Batty Has Strong Finish

Delta riders are looking forward to the upcoming BC Superweek, which runs July 6th – 15th, Delta residenta are more excited about the Tour de Delta July 6th – 8th in areas of Delta.

Now we are hearing that  many of our Canadian riders had some impressive results at the second round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup (May 19-20) in Albstadt, Germany.

In the elite women category Emily Batty finished 13th, while Canadian National Team member Sandra Walter placed 15th, which is her best-ever European World Cup result.

The Elite men’s race saw national champion Peter Disera make the top-30 in the race managing to cross the line placing 28th.

Canadian Under-23 champion Sean Fincham finished 21st in the Under-23 men’s race.

Rain seemed to be the call of the week making the circuit extremely muddy and slick that saw almost every rider in the Under-23 and Elite women’s races crash at least once.

By the time the Elite men rode on Sunday afternoon, the track was starting to dry up a bit and they did not face the same conditions.

World champion Jolanda Neff of Switzerland dominated the Elite women’s race, leading from start to finish.

Catharine Pendrel had a strong start managing to be in seventh position after the start loop, but took a tremendous fall on one of the drop seeing her finishing 19th overall.

Batty had one crash, but managed to ride solid while Walter moved from 46th to the top-25 in the start loop having a strong second lap put her into 15th position.

Batty told the media “That was the definition of thick, heavy mud and I think my bike is weighing at least 29-30 pounds right now.  It was a solid race; I was in the top spots but I was riding pretty clean with only one mistake.

Walter mentioned “I ride in the mud all winter so when it starts getting crazy I know these are my conditions. I had a lot of fun out there.

I definitely didn’t race a super clean race, but I felt confident and didn’t make too many mistakes. I’m really excited [with 15th] and thankful to the Canadian team and the staff for making it such a great project.”

In other Canadian results, Cindy Montambault was 42nd, Haley Smith crashed hard on one of the drops, was 50th, while Canadian National team member Catherine Fleury placed 64th overall.

Batty advances one spot to 13th in the World Cup standings, while Pendrel drops from 7th to 14th. 

In the Under-23 women, world champion Sina Frei of Switzerland took the lead from the start and never looked back, setting the fastest lap times on all but one lap.

The Elite men’s race saw world champion and defending World Cup champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland win his first World Cup of the year.

Disera advanced from 46th into 28th with two laps to go, while Leandre Bouchard lost places on the start loop, but finished 34th.

Raphael Gagne was 57th, while National Team member Andrew L’Esperance 66th overall.

In the Men’s Under-23 race Fincham who currently rides for the national team finished 21st after starting in the fifth row of the starting grid.

His two strong laps moved him to the top-20 before fading slightly in the last lap.

Canadian National rider Gunnar Holmgren advanced from starting 120th and finished 63rd overall.