April 1/10 8:14 am - CCA Adds Defensive Training to National Team

Posted by Editor on 04/1/10
 

In the face of growing incidents of aggressive riding at major international events, the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) has added martial arts training to the national team program.

"It is strictly defensive," cautioned Chief Technical Officer Jacques Landry, "but we can't have our riders pushed around in the mass start melees that we are seeing, particularly at Mountain Bike World Cups. So, we have introduced training for the riders to take care of themselves if it starts to get rough. Nothing to serious, just some basic moves."

"It's actually pretty cool," said Catharine Pendrel (Luna), who is one of the riders to have gone through the program. "I was able to take out Geoff [Kabush] in one move, it was sweet."


Michaela Koffman, Amanda Sin and Catharine Pendrel display training