Catharine Pendrel

Hey there's lots of year end votes going on at Pedal and Canadian Cyclist and I'm lucky enough to be nominated in both along with a lot of other talented Canadian riders so check it out! Pedal is pleased to announce that on-line voting for their Annual Cycling Awards honouring Canada's top riders is available here . With the New Year approaching it's time to reflect on the 2007 season and make your selections for Canada's top riders. Winners will be selected on the basis of votes accumulated at www.pedalmag.com by readers across the country. All entrants are eligible to win one of three prizes:- 1st prize a 1-yr subscription to Pedal - 2nd prize a Pedal Poor Boy Hat - 3rd prize a Pedal T-Shirt You can complete as many or as few categories as you like, but you are limited to only ONE entry per person. Voting ends at 12 midnight on Sunday, December 30, 2007 (EST) and the winners will be announced on Monday, December 31, 2007. For Canadian cyclist voting go her

Dec 22nd and the snow banks in Revelstoke are already huge Keith and I headed to Revelstoke on Saturday. It snowed non stop from Saturday morning until Sunday night adding to the 3 ft of snow already on the ground. Saturday was the opening of the expanded ski hill on Mt. Mckenzie. The DH ski area is now 5 times the size it was. Top to bottom runs were taking us 25 minutes and we had to stop for tons of rest breaks to give are legs a break from the demands of powder skiing. The terrain is unreal. Lots of variety, powder and long fun runs. Best of all, there was so much terrain that you never had to wait in line. We only had to stop when our legs couldn’t take any more burn. Keith, who has been waiting for this since grade 4 had a huge grin on his face. Although I drug my camera around all day. My batteries crapped out before I got any good mtn. pics. You'll just have to go ski there yourself!!! Christmas day we took advantage of the snowshoe trails for a hike on Mt Revelstoke. New

So the leak is out. I will be riding for a new team next year. After two fantastic seasons on Norcos I will be joining the Luna women’s mtb team next year. Riding with Luna will give me the opportunity to be fully supported at all of my races as well as, the opportunity to race and prepare for races with very talented and experienced team mates. After years of racing as an individual I’m looking forward to travelling and racing as part of a team. I’m also excited to announce the addition of Oakley as a sponsor for 2008. Christmas is coming multiple times this year!!! I want to say a huge thank you to Norco for their support over the last two years. The bikes and staff were great and I’ll really miss the crew next year.

602 supporters have already signed on. Hope you will too To: Union Cycliste Internationale (U.C.I.) We, the undersigned, find it regrettable that there is still a considerable disparity between the UCI minimum prize money for men and women. We understand that because competition in the men’s field is deeper, more places receive prize money. We do not understand why the women who are receiving prize money receive less than their male counterparts. Therefore we propose that the UCI show leadership and mandate equal prize money for the top five men and women. Article 3 of the UCI Constitution states: “The UCI will carry out its activities in compliance with the principles of: a) equality between all the members and all the athletes, license-holders and officials, without racial, political, religious, or other discrimination.” We ask the UCI to honor its commitment to equality. http://www.petitiononline.com/equalpay/petition.html

Thursday I gave my first Tobacco free Sports presentations at Logan Lake Secondary. I was super lucky to start at this school as the students were great with tons of questions. I presented to the grade eights and nines and managed to get through my whole presentation without forgetting anything major! Thanks to Mrs Hall for inviting me out and Mr. Dell who was subbing on the day and got things off to a smooth start. I am one of 8 athletes in BC who is going into schools to share our sport story in hopes young people will turn to sport rather than tobacco to make fun, cool friends, have a good time and grow as a person.

