April 21/22 11:33 am - Development XCO Riders to Compete in National Colours on World Cup Circuit

Posted by Editoress on 04/21/22
 

In this post-Olympic season, the national mountain bike program has put its focus on supporting development riders (Under-23 and first/second year Elites) at the World Cup level.

Under the leadership of Head Mountain Bike Coach Jeff Ain and retired Olympian Catharine Pendrel, who recently joined the National Team coaching staff, the program will be focusing on providing targeted athletes with opportunities to progress on the international stage.

Among the riders will be competing under National Team colours for the upcoming season, are Short Track (XCC) national Elite champion Quinton Disera, national Junior champion Owen Clark and his brother Tyler Clark (Homewood Racing), as well as first-year U23 male Cole Punchard. On the women's side, they will be joined by Mackenzie Myatt in the Elite women's field, while road, cyclo-cross and mountain bike athlete Nicole Bradbury will be joining Roxane Vermette (Orbea) and Jocelyn Stel in the U23 category.

Roxane Vermette


Quinton Disera


Cole Punchard


Owen Clark


Nicole Bradbury


Jocelyn Stel


Mackenzie Myatt


Tyler Clark

The National Team has decided to target five European World Cups for the remainder of the year across Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Andorra and Italy, on top of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in late August. Athletes will also be making an appearance at the North American stops in Snowshoe, USA and Mont-Ste-Anne, Canada, known to be one of the most iconic races on the international mountain bike circuit.

"These World Cups will serve as development projects, which is our ultimate focus for the National Team," said Jeff Ain. "We want to help athletes continue to progress well into their Elite years and ultimately make their way onto professional teams, while continuing to help in any way we can, whether that's race-day support or assisting with logistics. We've been working on improving our communication with all of our athletes and finding commonalities and solutions for individual cyclists that also complement the different programs we are running."

The first of the European World Cups to be targeted is in Albstadt, Germany, on May 6-8, followed by Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, the following weekend.