Catharine Pendrel

Ahh, home time has been good. The whole family was back together on Sunday night with Keith and I returning from Test of Metal and Catherine and Matt back from the Canada Cups. We celebrated with a little BBQ and playing fetch with our cat Oly who has been in Catherine withdrawl the past several weeks. Test of Metal was awesome. It's fun to go back to the races where I feel like I got my start at racing elite. About 10 of us from Kamloops camped at Alice Lake. I had my best sleeps of the week in the tent...a good thing going into the BC bike race! The weather at night was cool and drizzly which made for perfect race conditions; temperature and traction wise. 1006 people started the mass start 60+km mtb race and over 950 finished. Pretty good survival rate. For me the race was great. I got to lead start to finish and collect all 10 $100 primes and ride with a lot of friendly fun guys. More satisfying than the cash purse however was coming out on top in the inter-Kamloop

Another weekend of racing, this time in Colorado Springs for the 4th stop on the US Cup circuit. The neat thing about this weekend for me was that I got the chance to see where Waldek and Alison live and meet Waldek’s Kids Michael and Tyler. I love seeing new terrain and Colorado didn’t disappoint with its unique red rock jutting out of the ground seemingly at random and large white capped mountains looming in the background. The course was rather unique as well with a fast track containing only a slight grade climb and several rock gardens to manoeuvre. We raced Short track on Friday night with home town favourite Alison Dunlap joining the Luna Squad to make us 5 strong. The track was predominantly single track with only one good place to pass making it a race of patience and timing. Katerina and I made the front group early on with Katie Compton and Heather Irmiger. We were doing well with 2 laps to go, but with only one place to pass someone was going to get shut out at a cruc

I have to say I am loving June. It's my month at home...well mostly. Atleast I'm home during the week. Last weekend I "raced the ranch" and earned my self a sweet belt buckle and some prize money to give the volunteers for their well desrved beer fund. I helped flag the course for 3 hrs on thursday, but atleast 4 others had already put in 3hr before I got there and they were back the next 2 days at least working to get everything ready. So a huge thanks to Henry, Alison,Bruce and Craig among others. It was fun to be able to ride my local trails as a race warm up as the 2 minute ride to the course would not have done much! The weather was pretty cooperative with a nice breeze and it was fun to be racing alongside Kamloops firends and have an awesome cheering section out there. I raced my dually for the first time and was super happy as I pushed over the bumpy plateaus and into the undulating twisty singletrack. The course got so dusty that when I slid out o

oooh, that's hot. Yes it's in the direct heat, but still that's hot! This weekend is the BC cup, Race the ranch where I'll be trying to earn my self a sweet belt buckle for the win. Keith and some of the local crew have added lots more singletrack which will hopefully not get too rutted out. The trails are crazy dry and dusty, but a lot of fun. Picnic in Riverside Park. Yeah summer!

After three luxurious days at home with Keith and the kitties i was off again. This time to Alabama. The nice thing about US cups though is I don't have to travel with a bike. Zeph and Chris have it all ready in the trailer for me when I get there. Thanks guys! We got in late friday night and I was pooped. I had felt like I had zero jet lag in Kamloops, but it all came crashing down on me after a full day of travel. A 9hr sleep helped out though and i hit the bump and Grind trails with my teammates for a couple laps on Saturday. The course was super fun. It was predominantely singletrack. It was going to be crazy hard to pass. We would start with a slight paved climb before hitting the woods and then dive back out on pavement 2 times per lap. The trails were super windy, rooty and rocky. After 2 days at home on my dually i was missing the plush comfort. The trees were tight and I'd be surprised if a single rider made it through without a raspberry on their shoulde

Plaza Mayor, Madrid Spain Coach Dan and Geoff K joined the Luna team for Dinner in Madrid post race One shop features Bull fighting history with lots of old black and white pics, news paper articles and comes complete with Bull heads. Kinda grotesque. So spain. Unfortunately the food did not get any better than last year. Our pre race meal was at an italian restaurant that was closed till 8pm, but they let us in for the Lunch buffet leftovers. As I chowed down on our best meal to date i was wondering if I would get food poisoning from some food not kept at the proper temperature the last couple hours. I went to bed excited for the race. My form has been so good the last few weeks and i was keen to try to prove to people that I could do well on a course most people thought didn't suit me. Last I checked though all the girls riding at the front have been lighweights so i figured my chances should be as good as any. Oh yeah, and it was muddy, real muddy. Unfortunately we real