For the longest time I believed that if I ate balanced, healthy meals I’d be getting everything I needed without supplements. This idea has merit and is stress free when it comes to hoping that companies list all ingredients in their products, but is eating right enough for an athlete? After losing a significant amount of weight this year due to training demands and cutting out junk food (mostly) I sat for many months on the lower end of healthy body weight. After chipping a tooth this summer and then reading an article about osteoporosis in cyclists I started worrying about bone density. Although not considered to belong in an at risk group I was able to get a bone density scan thanks to the National team affiliated doctor. It turns out I was being a bit paranoid, but not overly. My bone density fell within the normal healthy range, but was a bit lower than expected for someone my age. So my doctor recommends more calcium (with vitamin d) for me and more weight bearing activ

Today I woke to frosted rooftops and grass. After helping with the media launch of Operation Red Nose – A designated driver service that supports local athletes – I bundled up and headed out for my ride. Still -3 at noon and still frosty everywhere. At only 1.5 hrs into my ride I had that familiar experience of an ice filled bottle. Luckily from years of experience I knew to pack a bottle in my back pocket to keep my 2nd bottle from freezing. With 2-4 layers of clothing covering every part of my body I was still frozen at 2.5 hrs in and had to head home to finish my ride on the trainer. No doors open, no fan and it still took me 15 minutes to warm up! Yeah winter… come on snow, bring on the xc skiing!

As I promised here is the picture of our 'new to us' Toyota Echo. It's a fun little car with a way different feel than the Subaru, but great for getting Keith back and forth to work

After my return from a summer full of racing and travel I took some downtime to enjoy being at home with no where i had to go. Sandra and i had been excitedly planning a weekend in Naramata (near Penticton) full of pumpkin and biking. Jean Ann, Sandra, Keith, Myself, Jeanine and Sandra's mum convened on their cottage thanksgiving weekend for 3 days of hanging out with great food, friends and trails. We had no tv, phone and cell reception on at the edge of Lake Okanagan which we looked out at from the balcony. We fell asleep to waves lapping against the shoreline. Then it was time for my annual cyclocross race at Vanier Park. Photo by Greg Descantes I typically describe cyclocross as all my weaknesses on a bike thrown in to 45 minutes of pain, but by the last 2 laps I seemed to be figuring it out and made my way up to 3rd at the BC Cup. My new Norco CX bike feels great and with some more practice I think I could delve into the world of CX;-) Yeah!! A bike race in Kamloops! Henry Pej

So as the Season winds down I thought I would take this time of reduced blogging to thank a bunch of important people in my life. So in no particular order...... Mom and Dad My parents have always been extremely dedicated and supportive of my brother Geoff and I. When I decided to move to BC and headed west with my mountain bike it was my mom who hauled my road bike across the country to visit me. Mom started her plane trek from New Brunswick on Sept 11th. Yes 2001. Her plane was forced to land in Winnipeg due to the tragic events in the US. Now in Winnipeg with a bike box my mom spent several dayscarting it back and forth to the airport trying to catch a flight before finally settling on the train. It had been raining and the cardboard bike box was now soggy and crumbling. Mum arrived in Victoria tired and vowing to never travel with a bike box again. I don’t think I ever adequately thanked her enough for that. Thanks Mom! Dad was my first sponsor. As Geoff and I got more ambitious ab

PRESS RELEASE BC Athletes to Speak Out Against Tobacco UsePacificSport registered athletes to share “be your best. be tobacco free” message(September 11th , 2007) – The Tobacco Free Sports (TFS) program has a new face – nine new faces to be exact. Starting this month, the Tobacco Free Sports program, a provincial initiative funded by the Ministry of Health in partnership with PacificSport, Alcohol Drug Education Services (ADES) and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), will have nine PacificSport registered athletes representing the program as the Tobacco Free Sports Athlete Ambassadors. “I know I could not have achieved the success I have if I used tobacco products,“ says Kamloops mountain biker Catharine Pendrel, Gold Medalist at the 2007 Pan American Games. “Sport has been a huge influence in my life providing me with great self respect, confidence, identity and rich opportunities. For kids that are tobacco users, I believe setting athletic goals can provide the motivation and peer group

The official count down! The gang Houshang (coach), Kiara, Me, Richard (Chiro), Chad (mechanic), Michel (Performance manager), Ben (physio). Yes it does seem like a huge staff, but COC has alotted funds for a performance team. Michel Leblanc, former national mtb coach is now Sport Performance manager for the COC. He was with us through the week ensuring all the things were in place for us to have good preparation for the event and to workout the kinks for next year. He was also our guide/host for some great sightseeing. The Birds Nest will hold the opening/closing ceremony and athletics. Check out that haze!!! After the race we got cleaned up and headed out for an eveining on the town. We drove by the Olympic village and related buildings and then did a walk around Tianamen square and checked out the official Olympic countdown timer. After that we went out for dinner. Again they served us Western Chinese food, but we got to have some mooncakes. Sept 25th is the moon festival in China

