We're very proud to help support Marie-Hélène Prémont's 2008 mountain bike racing season. Marie is a team rider for the Rocky Mountain Bicycles team, and is a 5 time Canadian Champion, an Olympic silver medallist, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and a regular medal winner on the UCI World Cup mountain bike cross country circuit. She's one of the fastest woman XC mountain bike racers in the world.

2004 Athens Silver

We were impressed by Marie's dedication and commitment to her sport. Just 30 years old, she's already been racing mountain bikes for over a decade. Marie has been a member of the Canadian National Team since 2000. She's steadily worked her way up through the ranks in Quebec Cup, Canada Cup and World Cup races, capturing her first Elite Women Canadian Championship in 2003 and holding that National Champion jersey ever since. She won an Olympic silver medal at Athens in 2004, raising her profile and showing all of Canada that huge smile that was already well known in the mountain bike racing community.

She had her first World Cup gold medal at Spa Francorchamps in 2005 followed up by another gold medal at her home race at Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec that same year. She dominated the 2006 Commonwealth Games race in Melbourne, despite little distractions like having a 6' tall kangaroo leap across the trail in front of her on the way to a gold medal. In 2006 Marie won gold medals in World Cup races at Mont Sainte Anne and at Schladming in Austria.

Marie finished the 2007 World Cup season in second overall and is off to a good start for 2008 with a bronze and two silver medals and wearing the leader's jersey after the first three races of the season.

Marie wearing the leader's jersey after the first three races of the 2008 season. Photo by Frank Bodenmüller mtbsector.com

But the excellent results only tell part of the story. It's never an easy path to the podium at this level of competition. The typical race is 2 hours of intense effort that would make a mere mortal recreational mountain bike rider implode, and the races are held no matter what the weather conditions are, including 5^oC cold, wind and rain, or 40^oC+ heat. Make no mistake, this is a race and the actual pace that a mountain bike racer can manage for 2 hours would just astonish most people.

Consistent podium results tend to hide the fact that racing a mountain bike is not an easy job and things don't always go smoothly in a race. Having mechanical problems in the drivetrain from mud, or from unintended offs into the trees (sometimes with the help of the rider being passed for position), flat tires, crashes, etc., all make a tough day in the office seem like a breeze compared to a tough day at work for Marie.

Marie winning her 5th Canadian Championship at Mt.Washington in
July 2007, with almost 5 minutes over the second place rider

It's the unexpected problems that show the real character of racers. In 2006 at the World Cup race in Madrid, Marie was running a strong second to the world champion when a flat tire caused her to crash with a damaged rear wheel. She ran the bike 2km to the service area, had the rear wheel replaced and fought her way back up from 17th place to 10th place in the remaining lap of the race.

In 2007 at Mont Sainte Anne, Marie crashed hard on the second lap trying to pass a rider for position, losing about a minute by the time she was able to get moving again. She pushed as hard as she could through the last two laps to move back up from 8th place. Her hometown crowd, friends and family cheered her on as she picked off each rider in front of her. She was taking about 30 seconds per lap out of the gap to the leaders, finishing in 4th place just 46 seconds behind first place, and 22 seconds behind the 3rd place rider, with the interval shrinking. That's just amazing when you consider the 3 riders in the lead group were all racing each other as hard as they could for the win while Marie was catching them at 30 seconds per lap! The picture below is Marie approaching the finish line with the cheering crowd lining both sides of the course.

Marie approaching the finish line at Mont Sainte Anne to huge cheers

It takes a lot of dedication to keep pushing at 100% in those situations, there's more than a few racers that would have found either incident a good reason to post a DNF.

There's also a tremendous amount of training and conditioning required to compete at this level. That by itself is not unusual for a top level athlete, but Marie already has a BA in Kinesiology and is working on a degree in Pharmacy, so she has a full plate. She has a very close and supportive family, and has a balanced, if busy life. Unlike many athletes, mountain bike racing is just part of her life, not all of it. She races because she really enjoys it, "Sharing my life between education and a high level sport brings me balance in my life."

She is also very active in her community with charities and fundraising efforts, and talking to school kids about the importance of health and fitness with her sponsor Familiprix. "Motivate kids to be active, it encourages health!" says Marie.

Best of all, Marie puts paid to that old saying that "nice guys finish last", nice guys and gals can also finish on the podium on a regular basis!

Marie-Hélène Prémont is a young woman that really impressed us, it's hard to imagine a better Canadian sports ambassador to the world. We're very proud to be able to help support her 2008 season of mountain bike racing.

Best of luck for 2008 Marie!

2008 race calendar

April 19-20 UCI World Cup MTB XCO#1, Houffalize, Belgium
April 26-27 UCI World Cup MTB XCO#2, Offenburg, Germany
May 3-4 UCI World Cup MTB XCO#3, Madrid, Spain
May 31-June 1 UCI World Cup MTB XCO#4, Vallnord, Andalusia
June 7-8 UCI World Cup MTB XC0#5, Fort William, Scotland
June 17-22 UCI World Championships, Val-di-Sole, Italy
July 19-20 National Championship MTB, Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec
July 26-27 UCI World Cup MTB XC0#6, Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec
Aug 2-3 UCI World Cup MTB XCO#7, Bromont, Quebec
Aug 22-23 Beijing 2008 Olympic MTB race
Aug 30-31 UCI World Cup MTB XC0#8 Canberra, Australia
Sept 13-14 UCI World Cup MTB XC0#9, Schladming, Austria

Marie on the podium after finishing second in the final 2007 UCI World
Cup race in Maribor, Slovenia, securing her second place overall in the
2007 UCI World Cup season. Photo by Frank Bodenmüller mtbsector.com