy moved her back into the lead for the overall standings. That was a big jump from third, where she sat after the previous World Cup race in Switzerland when mechanicals caused her to have a frustrating day.

After making the second-spot on the podium this weekend, Pendrel took a few minutes to talk with Canadian Cycling Magazine.

How happy were you to take the second and turn that European trip around?

“It felt really good. I was out front for most of the race, being caught by Maja (Wloszczowska) with one lap to go. We worked together well, but I ended up being the one pulling into the finish and she sprinted around me with about 100 m to go. I’m happy with second. There was a hard-charging group coming up behind me that luckily never caught us.”

What does it mean to you to be leading the World Cup standings at this point in the season?

“It’s pretty exciting. I definitely don’t have it in the bag. Anything can happen, but I feel confident. It seems whoever wins the leader’s jersey finishes outside the Top 10 this year, but now I’ve gone into a race with that pressure on my shoulders and learned from it. It will be a big deal for my team Luna, who is based in the US, to have our team perform well at the finals (in New York).”

With one month left before the World Championships back at home, do you allow yourself to think about that event more? Or do you try to just focus on the race you have ahead of that?

“It’s pretty tough not to think of them now. This is the final prep. There’s just World Cup finals in New York and Worlds left. I have a lot of different races to reflect on to mentally and physically prepare for Worlds and the pressure of entering the last two races as a favourite.”

You won the BC Bike Race with Geoff Kabush. How much different was that race for you? Are those types of races something you see yourself doing more of in the future?

“BC Bike race was a ton of fun with Geoff.  I like it as a stage race as it’s so much singletrack. I can’t really see myself getting excited about a predominantly fire road race, but it would be interesting to try another MTB stage race. Stage racing is pretty different. You don’t really do a warm up, just hop on the bike and go race as fast as you can maintain for longer distances and then recover, recover, recover. In World Cups, I ride with a much more aggressive, attacking ride style. “