September 15/18 20:39 pm - Swiss Epic Stage 5: Pendrel and Smith Win
Posted by Editoress on 09/15/18
Pendrel & Smith Finish Season with Swiss Epic Victory
A few days after the Mountain Bike World Championships, two of Canada's top pro women took part in the Swiss Epic stage race - Catharine Pendrel and Haley Smith, racing in Team Canada colours.
After finishing just out of the lead on the first stage, the pair dominated the rest of the race, finishing over ten minutes ahead of their rivals in subsequent stages, and winning the overall title by 24:06 in front of the Swiss team of Thömus / RN Racing Team (Kathrin Stirnemann/Alessandra Keller), and 36:42 in front of third placed Ghost Factory Racing (Barbara Benko/Anne Terpstra).
We spoke to both riders after their win, as they concluded the season.
Haley Smith: "Swiss Epic was really a special adventure. Winning was never a guarantee, and in such a long event where anything can happen, it feels special to have taken the win. We rode well together and had an amazing experience. A huge thank you to Mike Garrigan and Cycling Canada for helping us make this week possible."
Catharine Pendrel: "The race was great, like riding through a postcard. Haley and I worked really well together to keep the pace high after narrowly missing the win on Day 1. We quickly found the hardest pace we could maintain, how to manage our nutrition and the feedzone stops, and had fun on the downhills together. Each day was 3.5-4.5 hours with 2000-2800m of climbing, much of it over 1800m and the trails quite technical, so definitely one of the harder weeks I have done on a bike, with 21 hours at race pace in five days, but an incredible way to cap of the UCI race season with a proper challenging adventure."
Results from the 5th and final stage in Switzerland
| Stage 5: Zermatt to Zermatt, 57km - 2050m climbing | |
| Women | |
| 1 Team Canada (Haley Smith/Catharine Pendrel) | 3:33:48 |
| 2 GHOST FACTORY RACING (Barbara Benko/Anne Terpstra) | at 6:06 |
| 3 BikeFreak-Magazine - Merida-Scott (Alice Pirard/Cornelia Hug) | 10:40 |
| 4 jb BRUNEX Felt Factory Team women (Ramona Forchini/Lara Krähemann) | 16:56 |
| 5 Thömus / RN Racing Team (Kathrin Stirnemann/Alessandra Keller) | 21:13 |
| 6 Hammer Nutrition (Nina Brenn/Tamara Burkhardt) | 27:22 |
| 7 Redhotchillipedlars (Heidi Kornmuller/Wilna Marais) | 3:07:56 |
| 8 Maloja - Rocky Mountain Team (Angela Siller/Simone Kießling) | 3:26:22 |
| Men | |
| 1 Team USA Red (Christopher Blevins/Keegan Swenson) | 2:47:44 |
| 2 SCOTT-SRAM MTB RACING (Matthias Stirnemann/Andri Frischknecht) | at 1:32 |
| 3 BiXS Pro Team (Hansueli Stauffer/Konny Looser) | 2:33 |
| 4 BUFF SCOTT MTB TEAM (Francesc Guerra/Enrique Morcillo) | 7:54 |
| 5 jb BRUNEX Felt Factory Team (Thomas Litscher/Max Foidl) | 8:40 |
| 6 BMC Fischer Price (Noah Blöchlinger/Martin Fanger) | 13:18 |
| 7 Forward Racing-Norco (Andrew L'Esperance/Sean Fincham) | 13:20 |
| 8 SCOTT development MTB Team (Andrin Beeli/Reece Tucknott) | 15:31 |
| 9 BRUNEX Felt Factory Team III (Fabio Spena/Fabio Püntener) | 19:44 |
| 10 Texpa-Simplon (Michael Stünzi/Franz Hofer) | 20:24 |
| 11 Team HiQ (Henrik Sparr/Calle Friberg) | 24:10 |
| 12 Tropical/Ski&Velo-Center (Jan Schär/Lukas Bucher) | 24:25 |
