Updated: September 4, 2019
Canadian riders had some quality performances at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships this past weekend in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, including top-ten finishes in the Downhill finals from BC’s Junior Men – Lucas Cruz (Pemberton, BC) – 4th, Elliot Jamieson (White Rock, BC) – 6th, Patrick Laffey (Nanaimo, BC) – 8th, and Seth Sherlock (Squamish, BC) – 9th. Amy Ertel (Whistler, BC) finished in 11th place in the Junior Women’s DH finals and a couple of other junior riders from BC, Milton McConville (New Westminster) finished 45th and Emmett Hancock (Kelowna, BC) 28th in the Junior Men’s race.
In the Elite Women’s Downhill races, BC’s Vaea Verbeek (North Vancouver, BC) cracked the top 10 with a 9th place finish in the finals, while Miranda Miller (Squamish, BC) came in 11th and Georgia Astle (Whistler, BC) finished in 20th place. The Elite Men’s Downhill riders from Canada saw BC riders in the top-10 with Finn Iles (Whistler, BC) in 7th and Mark Wallace (Duncan, BC) in 9th. Kirk McDowall (Vancouver, BC) came in 15th and Magnus Manson (Sechelt, BC) in 35th.
In XCO racing earlier in the week, BC juniors Carter Woods (Cumberland, BC) and Emilly Johnston (Comox, BC) also had top-10 finishes with Carter coming in 4th place in the Junior Men’s race and Emilly finishing 9th in Junior Women at her first world championships. Hamish Graham (Courtenay, BC) almost cracked the top 20 with a 21st place finish in the Junior Men’s division.
In the Elite ranks, Catharine Pendrel (Kamloops, BC) finished 14th in the women’s race and Sandra Walter (Coquitlam, BC) completed in 18th. Canadian champion, Emily Batty, was the top Canadian woman finishing in 9th place. Sean Fincham (Squamish, BC) who finished his race in 11th place in the Men’s U23 while fellow Squamish rider Holden Jones who was doing well through three laps before suffering a crash and eventually resulting in a DNF.
Canada earned a medal in the first-ever E-MTB World Championships competition as Maghalie Rochette (Ste.Adele, QC) won silver in the women’s race. Former Canadian Olympian, Andreas Hestler (North Vancouver, BC), came in 23rd in the men’s E-MTB.
In the XCO Team Relay event, the Canadian team consisting of Raphael Auclair, Carter Woods, Laurie Arsenault, Catharine Pendrel and Peter Disera, came in 5th place behind Italy (4th), France (3rd), United States (2nd), and Switzerland who came in first.
Congratulations to all the riders who represented Canada at the world championships and the riders from British Columbia who continue to show and represent the quality of riders that come from our province.