PENDREL AND BATTY ON THE PODIUM FOR WORLD CUP #3

Pendrel came back from a poor start to move into the top-3 by the halfway mark of the 16.8 kilometre race, and then both she and Batty joined race winner Jolanda Neff of Switzerland at the front for the final lap. Neff attacked on the final climb to win by 25 seconds over Pendrel, with Batty at 48 seconds.

“The last couple laps were awesome,” said Pendrel, “because I didn’t have traffic to deal with. The first couple laps were really, really frustrating, just trying to manage that and use that energy to get me forward whenever possible. Having a traffic free lap [by the third lap] and being able to choose your own lines, meant that you could carry your own pace and flow.”

Canadian men also had top-20 performances, with Leandre Bouchard of Alma, QC, finishing 20th in the Elite men, and Peter Disera of Barrie, ON, finishing 17th in the Under-23 Men’s category.

“I’m pretty proud about my first top-20 in Europe,” said Bouchard. “I’m happy about how I am going in only my second year of Elite. I had a great start, and managed to stay up there. It’s true that I am bigger and heavier, but I also have more power, which helped me at the start.”

In the Under-23 women’s race, held Saturday, Soren Meeuwisse of Orillia, ON, finished 25th, in only the second world Cup of her career. “I’m very satisfied,” said Meeuwisse. “Today my goal was to finish top-25, and I finished 25th. Consistently throughout the race I was just trying to pick my way up to each group and hold on. The downhills are usually where I can gain some time, but I was riding well on the climbs today.”

The next major event on the international mountain bike schedule is the World Championships, in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, at the end of June. Cycling Canada will soon announce the Canadian team.