UCI Mountain Bike World Championships Days 3 & 4: Pendrel prevails!
Canada's first elite women's title since Alison Sydor in '96
Canadian Catharine Pendrel has capped off a superb year by winning her first elite women’s cross country World Championship in Chambéry, Switzerland. Pendrel was racing at the front with Pole Maja Mloszczowska when her competitor flatted. A spirited chase from the Pole through part of the field couldn’t catch Pendrel, who becomes the first Canadian to wear the elite women’s cross-country rainbow stripes since Alison Sydor in 1996. Eva Lechner of Italy took the bronze.
This year Pendrel won three World Cup races to finish just behind France’s Julie Bresset for the all around title. She also took top spot in the women’s test race of the Olympic course at Hadleigh Farm in England.
In the Under-23 races, World Cup champ Bresset added to France’s medal haul with a victory in the women’s race with top Canadian Andréanne Pichette finishing 22nd. In the men’s side of things, Thomas Lischer kept the Swiss medals coming as top Canadian Leandre Bouchard came in 29th.
