Montreal, April 26 2009 (Sportcom) - At her first World Cup race in the 2009 season, Marie-Hélène Prémont took 14th place in the mountain bike race, held Sunday in Offenburg, Germany.
The racer from Château-Richer finished just over five minutes behind the winner of the race, the Chinese rider Chengyuan Ren who had completed the course in 1 hour, 49 minutes and 46 seconds. The Spanish rider, Margarita Fullana Riera (+ 49 sec.) and Norwegian Lene Byberg (+ 1: s 24) completed the podium. The top Canadian, Catharine Pendrel (+ 2: 05 s), came in sixth place.
"It was a very interesting race. I am not accustomed to starting behind the others. This is the result of your last race results, which determines your starting rank, but as I did not attend the first World Cup in South Africa two weeks ago, I had to start in 52nd place," Prémont said.
Just 200m from the start, she was stuck behind a crash. "I lost a lot of time. And the bad luck continued when I was caught behind a crash a kilometre further along. I even had to climb a hill on foot. Later I had to wait behind the others because it was not possible to overtake. All this was not obvious. Next week it will be much better."
Marie-Hélène Prémont will spend the week in Europe when she is due to take part next weekend in the World Cup mountain bike race in Houffalize, Belgium.
"I'll take the opportunity to rest because I had a big winter to successfully complete my studies. I am far from being discouraged," asserted the one who had suggested that the 2008 season would be her last race season.
Translated from Sportcom Press release.
Race photos at Canadiancyclist.com