The polution is definitely more noticeable today with the haze dexcending into town, but there is a nice breeze keeping it cool and clearish. The women raced at 11 and the men at 2. There were 24 starters in the women’s field. Only certain high ranked countries were invited and each could send 3 men and 3 women. Some nations or riders were not invited to participate, but travelled to China as Staff so they could ride and check out the course. Gunn rita was there, but did not race. There were atleast 5 different teams from China racing and I was a little curious of just how many uber fast chinese girls there were. The race was an opportunity for riders and staff to learn as much as they could about the course, conditions and logisitics. Some riders treated it seriously where others were their purely for information. I decided the best way for me to get valuable information was for me to race the course like I would any other race. It was going to be tough. There is no recovery on the co

From my hotel window. The hotel had all the luxuries of home...except a smokefree environment Kiara and I flew from Graz - FrankFurt - Beijing. We had been expecting to travel with Max as well, but I guess he wasn’t feeling up to the trip. As we waited to board our plane we saw news flashes that a typhoon was to hit Shanghai that evening. Great. It was another sleepless 9hr flight for me, but the time change was only 6hrs from Europe so it wasn’t too bad to switchover. A “Goodluck Beijing” Team was there to pick us and the Aussie’s up and take us to bike storage and the hotel. We had to store our bikes at the mtb venue, as will be the preocedure for the Olympics, and then stayed at a nearby hotel as the Athlete village is not completed yet. It’ll be about 25km from the venue. The skies were clear and the pollution not nearly what I had expected. Maybe Typhoon Wipha had cleared the air for us. China was a different travelling experience than any I’ve had before. Usually I can feel my wa

That mtn in the background is part of the Pohorje range and the site of the World Cup. Below is Maribor. Sunday, after riding around Maribor to check out some local scenery, Sandra and I packed up the Golf and Headed west to Portoroz and the Adriatic Sea. Although most Europeans seem to be great drivers, Slovenians miss this talent a bit making for intersting driving. On the way to the coast we stopped in Postojna for some cave exploration. We spent and hour and a half walking through underground caverns surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. Although from the outside the place looked disgustingly touristic the caves were absolutely amazing. Stalactites and Stalagmites. The caves were huge and went from 80 to 150m down. Some caverns are so large they hold concerts in them twice a year. Neat, but bring your coat! After that long in the cool caves we were happy to return to the sunlight and warm temperatures and continued on to the coast. Although only a 2.5 hr drive we had to go th

Best Bull rider ever! Sram girls crashed the Shimano party with Mike from Rocky That night we headed out for some typical Slovenian food. Basically meat and potato type dishes. After the 4 cross a popular Slovenian Band played ska/punk type music on the hill and we all got to have some fun. I gave Bull riding a go –mechanical - which was awesome. It makes you crazy dizzy though.

Slovenia is an interesting country. Maribor, where our race was held, is in the North east corner. It’s a fairly typical European town and has lots of rolling hills dotted with church steeples. Compared to Switzerland it seems more natural, less manicured and there are way more trees, softwood and hardwood. In 2.5 hrs you can cross the country and hit the Adriatic Sea and the border with Croatia. Food is cheap, but hotels, laundry etc are pricy. The finals course proved to be very tough. The laps were only 4.5km or so, but the trails were demanding. There were a lot of singletrack climbs that were rooty or turned upwards sharply. Sandra and I got to line up side by side being numbers 24 and 25. The start was pretty good and soon enough I was able to pick my way up to the front. About mid climb however me and another girl interlocked wheels and I was brought to a standstill. After separating I got going again, but someone told me my quick release was open so I had to get off

