Thanks to Greg Sowak for a great article along with superb pics!
The sun shone and the dust flew at the Canmore Nordic Centre two weekends ago as Alberta hosted the Canadian National Cross-country (XC) Mountain Bike Championships for the first time since 2011.
Although the spotlight shone most brightly on veteran professional/World Cup athletes like Geoff Kabush, Raphael Gagne, Emily Batty, and 2014 World Champion Catherine Pendrel, our Juventus Expert Juniors and Cadets (U17) all had opportunities to test their mettle against Canada's best!
It was an awesome weekend of riding, racing, and learning.
Batty and Pendrel rode away from the field and battled off the front of the women’s Elite race. Batty eventually climbed away for the win and repeated as National Champ!
They make it look SO easy!
Our Juventus athletes all delivered huge efforts and awesome performances on a daunting Olympic/World Cup level race course in hot, dry, and dusty conditions.
Team Alberta’s Sean Germaine and Juventus’ Cody Shimizu lined up with the Elite Men’s U23 field, race faces set and dialed in.
Cody climbed well …
. . . and cleaned the technical sections with poise and precision (don’t let your mom see you doing this, Cody!)
On the Junior Expert women’s side, Laura MacLean and Abbey McGill both put in solid efforts, finishing 9th and 7th respectively.
Laura and Abbey, ready to roll.
‘A’ line or ‘B’ line, take your pick!
Abbey chooses ‘A’.
16-year-old Ryan MacLean was the story of the weekend though, finishing 8th in the Men’s Cadet (U17) National Championship race on Saturday and cruising to victory in the Alberta Cup U17 race on Sunday. Luke Bristow was not far behind, finishing Sunday's 4 lap Alberta Cup event in a very respectable fourth place. Congratulations boys!
Up-and-comer Annie Wyminga Scott continues to place well! She finished 3rd in Sunday’s U15 Women’s race.
Off the gun, Ryan was smooth and composed . . .
. . . he stayed focused . . .
. . . and most importantly paid attention to his coaches!
By the way, BIG thanks to our awesome Juventus coaches Tracy Shearer and Ken Germaine, who tirelessly worked the pits to keep the kids "gelled", hydrated, and rolling! And special thanks to Karen Germaine who tolerated and fed a house full of bloody, dusty, smelly mountain bikers for 4 days ... but I guess she's used to that ;)
See you again in 2018, Canmore!
Between their races, our athletes ‘camped’ at the notorious “Get Down” section to study the pros and scope the gnarly crashes.