| 13 ROSEbikes RACINGTEAM (Steffen Thum/Rob Vanden Haesevelde) | 24:46 |
| 14 WOO Nutrition Racing Team (Fadri Barandun/Lars Zumstein) | 26:55 |
| 15 SCOTT development MTB Team 2 (Timon Rüegg/Kevin Kuhn) | 26:56 |
| 16 World of MTB (Holger Schaarschmidt/Sönke Wegner) | 30:02 |
| 17 #suimtbo racing (Simon Brändli/Adrian Jäggi) | 30:48 |
| 18 Team USA White (Lukas Vrouwenvelder/Jerry Dufour) | 31:37 |
| 19 Team Greenhope / Cornercard (Ralph Näf/Gregory Rast) | 40:02 |
| 20 Mountainbike.be - Multitask Industries (Michiel Van Aelbroeck/Kris De Nef) | 45:30 |
| 21 SPOT Africa/Insect Science (Timothy Hammond/Alan Gordon) | 52:37 |
| 22 Team SSS Norway (Arne Rettedal/Staale Josdal) | 1:00:58 |
| 23 GAMAIA SPORTS SINCAL (Enrico Julio/Rodrigo Jean) | 1:02:04 |
| 24 Pipe et Juju (Julien Gavillet/David Giller) | 1:11:00 |
| 25 Vallemaggia's Rock Team (Paolo Bettazza/Daniele Zanini) | 1:25:28 |
| 26 gantrischbike.ch/mahu (David Zysset/Andreas Dähler) | 1:25:47 |
| 27 GranMyhr (Daniel Myhr/Stefan Granström) | 1:27:35 |
| 28 Two random dudes (Bart Houben/Steven Claes) | 1:27:50 |
| 29 Proneuch bike (Steve Probst/Frederic Monard) | 1:28:11 |
| 30 GO-IN.ch / HP Architekten (Curdin Lüthi/Carlo Siefermann) | 1:32:38 |
| 31 Team GRENZBEREICH (Thomas Rückel/Matthew Gribbin) | 1:33:04 |
| 32 Meier/Kälin (Peter Meier/Sebastian Kälin) | 1:36:19 |
| 33 Engadin Express Stöckli/Cube (Markus Enzler/Rico Zanchetti) | 1:38:16 |
| 34 Perskindol-ANS-R3 (Chak Shing, Ken Cheng/Ho Wai, Kevin Yim) | 1:39:40 |
| 35 Maloja-Rocky Mountain (Nils Friedrich/Artur Wall) | 1:42:59 |
| 36 Sarto (David Grenier/Sidney Boisvert) | 1:44:32 |
| 37 Bassie en Adriaan (Jasper Van Heeswijk/Daan Van Der Steen) | 1:46:18 |
| 38 Wolfpack (John Wakefield/Nelson Ferriera) | 1:48:27 |
| 39 Pyromaniacs 2 (Herbert De Praetere/Gregory Sergeant) | 1:52:54 |
| 40 Steffi Velosport Chur (Bernhard Aebli/Björn Tschenett) | 1:53:27 |
| 41 Shake n Bake (Dane Coppin/Matt Eagar) | 1:54:32 |
| 42 Rheinlandauswahl A (Andreas Frey/Bastian Plag) | 2:07:53 |
| 43 PYROMANIACS 1 (Luk Verhelst/Peter Ruette) | 2:29:14 |
| 44 Rock Knockers (Simon Mann/Sito Busman) | 2:32:52 |
| 45 VC Keystone Kops (Glenn Chamberlin/Andrew Bye) | 2:33:20 |
| 46 Asterix und Obelix (Arne Fischer/Lutz Zimmer) | 2:43:28 |
| 47 THE PACOS (Víctor Joana/Sergi Meseguer) | 3:12:52 |
| 48 La Carrera Radpiraten (Thomas Bittl/Michael Fuchs) | 3:13:50 |
| 49 Legend Chx (Christophe Villemin/Florentin Matteudi) | 3:35:22 |
| 50 2 Radsurfer (Claudio Parietti/Jürgen Pichler) | 3:37:04 |
| Final GC | |
| Women | |
| 1 Team Canada (Haley Smith/Catharine Pendrel) | 21:03:48 |
| 2 GHOST FACTORY RACING (Barbara Benko/Anne Terpstra) | at 42:48 |
| 3 Thömus / RN Racing Team (Kathrin Stirnemann/Alessandra Keller) | 45:20 |
| 4 BikeFreak-Magazine - Merida-Scott (Alice Pirard/Cornelia Hug) | 2:00:59 |
| 5 jb BRUNEX Felt Factory Team women (Ramona Forchini/Lara Krähemann) | 2:28:56 |
| 6 Hammer Nutrition (Nina Brenn/Tamara Burkhardt) | 3:10:53 |
| 7 Maloja - Rocky Mountain Team (Angela Siller/Simone Kießling) | 18:11:48 |
| 8 Redhotchillipedlars (Heidi Kornmuller/Wilna Marais) | 18:35:33 |
| Men | |
| 1 SCOTT-SRAM MTB RACING (Matthias Stirnemann/Andri Frischknecht) | 16:56:25 |
| 2 BiXS Pro Team (Hansueli Stauffer/Konny Looser) | at 16:09 |
