Pendrel wins at home

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Canadian National Champion Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) claimed the second World Cup victory of her career in the fifth round of the Mountain World Cup at Mont Ste Anne, Quebec.

Pendrel was very pleased with her win, especially considering her crash and other aspects of the race. “It was a great day. I was a little worried at the start. I didn't start as fast as I wanted to. I was a bit behind in the first singletrack,” she said. “It was all single-file. Luckily the girls that were at the front didn't string too far ahead. I was able to use the climbs and the fitness sections to bridge up.

“Once I saw the front I wanted to hang onto it and make as few mistakes as possible,” added Pendrel. “I took the lead from Marie-Helene at the end of the first lap, just before the switch backing climb. The rain made things very slick and the degree of technical difficulty was high but I got better every lap.”

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The track is brand new and much more technical in nature than seen here previously. Many of the professionals described it as the most technically demanding course on the World Cup circuit.

Making things even more interesting was the weather, with rain starting to fall 10 minutes before the start of the women's race. With the forecast being so poor well in advance of the race, the organizers added a "chicken run" on the now infamous new rocky descent. The technical nature of this section attracted a huge crowd of spectators waiting to cheer on both clean rides and crashes.

The women's World Cup was four laps of the 5.7 kilometre course. In an approach that hasn't been seen here in recent memory there was no start loop. This mandated a lightning fast start to be the first into the singletrack in the woods after the opening fire road climb.

Up the climb it was Katrin Leumann and Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher) in the lead followed by World Cup leader Marga Fullana (Massi). The climb didn't do much to separate the pack and they entered the first section of woods en masse.

Out of the woods Marie-Helene Premont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), the perennial home-town favourite and defending champion, gained an eight second lead on Fullana, followed by Irina Kalentieva (Topeak Ergon), Heather Irmiger (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Elisabeth Osl (Central Ghost) and Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Pendrel was sitting 10th.

By the end of the lap Pendrel had taken the lead, followed by Premont, Kalentieva and Koerber together at seven seconds. The first lap was completed in 23:11.

Pendrel steadily increased her lead on Kalentieva and Koerber in lap two, followed closely by Nash, and then Premont. Fullana was in 14th and having real difficulty on the technical sections. Much to the disappointment of the partisan crowd, Premont had had a flat towards the end of the first lap, and then ran into suspension problems, dropping her out of the top-10.

Although Pendrel had the lead she was also showing the signs of a crash on the rocky descent, mainly an abrasion on her chin. By the time she reached this spot on the third lap she was opting for the chicken route.

On the final lap Pendrel was in cruise control, looking very comfortable in the lead. Nash was still in second place, but Kalentieva was catching her, and would pass to take the silver medal. Lene Byberg (Specialized) had worked her way up from a poor start to overtake a fading Koerber for fourth, while Koerber managed to hang on for the final podium spot.

Premont was philosophical with her placing. “It wasn't the best day for me,” she said. “I was feeling good on the first lap. I had a rear flat tire and I had to stop and change it, and then I had to come back. It just wasn't the best day for me. I would have liked to win here at Mont Ste Anne, but that's life. My fitness was better than it was at Nationals, but still not as good as I had hoped for.”

In the women's Under 23 category the winner was Aleksandra Dawidowicz, finishing ninth overall. With her win she took over the series points lead. Emily Batty was the second place U23, standing fourth.

After this round Fullana remains the World Cup Points leader, but has lost ground to four riders including Pendrel who moved up to fourth from fifth. Osl remains in second with Kalentieva in third.

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