Catharine Pendrel

Photo by Rob jones Moving into the Village After two good training sessions in Ontario after nationals, Max and I were off to the airport to connect with Emily and Raphael for our flight to Glasgow Wednesday night.   (Max and I stayed to check out the mtb athlete accommodations for the Pan Am Games next summer and enjoy the local riding). At the airport we were escorted to the front with special commonwealth athlete status. Bonus! Quickly, we were settled into the 6hr flight to Glasgow where we were greeted by Games staff at the airport, again streamlined through customs, accreditation and were met by our bags on the other side.   You could really get used to that level of service! With time to grab a coffee we were on a bus with athletes from track and field and headed to the village where Ian Hughes from Cycling Canada was there to meet us after security.   Getting into a games village is very similar to going through airport security. Ian gave us a tour of t

Emily Batty, me, Sandra Walter. Photos by Marc Landry This weekend I regained the right to wear the maple leaf on my Luna kit.  Being National Champion is something I have always cherished.  It was tough, not being able to challenge for it last year, but luckily Canada has another great Champion in Emily Batty who wore it well.   Not much space between Emily and I for the first 3 laps. Photo Jeremy Allen This year's battle for the Championship was fast and furious.  From the Start Emily, myself and Sandra Walter distanced ourselves from the field.  Within 10 minutes it was down to Emily and I duking it out.  When we entered the 2nd lap and there was no sign that Emily had any intention of getting dropped I started to wonder if and how I was going to be able to pull off the win. On lap 3 Emily surged to the front, I retook the lead, she countered and overtook me, it was awesome racing.  I knew I was going to have to make a big move to create separation so saved up and gav

Luna teammate, Maghalie Rochette and I just wrapped up a week of racing at the BC Bike Race (BCBR).  It was my third time doing this awesome event where we race hours of the best BC single track every day for a week.  The first time I did BCBR, it was with my teammate Katerina Nash.   We were evenly paired in fitness and technical skill and raced our buts off for 7 days straight to stay ahead of Lea Davison and Alison Sydor.   In 2010, we had a bit of a “Dream team” in the mixed category as I paired up with my Olympic teammate Geoff Kabush.   Rather than having to share the load on the fire roads, I sat in his comfortable draft and did my best everywhere else to give him some good training. This year, I was the stronger teammate physically and technically.   I would be domestique trying to get my protected rider from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but also at a rate that she would be able to complete the week…. And at a rate that wouldn’t have her throwing death