August 29, 2013 (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) – Peter Disera, of Barrie, ON, won the silver medal in the junior men’s cr0ss-country competition on Thursday at the 2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Disera posted Canada’s best cr0ss-country result at the Worlds since 1998 when Ryder Hesjedal also won the silver medal.

Disera finished the 23.5-kilometer junior Men’s race with a time of 1:20:48, just 42 seconds behind newly crowned Junior Men’s World Champion, Lukas Baum of Germany.

The young Ontario cyclist has enjoyed a successful season to date, winning the Junior Canadian Championships titles in the road time trial, the mountain bike cross-country and in cyclo-cross, as well as winning the UCI World Cup stop at Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC, earlier in August.

The last time a Canadian man won an individual cross-country MTB Worlds medal was in 2006 when Max Plaxton won the bronze medal in the U23 men’s cross-country in Rotorua, New Zealand where Switzerland’s Nino Schurter took the gold. In 1998, Hesjedal now a UCI WorldTour road rider won MTB World Championship silver in the junior men’s race at Mont-Ste-Anne. The winner that year was Julien Absalon from France.

Other Canadians were in the race with Félix Burke and Félix Belhumeur placing 25th and 26th respectively.

In the women’s junior race, Marine Lewis had the fastest time among the three Canadian women, finishing 15th. Reigning Junior Canadian champ Rachel Pageau and Gabrielle April finished 19th and 22nd respectively.

In Wednesday’s team relay, Canada finished in fourth in the four-rider race. Canada started the first lap with the seventh fastest time with Disera at the helm, and then 2013 Canadian MTB champion Derek Zandstra flew by everyone to bring the team back into second place midway thru the race.

On the third exchange, Mitchell Bailey took the control of the race, and managed to pass the Italian rider to take the race lead with one lap to go. On the fourth lap, the 2013 Canada MTB Cup Champion Sandra Walter worked hard to maintain the lead, but she was up against several elite male riders and managed to cross the finish line in fourth, eleven seconds off the podium.

Junior Women’s results here.
Junior Men results here.