September 1, 2009 (Canberra, Australia) – Canada has won a silver medal on the first day of the 2009 UCI MTB and Trials World Championships in Canberra. The team of Raphael Gagne (U23 Men), Geoff Kabush (Elite Men), Evan Guthrie (Jr. Men) and Catharine Pendrel (Elite Women) narrowly missed out on the top spot finishing only six seconds behind the Italian team of Marco Fontana (Elite Men), Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Jr. Men), Eva Lechner (Elite Women) and Cristian Cominelli (U23 Men) who won the Team Relay in a time of 1:14:02. Defending MTB Worlds Team Relay champs, France – Alexis Vuillermoz (U23 Men), Cedric Ravanel (Elite Men), Hugo Drechou (Jr. Men) and Cecile Rode Ravanel (Elite Women) – finished a close two seconds behind Canada for the bronze.

For the Team Relay all 19 nations entered a four-rider squad consisting of an elite male, a U23 male, a junior male and an elite woman. Each rider contested one lap of the 6.47km XC course in Stromlo Forest in the order determined by their respective team coach. At the end of each lap the rider tags the next member in their team.

The Canadian Team was led out by Gagne who was in a tough company as most countries started out with their Elite riders. After the first lap Canada sat in 12th with the Swiss leading. Then Kabush led the Canadian charge through the second lap and into medal contention with a impressive leg holding down third spot. Guthrie cemented Canada’s spot on the podium moving into second only a few seconds behind the leading French team.

Entering the final lap the Canadian team was only seven seconds down on the French and 1:21 ahead of the third-placed Italians. Italy’s  U23 rider Cominelli performed well to reel in and overtake both leaders who had opted for their Elite female riders to contest the last lap. Canada’s Pendrel overtook the French team in the final few kilometres to secure the silver for Canada.

“It was a really exciting final lap for all of us between Italy, France and Canada,” said Pendrel who out-sprinted France in the final metres to clinch the silver for the Canucks. “I had a good position going into the final stretch so I was hoping I could hold onto that.”

Action continues on Wednesday with the Junior Women and U23 Women XCO Championships.

Results

1. Italy (Marco Aurelio Fontana, Gerhard Kerschbaumer, Eva Lechner, Cristian Cominelli) 1:14:02
2. Canada (Raphael Gagne, Geoff Kabush, Evan Guthrie, Catharine Pendrel) 0:06
3. France (Alexis Vuillermoz, Cédric Ravanel, Hugo Drechou, Cécile Rode Ravanel) 0:08
4. Sweden (Emil Lindgren, Tobias Ludvigsson, Alexandra Engen, Mattias Wengelin) 0:54
5. Switzerland (Florian Vogel, Matthias Stirnemann, Nathalie Schneitter, Fabian Giger) 1:00
6. Netherlands (Irjan Luttenberg, Michiel Van Der Heijden, Laura Turpijn, Jelmer Pietersma) 3:00
7. Germany (Moritz Milatz, Martin Gluth, Markus Bauer, Sabine Spitz) 3:04
8. Czech Republic (Jaroslav Kulhavy, Jan Nesvadba, Pavla Havlikova, Lukas Sablik) 3:24
9. Great Britain (Liam Killeen, Kenta Gallagher, Annie Last, David Fletcher) 3:25
10. Belgium (Sven Nys, Tom Meeusen, Ruben Scheire, Sanne Cant) 3:29
11. Poland (Marcin Karczynski, Marek Konwa, Maja Wloszczowska, Maciej Adamczyk) 3:51
12. United States Of America (Heather Irmiger, Russell Finsterwald, Colin Cares, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski) 3:52
13. Slovakia (Peter Sagan, Daniel Hula, Janka Stevkova, Michal Lami) 4:16
14. Australia (Chris Jongewaard, Lachlan Norris, Michael Baker, Rowena Fry) 4:52
15. Austria (Hannes Metzler, Simon Scheiber, Maria Osl, Gregor Raggl) 4:57
16. Slovenia (Luka Mezgec, Urban Ferencak, Blaza Klemencic, Vid Tancer) 5:01
17. Russian Federation (Maxim Gogolev, Evgeniy Nikolaev, Irina Kalentieva, Ivan Smirnov) 6:18
18. New-Zealand (Michael Northcott, Nicola Leary, Brad Hudson, Ashley Hough) 7:57
19. Japan (Kohei Yamamoto, Seiya Hirano, Rie Katayama, Idomu Yamamoto) 9:19