COMMONWEALTH CHAMP CATHARINE PENDREL WINS XCO WORLD CUP TITLE

(Vallnord, AND – September 4, 2016) Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) of Kamloops, BC, capped off a season that already includes an Olympic bronze medal with the overall World Cup title in Women’s Cross-country on Sunday, in Andorra.

Pendrel finished third in the sixth and final round of the series. Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) of Brooklin, Ontario, finished 12th in the race and third overall in the World Cup.

Pendrel had a strong start to the race, leading in the opening lap before crashing and falling back to third, to finish one minute and 21 seconds behind Jolanda Neff of Switzerland and 45 seconds behind second placed Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway. Batty, who had crashed in training, raced with bruised ribs but moved up from 19th on the first lap to finish 12th.

Pendrel won the overall title, her third, with 1030 points, in a season that included one World Cup victory, a second place and two third places. Annika Langvad of Denmark was second with 1006 points, and Emily Batty finished third with 710 points, including two third place results.

“World Cup Champion feels so good after the suffer fest out there today,” said Pendrel. “This is an incredibly hard race. My start was amazing and I felt really good, but I definitely ran out of oxygen on the second lap. I had trouble staying up on the second descent, was kind of all over the place. I had to really regroup to get my breath. Then it was just about damage control; going as slow as I could just to stay upright on the descent and then hammer on the climb. It wasn’t the prettiest race but it got the job done.”