September 4, 2014 (Hafjell, Norway) – Canada’s Marine Lewis and Marc-Andre Fortier delivered strong performances as the Juniors kicked off the cross-country races at the 2014 UCI MTB World Championships. Both were just outside the top ten finishing in 12th place in their respective races as near perfect weather conditions graced the championships for the third day in a row with sunny skies and warm temperatures.

When the dust settled Nicole Koller of Switzerland took home the title in the Junior women’s 4-lap 16.8km race, while Denmark’s Simon Andreassen was the runaway winner in the Junior men’s 5-lap race covering 21km.

The day started with the Junior women as Malene Degn of Denmark opened a ten-second gap on the first lap over Koller and her Swiss teammate Sina Frei. Behind another Swiss rider, Alessandra Keller, the 2013 Junior XC champ, moved up and took over third place on lap two at about 20 seconds behind the two leaders. Canada’s Lewis and Soren Meeuwisse were riding well in the teens about two minutes behind.

Degn managed to hold onto the lead until the halfway point in the race before Koller bridged up to her on the third lap. The two rode together for the beginning of the final lap before Koller pulled away on the climbs to win decisively by over a minute. Frei hung on for third with Keller taking 4th.

“For the first part of the race I was further back, and I had to fight to get to Malene,” explained Koller. “Then we rode together until the last lap, when I realized that I had got a little gap. When I heard that it was 30 seconds then I just had to be careful not to crash or have any problems.”

Lewis, who rode strong all day keeping a steady pace, ended up 12th and was happy with the course and her race. “My strategy was to do my own pace and it worked out well as there was so many parts of this race to think about,” she told Pedal post race.

Meeuwisse, the reigning Junior national champ, was in the top 15 during the first lap before suffering a hard crash at the end of the second lap and damaged her rear derailleur. She tried to ride it out but ended up running with her bike to the tech zone.

The crew got her derailleur working and she managed to claw her way back to a respectable 28th, just ahead of her teammate, Laurie Arsenault in 29th.

Paige Foxcroft had a tough day as she flatted twice and then crashed. Her bad luck saw her pulled from the race on the penultimate lap but she was still smiling after the race and was encouraged with her ride nonetheless.

Men’s Race

The men’s race was decided in the first lap of the five lap race, when Andreassen rode away from the rest of the field with an impressive display of power and skill. By the end of the first lap he had a 30-second gap on Egan Bernal (Colombia) and Hugo Pigeon (France), and it continued to grow.

Pigeon fell off the pace and it looked like the podium would also wear orange as Dutchman Milan Vader took over third even passing Bernal at one point. Meanwhile Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany) and teammate David Horwath (Germany) advanced on Bernal with Schwarzbauer bridging to him as Horwath got dropped.

On the last lap Bernal and Schwarbauer caught Vader and passed him but the duo could make no dent in Andreassen’s lead. The Danish rider finally slowed in the last lap when a slow leak forced him to be cautious on the descents and technical sections. However, he still rolled in 37 seconds ahead of Bernal, who outsprinted Schwarzbauer for the silver medal.

“It was a very great day,” said Andreassen. “I felt perfect, and it was my biggest goal for the season, so I’m very happy to complete it. I felt a lot of pressure, because I have won a lot of races this year, so people were expecting me to be fast today. But I felt good before the race so I was ready to give it my best.”

Fortier, who rode well in the Team Relay yesterday, put together another strong performance today and was as high as 7th but two flats thwarted his attempts to regain his position. Still finishing 12th out of the 60 riders who finished (over 90 started today) given the circumstances was a positive end to a tough day. “It was a course that I liked, it had enough challenges that kept me to think of my next move always,” shared Fortier.

Rhys Verner, who placed 41st worked on his jumps which he says he loves, but was thwareted with them being “bunched up” when he got there. “This course was brutal, it got hot out there, I kept myself hydrated and tried to create some opportunities to advance.”

Felix Belhumeur in 52nd was in a good mood at the finish. “It was a super experience for me to go out there and battle, I hoped to do better but the course was tough and I got stuck behind.” Felix Burke finished 69th and Guillaume Larose-Gingras ended up 70th.

Results here.