World champion: Pendrel claims gold in Switzerland
Kamloops mountain biker Catharine Pendrel capped a sensation season on the weekend by winning the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Champery, Switzerland.
The 31-year-old became the first Canadian woman to win the cross-country world championship since Alison Sydor performed the feat in 1996.
The world championship left Pendrel entering the off-season celebrating her best-ever mountain-bike season.
In addition to the global crown she claimed on Saturday, Sept. 3, Pendrel this year chalked up three World Cup wins, two second-place finishes and an Olympic Test event victory, good enough for second on the UCI World Cup Tour.
Pendrel has been steadily climbing the world mountain-biking ranks, having finished fourth at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing.
In Switzerland, Pendrel won the world title by finishing the 31.8-kilometre course in a time of 1:46:14.
IN HER OWN WORDS:
Catharine Pendrel maintains a very informative blog that can be found here. Here’s a sample:
“I couldn’t be happier with the way this race season has finished. World Champion. I will have to repeat that to myself many times and keep staring at my jersey and medal to make it feel real. This season I have matured as a
racer. Having a competitor as strong and consistent in
performance as Julie Bresset forced me to look at what I could change in my racing to come out on top. How do you win against an equal?”
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