GOLDEN, B.C. (July 26, 2021) – The wait was finally over for Canadian downhill mountain bike athletes, after over eighteen months of waiting to race again on home soil. Athletes from across the country tackled a fast and technical course at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, British Columbia, competing for the coveted maple leaf sleeve, last awarded in 2019.
“It has been an amazing week here in B.C. with the return of the Canada Cup Downhill Series, followed by our first Canadian Championship event since 2019,” said Josh Peacock, Director of Marketing and Community Engagement at Cycling Canada. “All three events broke recent participation records, with the bulk of new registrations in amateur categories – an exciting indication of where our sport is headed. The addition of adaptive racing to the event program was welcomed with overwhelming enthusiasm by the downhill community and is something we will look to develop further in coming years.”
The Championship weekend featured over 300 riders across all categories, including the adaptive riders as the newest category with Cole Bernier from Kelowna, B.C., taking the win.
Riders included familiar names such as Finn Iles, former overall World Cup Champion and Junior World Champion, who was the top seed after racing Saturday. Looking to defend his 2019 national Elite title, Iles was able to cross with the fastest time of 3:48.52 to earn Elite the national title over Mark Wallace, who is coming off the Downhill World Cup in Les Gets, France where he came in fifth.
On the women’s side, Casey Brown edged out former World Champion, Miranda Miller, by just over a second to take the Women’s Elite Canadian Champion title.
Jackson Goldstone won the Men’s Junior Expert category. Goldstone is coming off a successful World Cup tour, winning both gold and silver in Europe in the men’s junior category, before taking to the top of the podium in Canada. On the Women’s Junior side, Emmy Lan took the win by over 30 seconds to Lily Boucher.
Full results from the weekend can be found on Cycling Canada’s event page.
About Cycling Canada
Cycling Canada is one of the oldest national sport organizations in Canada and has one simple purpose: to inspire Canadians to cycle. Cycling Canada administers programs to promote and grow cycling across the country, hosts national and international events and manages the National Team in all levels of international competition.
Source: Cycling Canada
Information: Simone Cseplo | Cycling Canada | simone.cseplo@cyclingcanada.ca