Canada Cup 2009 1st Round – Mont-Tremblant, QC

Posted: May 29, 2009

Source: Simon Gauthier

It’s under the French blue skies of beautiful Mont-Tremblant that the Canadian racing season has kicked in this past weekend. With no signs of grey clouds or even raindrops, the racing has undergone on a beautiful dry revamped racing track, thanks to the organizers making it faster and way more flowy than ever before.

To top the weekend off, Red Bull had organized a tag team race Saturday night, blending cross country/downhill athletes together. Here’s how the event went in Red Bull’s own words ;

‘’On Saturday May 23rd, a new concept in Mtb racing was introduced called Red Bull Monte Descend. Monte Descend was a 2009 addition to the already planned Quebec and Canada Cup weekend at Mont Tremblant. With XC races on Saturday, and DH races on Sunday, Red Bull launched the idea of combining the two disciplines. On Saturday night, 24 teams of 2, each composed of an XC and DH athlete, battled it out for 2 hrs to determine the winner. What made the event unique and even more appealing was the fact that it was held from 8pm-10pm. As the competition went along, it became progressively darker and athletes had to rely on their helmet/bike headlights to navigate the majority of the course.


It all began with the XC athletes and a "Le Mans" style start run to their bikes. The XC riders climbed around a few of the major hotels, cut through forest singletrack and then looped back into the village. The XC portion ended with a climb up rue des Remparts, the main artery of Tremblant village. Once the riders completed their lap their team number was radioed to the start of the DH course and their DH team mate dropped in .


The DH course started on an existing section of the Canada Cup course, then split off across the ski run and into a hiking trail in the forest. Complete with tight turns, gnarly roots and staircases, the course continued its decent to a large rock face that had never been touched by wheels in the past. The track swept back onto the Canada Cup course, into the village and ended with a north shore style bridge over a fountain and into a gap jump at the finish line. After physically tagging their XC teammate, DH riders had only a few minutes to get themselves on a chairlift and back to the start of the DH course. At 10pm, the team with the most completed laps or the team with the fastest final lap time was declared the winner.


Overall the event was a success. Feedback from both Mont-Tremblant and athletes has been amazing and there is already talk of next year. This is a fairly simple concept that can be applied to any major mountain bike weekend. With athletes already in attendance, it's a great way to bring a Red Bull experience to an already existing event. Just in case... Monte Descend in English is Up Down.’’

‘’Andrew Mitchell was teamed up with Quebec’s own Julien Fillion and they held the 1st position for more than an hour and a half. Having raced in the Elite category in the afternoon, Julien’s legs started to back down a bit, so then his closest rival(Garrigan) took the opportunity to sneak into first place and kept the lead until the end. We also had Evan Schwartz and Simon Lalancette burning the race track all night long, finishing in a strong 9th position’’ said Simon athlete manager at Devinci. Here are final results of the evening ;


Back to racing now, Trenton Zoobkoof was training along with Kyle Marshall on the fast track that seemed to suit them pretty well. On a track as long and pedally as the Mont-Tremblant is, this is where riders that trained over the off season get their game on. Average speed on the track was around 4min20sec in the pro category, and Pinkbike’s own Kyle Marshall smashed it going through the finish line at 4:14.146, enough for sitting in the hot seat for more than half an hour!!


Then some local big guns started slamming the times down a bit, cutting run after run half seconds down Kyle’s time, taking him off the hot seat. Hans Lambert finally took the win on a smoking run, scoring in at 4.03.778. Too bad last year’s title defender Andrew Mitchell hit a tree up top, he was definitively pinning it and in the run to take the first position. Even with a crash he managed to score a solid 2nd position, crossing the finish line at 4.07.430, only 4 seconds after Hans. Kyle Marshall ended up taking the Junior Experts first spot, earning him the day's 5th fastest time.


Devinci sponsored athletes were supported by the Devinci Race Support crew, who is also there to give free race support to everyone who owns and rides a Devinci on the race weekends. Feel free to stop by the booth if you need any mechanical help, these guys will hook you up!


The weekend is now in the books and athletes are already looking forward to the next Canada Cup race, which will be held at Bromont on July 4th 2009.

-www.mondialduvelo.com

See ya’all next time,

Simon.