On Monday I was back at the airport and again headed to switzerland. Sandra picked me up at the airport and had truffles waiting. Yummy! We then headed back to her aunt's and Uncle's place near Bern. Sandra and her family are amazingly awesome. They had a bouquet of flowers and a Congrats cake waiting for my arrival. Having a Chef in the family comes in handy. Her relatives Sepp and Sonya were off to Slovenia the next morning where they are going to holiday and come cheer us on at The World Cup finals. Sandra and I started the trek to Slovenia that evening after getting in a good workout. We made it to Freidrichshaffen that night....only to find out we weren't actually supposed to be there as it was in the wrong direction. Ahwell, only 30km off track and we found a nice place to stay. German breakfasts consisted of a meet tray, cheese tray and buns, but it was pretty good. Travel Day two saw us through 3 countries as we passed between Germany and Austria a couple times to

You know those days when you get on the bike and your like, “ooohh I’ve got good legs today”. That was this morning warming up for the world Championships. I arrived in Scotland on Tuesday after a couple days and a race in Switzerland. We’ve been staying at this great hotel and have been completely taken care of so I was able to completely indulge in resting my legs. Yes I did get a little stir crazy at times, but got some good reading in. All the Canadians were feeling that the course was awesome. Although it was a little over constructed with all the corners being burmed, it was really fast and fun. I was also pleased to find a 10 minute climb to stretch my legs on, knowing that even in a world cup field I’m one of the strongest climbers. So it’s Saturday morning and my legs are feeling awesome. It’s overcast, but dry and I have a fun course ahead of me and a third row call up. Off the start Petra Henzi and a woman from the Netherlands crashed, but I was able to avoid the downed ride

On my way to a 4th place finish at the SwissPower Cup Finals Race in downtown Muttenz near Basel. Photos by Michel sturder www.msturder.ch Yeah!! I’m back in Switzerland hanging out with my friend Sandra and her Aunt and Uncle. Ricky Federau and I arrived in Zurich Thursday after a sleepless 16hrs of travel. Our VW Golf was waiting at the r ental agency and was the perfect fit for our bikes and gear. Awesome! With my second immersio n in German it’s getting a little easier and I’m picking up some good phrases thanks to Ricky and his remembrances of German classes as a kid. He taught me the lyric above - I am a foreigner and I don’t speak German well – a convenient phrase to have at my disposal. So it’s been a matter of trying to get our sleep schedule switched to this time zone, not an easy task and working the travel kinks out of the legs before Worlds. The three of us headed to Basel , near the border with Germany this weekend. On Sunday we raced the SwissPower Cup

Hey Guys, Go check out the latest Velonews. On page 128-129 (Planet Dirt) you'll find a story on me and Sydor.

September 2nd Swiss Power Cup: Zurich, Switzerland September 8th World Championships: Fort William, Scotland September 15th World Cup Finals: Maribor, Slovenia September 22nd Good luck Beijing Invitation Race: Laoshan, China As you can see I’ve got an exciting and busy fall planned. It all kicks off this Wednesday with an ungodly 4:00am wakeup to get to the airport in time to start my Around the World Adventure. I decided to kick start the next set of races with the Swiss Power cup to get my mind and body focused for Worlds the following weekend. I am psyched to get back to Switzerland and visit Sandra and her family –my favorite Swiss – Sepp and Sonya. Ricky Federau and I will be traveling together and teaming up with our Swiss counterparts. It should be awesome. I hear there is even a Minnie golf tournament in the works. The following Tuesday Ricky and I head to Scotland to meet up with the rest of team Canada to prepare for Worlds. Canada has decided not to enter a relay d

Having time at home to ride has been awesome. Keith and I have been able to get out on some good exploration rides and enjoy an atypically cooler august in Kamloops. After many a good training rides you inevitably need that recovery ride. So as I head down Columbia on my road bike having just been invited to the Good luck Beijing Invitation race I am in good spirits and ready for a mellow ride. About 5 blocks from my house however the drivers side door of a parked car swings open just as I am about to pass the car. Boom! The right side of my body collides with the door and I am sent sideways to land on the center line a couple feet away. I pick my self up and get off the road leaving my bike, but luckily no cars are dangerously close. My head is spinning, “I can’t believe that just happened”. I’m okay, but a little freaked. My bike on the other hand and the car door are in need of replacement. Keith was able to get there within 15 minutes with ice and so bruising was minim

So I am one of the lucky athletes selected to be a Tobacco Free Sport Ambassador. With the program we will travel around our region of BC sharing our sport stories and encouraging a tobacco free lifestyle. To do that we needed some public speaking training, or a tleast I do, so after a fun weekend in Squamish and Whistler Keith and I headed to Vancouver. We’re now crashing with friends Jenny and Chris as I go to my tobacco free sport ambassador training for Two days and Keith gets to do lots of visiting with our Vancouverite friends.

