Races begin Thursday in Langford
Have off-road access, will ride.
The Island’s plethora of trails has produced Olympic mountain-bikers Alison Sydor, Catharine Pendrel, Roland Green, Geoff Kabush, Max Plaxton, Andreas Hestler and Kiara Bisaro. The Jordie Lunn Bike Park trails in Langford are the latest addition to the off-road mix and will host the 2025 Canadian championships today through Sunday.
There will be more than 250 competitors vying for youth championships through junior, U-23 and masters national titles, and up to the elites, riding eight laps of the 4.5-kilometre loop course that begins and ends at the clubhouse.
“It’s a faster course than typical and there will be plenty of opportunities to watch the riders swing on each loop,” said race director Jon Watkin.
Spectators can, however, follow the riders along the entire course via the 8X8-foot big screen that is set up near the clubhouse portion of the course.
The elite races are Saturday with CBC Gem to webcast.
“We were a dominant nation in mountain biking and we want to keep that history going,” said Watkin.
Canada had a good roll in mountain biking, framed by Sydor winning multiple world championships and silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Pendrel multiple world championships and bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Throw in Marie-Helene Premont’s Olympic silver meal at Athens 2004 and Green’s world championship and Commonwealth Games gold.
But the well ran dry at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 and it falls on Pendrel, now the national-team head coach, to build it back up for Los Angeles 2028.
“We are moving back up after a lull and our women’s team is ranked third in the world,” said Pendrel, who in October will be inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2025.
Jen Jackson of Duncan is in the women’s world top-10 and Isabella Holmgren is coming off a top-10 finish on the road in the Giro d’Italia before hitting the trails again. Ella MacPhee, a UVic student from Squamish riding locally, is the top-ranked U-23 female rider in the world. Fellow Squamish native and UVic student Marin Lowe is also in the women’s world U-23 top-10.
Carter Woods of Cumberland is world top-25 on the men’s side.
“We have depth and a lot of promise,” said Pendrel.
“There is going to be a very high level of racing this week. All the racing will be very fast.”
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