Catharine Pendrel

What a season! The World cup series has now come to a close and in a pretty darn fantastic fashion. The World Cup finals in Windham, New York saw myself and the Luna team achieving many season goals. Luna put a rider on the podium at every World cup this season and we took the team overall in a dominating fashion. I achieved my 2nd World cup win of the year and my first World Cup overall title. After a 5 year absence, the USA once again saw themselves hosting a World cup and the town of Windham put on a great event. You could feel the positive vibes sent out from the town. Church signs welcomed us with "You Pedal, We Pray" and coffee shops marveled at the amount of espresso consumed and by so many different accents. There were nightly parties and lots of entertainment outside of the racing. Keith was traveling with me and we made it more of a trip than just racing. Flying into Montreal we made our way slowly to Windham with a stop at the Kingdom Trails in East Burke,

Forest fires cause air quality in Kamloops to plummet to hazardous levels Poor visibility forces cancellation of airline flights while the elderly and those with health conditions advised to stay indoors By CAM FORTEMS, Kamloops Daily News Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Forest+fires+cause+quality+Kamloops+plummet+hazardous+levels/3419784/story.html#ixzz0x9r7loTk

tuckered out by the end of the day! Lavonne, Sara, me and Carrie This weekend I had the fantastic fortune of heading down to Seattle to hang out with the Seattle Luna Chix. I was invited to give a skills clinic at Duthie Hills in Isquaa to Luna riders and local women. We got a great group of enthusiastic women who had decided to brush the dust of their bikes and get back into riding, or gain some more skills for their tool bag. It's always amazing to see women's confidence grow and how much smoother and relaxed of riders they can become in 3hrs! Duthie Hills was fantastic for the event. I had traveled to Seattle expecting to be coaching out of a soccer field or school yard when in fact we were treated to a skills park with a cloverleaf of trails branching off from the park. A trail named Bootcamp was reminiscent of a 15 min pump track. wicked! The area was created and maintained by the Evergreen Club and is well worth checking out. From Basic body position to climbi

Kamloops Pre and during Forest fire season

So we're all settled into a nice apartment, good coffee and ah yes we found a nice pizzeria right by the venue. Prep went well. The course was pretty simple; steep ass climbs and fast fun descents. I did a hard work out on Wednesday as I need to feel fast on my mtb again and rid the bad energy I was still carrying from Switzerland. After a couple intervals and laps on the course I had figured out how to ride through the tenderness in my arse and the grumblings in my head. Thursday Waldek and I scouted out some mtn view lakes for a photo shoot (not every team can claim to have 3 national champs). It rained pretty hard but we found a trail down from the mtn top lake so all was good. Our hotel served some amazing multi-course meals, venison seems very popular here. One more day of race prep and I was set to race. I actually had one of my best world cup starts ever and it was on flat rough grass. Go figure. I came through the start loop in 9th and moved my way up so that abou

Champery was a tough week for me, a crash in training had left not only my but, but my confidence bruised. Not many things frustrate me as racing below my ability level though so I was determined to turn things around for the next World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy. How can things go wrong after a week of good Italian food and coffee? After the race in Switzerland, the Luna crew hung out for another day. On Monday we climbed the Col de Cou...for cappuccino of course. Once atop we appeared to have 2 options for descending back to Champery. Georgia and Waldek both remembered riding a different trail down. So as Waldek and I tried out the hiking trail, Georgia and Zak opted for the other route. Both worked out and Wadek and I got to do some fun switchbacks and a fast descent to our meeting point. Tuesday was driving day. An 8hr drive took 12, but we got to stop for freshly picked apricots, autogrill coffee (some of the best coffee in Italy is served up by baristas on the freeway. I