After an only partially successful attempt at comfortably numb in July Keith and I were determined to ride the rest of the trail. What we got to ride before was so much fun we wanted to check it all out. We headed to Pemberton Friday night and camped out at a great park called Nairn Falls. After a two year abstinence from camping, Keith and I were tenting again and cooking with a camp stove. It was great! Saturday morning we got up early and after a quick Oatmeal breakfast were driving to Squamish for TT provincials. Well I raced and Keith went for an mtb ride. The race was about 38km and a fun foray back into road racing and a good way to get in a wicked flat land power interval. The race took me just under 57minutes and then I got to kickback at a BBQ with the other racers and some friends. My but was incredibly sore…there’s something about that TT position that makes sitting down within the next hour very uncomfortable. We headed back to the campsite that night and after some

Keith and i hiking Helmcken Canyon Helmcken Falls (4th highest falls in Canada) I got back to Vancouver Monday night and Keith was at the airport to pick me up and take me home to Kamloops. After a lazy day of hanging out at home on Tuesday my Dad arrived in town. We got in some fun summery stuf like having a BBQ on the back deck and checking out some local sites. Keith, Dad and I did our first trip out to Wells Gray Park where we did a little hike around Helmcken Falls. The falls are 3x higher than Niagra. It was a beautiful park and Keith and I are thinking about going back with the road bikes for some camping and exploring. The next day we headed through Salmon Arm to Revelstoke to show Dad some of the local area and the places we love to ride and spend time . That's my Dad!

Still reeling from my first Norba podium the day before in the xc I headed out for an AM coffee spin with Mical and Joele. Legs didn’t feel soo bad, but could definitely feel them whenever the grade turned upwards. In my warm up my legs started to come around. The last week they just didn’t feel like they were clearing. Seems I just needed 90 minutes of race pace climbing to flush them out! Tired definitely, but I thought my legs might pull through for me on the day. One lap of the short track course in North Carolina took about 3 minutes of which probably close to 1min was climbing…good for me. The rest of the course was a series of tight corners with some max power bursts between. I had an okay start and was able to use the climb to gain positions. On second lap the leaders were still close, but I knew to do well I still had a lot of moving up to do. At the top of the climb there was a tight corner. I buried myself to get to the corner with the group ahead of me and the

Wednesday night Mical, myself and Kris Sneddon arrived in Charlotte North Carolina for round 5 of the NMBS series. Luckily I had already reserved a car as only 1 agency still had vehicles left. We had to try out three different SUV’s however before we found one that could fit three people with bike boxes and luggage. It was a little sketchy with one box jutting into the front seats so that when I had to brake hard catching a restaurant entrance last minute the box came forward shifting the car out of drive. It was a bit of an epic trip through the twisty, hilly roads out to Banner elk. The directions we had were limited and the signage even worse. But eventually we pulled off the foggy wet road and were given beds at the Kona team house. After a wicked 10.5 hr sleep Mical and I set out for a pre ride. Starting at the base of Sugar mountain the course headed up….way up to the top. I’m not sure how many km we climbed nor what the elevation change was, but I was the first racer to the top

First off Just want you to know my Bro finished 3rd at Canadian DH Nationals. Ripping! This set the weekend up nicely for another Pendrel on the podium. Mt Washington Resort on Vancouver Island hosted the 2007 Mtb National championships. Mt. Washington is a beautiful hill with great vistas, riding and alpine meadows and lakes. As usual Tim Hortons was sponsoring the event and kept the riders and volunteers full of warm coffee and treats. These were especially appreciated this weekend as the weather was not cooperative. It rained pretty much straight from wed afternoon until Sunday morning. At times it was a light mist and at others full on down pour. Tuesday I did a tempo lap in 24 minutes (dry), but by race day lap times were 28-30. After many days of rain, the course was very mucky. The opening climb forced all riders to dismount at some point. MHP as expected took the lead from the start, but I was able to maintain my top 5 starting position into the base of the climb and was fairly