A touch of melancholy surrounded the Bear Mountain-based national mountain biking team Sunday in Italy. It was the end of an era as Catharine Pendrel, who learned mountain biking and began her career on the Hartland trails, completed her 17th and final world championship in the 2021 UCI mountain bike worlds in Val di Sole.
The two-time world champion, Olympic bronze medallist and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games gold medallist, a 40-year-old new mother, finished 22nd.
It is time for a new generation. Emily Johnston of Comox is on the Canadian women鈥檚 U-23 cross-country team, Carter Woods of Cumberland on the men鈥檚 U-23 cross-country team, Emmy Lan and Cole Stinson of Comox on the junior women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 downhill squads and Mark Wallace of Duncan on the elite men鈥檚 downhill team.
sa国际传媒鈥檚 three Tokyo Olympians contested the elite cross-country races 鈥� Bear Mountain-based Haley Smith and Peter Disera and veteran rider Pendrel.
sa国际传媒 had success in the downhill in the worlds in Italy with Jackson Goldstone winning gold in junior men鈥檚 and Gracey Hemstreet bronze in junior women鈥檚.
鈥淲e definitely feel the future is bright for downhill in sa国际传媒,鈥� said team manager Adam Walker.
The effects of the pandemic year were felt, however.
鈥淲e definitely have a renewed appreciation for the importance of racing regularly and reliably as part of building an athlete鈥檚 engine for optimal performance each year,鈥� said Dan Proulx of Victoria, head coach of the Canadian mountain biking team.
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting better every race but still have a way to go. I鈥檓 confident we鈥檒l get there. We have a lot of ambitious and talented riders to work with who are eager to be successful at the highest level. We鈥檙e strengthening our programs to make sure they get there. There are several riders on the verge of significant breakthroughs at the international level, particularly in the U-23 category, and we鈥檙e excited to see what they can do.鈥�
Chief among them are Islanders Woods and Johnston. The Norco Factory pro Woods won two consecutive World Cup circuit U-23 men鈥檚 events in May. Woods and Johnston are among four Island riders selected among 47 athletes to the Cycling sa国际传媒 NextGen development team for the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, joining track cyclists Erin Attwell and Sarah Van Dam of Victoria.
Woods and Johnston come from a strong mountain-biking tradition in the Comox Valley. While Mount Washington has produced several recent Winter Olympians, headlined by Pyeongchang 2018 gold-medallist half-pipe skier Cassie Sharpe of Comox, it has an even longer history of rubber-wheeled success in summer. Woods and Johnston are continuing a tradition blazed by the likes of Geoff Kabush, the UVic mechanical engineering graduate from Courtenay who had two top-10 finishes among his three Olympic appearances at Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and Kiara Bisaro of Comox, 2004 Athens Olympian and bronze medallist at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
With Pendrel having raced her final of four Olympics last month in Tokyo, and now her last world championship, the focus turns to the future.
鈥淧ost-Olympics, development always becomes our primary focus,鈥� said Proulx.