| 3 Team USA Red (Christopher Blevins/Keegan Swenson) | 18:47 |
| 4 BUFF SCOTT MTB TEAM (Francesc Guerra/Enrique Morcillo) | 37:46 |
| 5 SCOTT development MTB Team (Andrin Beeli/Reece Tucknott) | 53:28 |
| 6 Texpa-Simplon (Michael Stünzi/Franz Hofer) | 1:11:56 |
| 7 Forward Racing-Norco (Andrew L'Esperance/Sean Fincham) | 1:19:37 |
| 8 BMC Fischer Price (Noah Blöchlinger/Martin Fanger) | 1:24:20 |
| 9 BRUNEX Felt Factory Team III (Fabio Spena/Fabio Püntener) | 1:36:41 |
| 10 SCOTT development MTB Team 2 (Timon Rüegg/Kevin Kuhn) | 1:43:00 |
| 11 ROSEbikes RACINGTEAM (Steffen Thum/Rob Vanden Haesevelde) | 1:45:54 |
| 12 Tropical/Ski&Velo-Center (Jan Schär/Lukas Bucher) | 1:59:04 |
| 13 Team USA White (Lukas Vrouwenvelder/Jerry Dufour) | 2:09:38 |
| 14 Team HiQ (Henrik Sparr/Calle Friberg) | 2:31:30 |
| 15 jb BRUNEX Felt Factory Team (Thomas Litscher/Max Foidl) | 2:43:18 |
| 16 Team Greenhope / Cornercard (Ralph Näf/Gregory Rast) | 2:51:44 |
| 17 World of MTB (Holger Schaarschmidt/Sönke Wegner) | 3:04:39 |
| 18 #suimtbo racing (Simon Brändli/Adrian Jäggi) | 3:16:30 |
| 19 SPOT Africa/Insect Science (Timothy Hammond/Alan Gordon) | 3:28:52 |
| 20 WOO Nutrition Racing Team (Fadri Barandun/Lars Zumstein) | 3:53:43 |
| 21 Mountainbike.be - Multitask Industries (Michiel Van Aelbroeck/Kris De Nef) | 5:15:28 |
| 22 GAMAIA SPORTS SINCAL (Enrico Julio/Rodrigo Jean) | 6:15:27 |
| 23 Pipe et Juju (Julien Gavillet/David Giller) | 7:11:34 |
| 24 gantrischbike.ch/mahu (David Zysset/Andreas Dähler) | 7:28:48 |
| 25 Vallemaggia's Rock Team (Paolo Bettazza/Daniele Zanini) | 7:49:36 |
| 26 Team GRENZBEREICH (Thomas Rückel/Matthew Gribbin) | 7:53:50 |
| 27 GranMyhr (Daniel Myhr/Stefan Granström) | 8:01:42 |
| 28 Engadin Express Stöckli/Cube (Markus Enzler/Rico Zanchetti) | 8:34:58 |
| 29 Team SSS Norway (Arne Rettedal/Staale Josdal) | 8:49:48 |
| 30 GO-IN.ch / HP Architekten (Curdin Lüthi/Carlo Siefermann) | 8:50:04 |
| 31 Sarto (David Grenier/Sidney Boisvert) | 9:05:02 |
| 32 Proneuch bike (Steve Probst/Frederic Monard) | 9:44:52 |
| 33 Two random dudes (Bart Houben/Steven Claes) | 9:58:18 |
| 34 Meier/Kälin (Peter Meier/Sebastian Kälin) | 9:59:01 |
| 35 Pyromaniacs 2 (Herbert De Praetere/Gregory Sergeant) | 10:04:30 |
| 36 Steffi Velosport Chur (Bernhard Aebli/Björn Tschenett) | 10:08:48 |
| 37 Wolfpack (John Wakefield/Nelson Ferriera) | 10:34:14 |
| 38 Bassie en Adriaan (Jasper Van Heeswijk/Daan Van Der Steen) | 10:42:41 |
| 39 Rheinlandauswahl A (Andreas Frey/Bastian Plag) | 11:17:10 |
| 40 Perskindol-ANS-R3 (Chak Shing, Ken Cheng/Ho Wai, Kevin Yim) | 11:34:36 |
| 41 Maloja-Rocky Mountain (Nils Friedrich/Artur Wall) | 11:47:35 |
| 42 Shake n Bake (Dane Coppin/Matt Eagar) | 12:35:20 |
| 43 PYROMANIACS 1 (Luk Verhelst/Peter Ruette) | 13:38:47 |
| 44 La Carrera Radpiraten (Thomas Bittl/Michael Fuchs) | 15:02:02 |
| 45 Rock Knockers (Simon Mann/Sito Busman) | 15:19:04 |
| 46 VC Keystone Kops (Glenn Chamberlin/Andrew Bye) | 15:27:14 |
| 47 Asterix und Obelix (Arne Fischer/Lutz Zimmer) | 16:22:13 |
| 48 THE PACOS (Víctor Joana/Sergi Meseguer) | 18:49:34 |
| 49 2 Radsurfer (Claudio Parietti/Jürgen Pichler) | 19:32:40 |
| 50 Legend Chx (Christophe Villemin/Florentin Matteudi) | 21:54:17 |
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