Husband and wife Vipond and Hadley crowned Canada Cup Champions

Catherine Vipond (Norco Factory Team) and Matthew Hadley (Xprezo - Borsao) both won the highest honors of the Canada Cup series as the 2011 season concluded Sunday in Edmonton, Alta, with the presentation of the fourth and last race of the 2011 Canada Cup Mountain Bike Series.

Vipond and Hadley, a married couple, participated in all four events across the country this year, and have posted the best overall results of the season.

Hadley won the first two races of the season, which gave him a solid lead midway through the season. After an average placing in the third race, Hadley raced back to the podium with a third place finish on Sunday, securing the Canada Cup title.

Cameron Jette (3-Rox-Racing) took the second place with 470 points, stepping twice on the podium, in second and third places.

Evan Guthrie (Rocky Mountain Factory Team) and Léandre Bouchard (Cyclones d'Alma), two U23 riders, finished tied in third place with each 435 points. With his win on the last race in Edmonton, Guthrie won the tie breaker to give him the third and last spot on the podium, leaving Bouchard, the 2011 Canadian U23 Champion, in fourth place.

In the women's category, Vipond stepped on the podium in all four races, winning the first and last race of the season. She fought a hard and tight race the entire season alongside Jean-Ann Berkenpas with only five points differentiating the top two riders in the final standings. Berkenpas accumulated one win and two silver medals, and could have won secured the title with a win on the last stage of the series.

A total of 99 elite male mountain bikers scored points this year on the Canada Cup series in the elite races, while 38 women took part in the elite series.

In the junior races, it was no surprise to see Frédérique Trudel take the top honours in the women's category, even though she is racing her first year as a junior. Trudel, the current Canadian junior champion, started the season with two wins on her home soil in Québec before finishing second in Ontario and fourth in Edmonton. Trudel finished with a 55-point lead over both second place Catherine Fleury and third place Haley Smith. Both Fleury and Smith finished the season tied with 230 points.

Marc-Antoine Nadon topped the standings amongst the junior male riders with the maximum 300 points. Nadon, also the Canadian juniors champion, led the standings the entire season and capped off his dream season with three victories in four races.

The season started back in late May with the opening race held in Mont-Tremblant. The tour stayed in Eastern Canada with races in Baie-Saint-Paul, QC and Barrie, ON before making its way across the country for its last stop of the calendar in Edmonton, Alta.

For standings purposes, the top three results of the four races were taken into consideration.

The series celebrated its 20th anniversary. Since its inception in 1991, the Canada Cup Series produced elite athletes notably Olympians Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team), Marie-Hélène Prémont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), World Championships silver medallist Steve Smith (Devinci Global Racing) as well U23 National Champion Emily Batty (Subaru-Trek), just to name a few.

2011 Canada Cup final standings