World No. 7 Emily Batty knows she follows in the tire tracks of legends today in the sa国际传媒 Cup mountain bike race on Bear Mountain, an official Olympics points qualifier for Rio 2016.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a remarkable tradition and I want to pay it forward,鈥� said Batty.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an amazing thing to see that in your sport, sa国际传媒 has produced the best in the world.鈥�
Alison Sydor, inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame, was the Canadian pioneer in women鈥檚 mountain biking and won three world championships and the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. That was followed by Marie-Helene Premont and her silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and gold at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Then came two-time world champion Catharine Pendrel, the current world No. 2 and big Canadian hope for the 2016 Rio Olympics, who got her start in the sport on the Lower Island riding the trails of Hartland.
Pendrel, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and 2007 Pan Am Games champion, will be up against Batty in the women鈥檚 elite race today at 12:30 p.m. It will be a rematch of the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games race, in which Batty won gold and Pendrel silver.
That will be followed by the men鈥檚 elite race at 2:30 p.m. The Canadian men, led by top-ranked Raphael Gagne of Quebec City, will race six loops of the 5.5-kilometre Bear Mountain course and the women five.
More than 220 of the best riders in sa国际传媒 will be racing today. The riding begins at 8:30 a.m. with the U-19 categories followed by the amateur and masters races at 10:30 a.m. The awards ceremonies are at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free and fans are encouraged to line the course, with the best viewing area just a few steps below the golf pro shop.
Bear Mountain is the new Canadian national team training centre.
鈥淲e鈥檙e raising the bar for each other here at Bear Mountain,鈥� said Batty, who is making her first appearance on the course.
鈥淚t鈥檚 got a Harry Potter feel to it . . . the mist and the trees makes it almost eerie.鈥�
As far as the specs, Batty describes the Bear Mountain course as: 鈥淭echnical, fast and fun.鈥�
The native of Toronto is coming off warm-weather training in Tucson, Arizona.
鈥淚t is five months out from the Rio Olympics and things are going great, mentally and physically,鈥� said Batty.
That鈥檚 good for local cycling fans to hear as Batty and Pendrel give sa国际传媒 two strong chances at the Olympic podium this summer. Both Canadian stars will have something to prove in Rio. Despite her highly decorated career, the 35-year-old Pendrel has yet to win an Olympic medal in two tries.
The 28-year-old Batty, meanwhile, broke her collarbone in a devastatingly ill-timed training crash just four days before the 2012 London Olympics race. She still gutted it out to place in the top 25 at London. These Canadian mountain bikers are built tough.
