Two-time world champion Catharine Pendrel, a big Canadian hope for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, says the new course on Bear Mountain reflects what modern mountain biking is all about.
鈥淭his track is about the new style of mountain bike racing,鈥� said the native of New Brunswick, who got her start in the sport on the Island riding the adjacent trails of Hartland.
鈥淏ear Mountain is a flow track.鈥�
That鈥檚 flow as in flowing. The mountain bikers of today want to move. And move fast.
They will do that Saturday in the sa国际传媒 Cup race, an Olympic points qualifier for Rio, that will feature the best racers in the country. They include current world women鈥檚 No. 2 Pendrel, fellow Canadian, world No. 7 and 2015 Pan Am Games champion Emily Batty of Toronto, and Canadian men鈥檚 Rio hope Raphael Gagne of Quebec City.
The women鈥檚 elite race is at 1 p.m. and the men鈥檚 elite race at 3 p.m. The men will race six loops of the 5.5-kilometre Bear Mountain course and the women five. Fans are encouraged to line the course, with the best viewing area just a few steps below the golf pro shop.
The Olympic hopefuls will get a taste of the real deal this weekend. That鈥檚 the point.
鈥淥ur Bear Mountain course is constructed very similar to Rio鈥檚 Olympic course,鈥� said national team head coach Dan Proulx of Victoria.
鈥淲e looked at what they did and tried to replicate that. Rio鈥檚 course is flowing and fast, and so is ours here on the mountain.鈥�
The national team training centre is now officially located at Bear Mountain under Proulx. Numerous riders from Ontario and Quebec have relocated to Victoria because of that to train here.
The form charts for Rio 2016 are pretty much formulated. The training centre is looking beyond that.
鈥淭he national centre is really about developing our young talent for Tokyo 2020 and 2024,鈥� noted Proulx.
The goal for Pendrel, of course, is more immediate. After fading to a disappointing ninth at the 2012 London Olympics, following a near-miss fourth place at Beijing in 2008, the 35-year-old knows Rio may be her last chance to fulfill her Olympic ambition. Now residing in Kamloops with her husband, she is happy to return this week to the city where it all began for her and where she touches base often.
鈥淚 look forward to the opportunity to race at home,鈥� said Pendrel, the 2007 Pan Am Games and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion.
鈥淩io is five months away and training is going well, although I have a slight injury.鈥�
She broke her thumb earlier in training but said: 鈥淚 plan to race Saturday.鈥�
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