May 20, 2013 (Albastadt, Germany) – We caught up with several Canadian riders following Round #1 of the UCI MTB World Cup at the new venue in Albastadt, Germany for their impressions of the new venue, their form and how the racing went this weekend.

Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro) – 12th
I liked the course and felt good on it in training. The climbs are quite steep but not technical and the descents were pretty simple, but fun features. The last lap definitely got slick, but was manageable. The result was not what I was looking for definitely. I feel my form was good, I was just a little flat on the day. With this being only my second race of the season, the first being Sea Otter a month ago I expect to be feeling sharper and faster with each race. Our plan was to do a slow build into the season so I think I am on track for a good summer. It was an inspiring day to see Emily, Max and Geoff all ride so well.

Max Plaxton (ShoAir-Cannondale) – 7th
The race played out pretty ideal really. Had a clean start avoiding any serious trouble and the fitness is right up there after a solid period of training post-knee surgery. Feel like I could of emptied the tank a little more but it’s great we have the Czech WCup this coming weekend. The track was indeed super slick but definitely felt at home as it was like a rainy day in the winter in Victoria, BC. My new team is all I could ask for, I have pretty much everything I need now to be competitive on the World Cup circuit with the support from Cannondale Factory Racing here in Europe. My equipment was flawless and my F29 hardtail along with the mud tires I chose were a perfect combo. I was hoping for a front row start in Czech but a new UCI rule says each WCup start order is based on the UCI rankings, so I’ll be around 40th again. But I am not thinking too far ahead and just going to try and keep the good feelings rolling and it should be another exciting race.

Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing) – 15th
I’m satisfied with the result today. I rode a consistent race and definitely happy I was able to improve my start position for next week’s WCup in Czech. The conditions today were definitely a challenge for equipment as the sticky mud, gravel, and grass speckled the bikes and caused a lot of havoc. I rode my Scale with the wet condition Maxxis Beaver up front and the faster rolling Aspen is the rear. Thanks to the Scott-3Rox team and mechanics everything ran smoothly and I avoided any major issues. The legs felt solid today and hopefully with a better start position I can fight closer to the front next weekend.

Derek Zandstra (Scott-3Rox Racing) – 39th
Got really jammed up at the beginning of the race and ended up standing around. Most of the race I had a fair bit of traffic, but was just focusing on moving up for a better start position next weekend. I really liked the conditions for racing as long as there’s not a lot of traffic that’s slow, We had an awesome tire set up for these conditions and I tried to use that to my advantage. There was one long downhill that if I could get the holeshot, I could make up a fair bit of time because people were pretty cautious on it. There really wasn’t to many crashes in front of me that I could see. A better start position at WC #2 in Czech should help a fair bit. I’m just focused on keep moving forward.