Mountain Bike World Championships: Canadian Team Announced

by armchairsports | August 13, 2009 at 05:59 pm

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Canada has selected the 11 Riders it will send to Australia for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships this September 1st to 6th. The team is lead by Geoff Kabush and Catherine Pendrel who have been on winning form lately. Kabush recently completed back to back winning weekends in Quebec and Mount Snow Vermont, winning a World Cup race in Quebec and both the XC and short track races of the Pro XTC event in Vermont. In doing so Kabush became the all-time leading winner for US national cross country series races. His 15 wins put him one ahead of mountain bike legend John Tomac.

Eleven cross country racers, including eight elites and three Under 23s, will represent Canada at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Canberra, Australia, on September 1-6.

Mount Sainte Anne World Cup winner and National Champion Catharine Pendrel will lead the elite team along with Bromont World Cup winner and National Champion Geoff Kabush. Both riders are from British Columbia.

Two other national champions, Emily Batty of Ontario and Raphaël Gagne of Quebec, will lead the Under 23 squad.

The team is undergoing final preparations for the championships and will begin traveling to Australia on August 25, with plenty of time to ready for the opening event, the team relay, on September 1. Kabush, Pendrel, Gagne and Evan Guthrie will make up Canada's relay team.

It was also announced that the Canadian Team is only partially funded for the trip. If you would like to contribute to the team:

(...) you can fill out a donation form at http://www.canadian-cycling.com/...onations.shtml and e-mail it to Nicholas Vipond at nicholas.vipond@canadian-cycling.com.

All contributions will go directly towards covering the athletes' expenses.

The full Team List:

Elite Men
Geoff Kabush
Derek Zandstra
Max Plaxton
Seamus McGrath

Elite Women
Catharine Pendrel
Marie-Helene Premont
Amanda Sin
Mical Dyck

Under 23 Men
Raphaël Gagne

Under 23 Women
Emily Batty
Mikaela Kofman