{"id":498516,"date":"2026-02-23T08:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498516\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:56:16","slug":"canadians-thrive-at-tropical-mtb-challenge-nearly-sweeping-u23-xco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498516\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians thrive at Tropical MTB Challenge, nearly sweeping U23 XCO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a busy weekend for Canada\u2019s cross country racers, with early season racing kicking into high gear on both sides of the pond.<\/p>\n<p>A big week of XC racing in Peurto Rico is showing very positive results for the Canadian contingent. Ella Myers landed on the elite women\u2019s podium while five Canadians nearly swept the under-23 men\u2019s and women\u2019s XCO podium at the Tropical MTB Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Spain, Jenn Jackson used Shimano Supercup Massi in Banyoles to improve on her two fifth places so far this year.<\/p>\n<p>Tropical MTB Challenge scores early wins for Canadians<\/p>\n<p>In Puerto Rico, Canada\u2019s under-23\u2019s were absolutely flying. Lily Rose Marois (Pivot Cycles-OTE) led Elli Clark and Alexia Harel in a sweep of the U23 women\u2019s podium at this UCI HC-ranked event. Lily Boucher added a sixth place with Aislin Hallahan making the top-10 50 per cent Canadian in 10th.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Ackert and Zorak Paille went 1-2 for Pivot Cycles-OTE in the under-23 men\u2019s race. Landen Stovall of the U.S.A. beat Maxime St.Onge to disrupt that sweep. But, with St.Onge in fourth, Mika Comaniuk in fifth, Felix Antoine Leclair in sixth, Cam McCallum in eighth and Alexander Woodford in ninth, Canadians took up seven of the top ten spots in the 58-rider field. Not a bad day out.<\/p>\n<p>Elle Myers led the Canadian elites, stepping onto a very strong podium in third behind Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford) and Madigan Munro (Liv Factory), both of the U.S.A. Marie Fay St. Onge in sixth and Ayana Gagne added more top 1o results for Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Gunnar Holmgren didn\u2019t quite make the elite men\u2019s top three, finishing fourth. But it\u2019s great to see the Pivot Cycles-OTE rider back up front against a strong field. Jose Ulloa Arevalo, Mexico\u2019s World Cup winning Massi rider, takes the win ahead of Riley Amos (Trek Unbroken) and Brazil\u2019s Alex Malacarne. Tyler Orschel (KMC Nukeproof) finishes sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan Wood added another Canadian podium, finishing third in the UCI Junior Series XCO. Lacey Dennis was sixth and top Canuck in the junior women\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p>Jenn Jackson builds (more) speed in Spain<\/p>\n<p>Canadian XCO national champion is off to a very solid start in 2026. In her second year with Orbea Factory Racing, she hasn\u2019t finished worse than fifth in three races. Specifically, she<a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/mtb\/tyler-orschel-makes-top-10-season-debut-in-chelva\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> finished fifth twice already in Spain<\/a>. On Sunday, she moved up one spot to fourth at the Banyoles round of Shimano Supercup racing. The HC-ranked XCO was won by Switzerland\u2019s Nicole Koller (Lapierre PXR). Valentina Corvi (Canyon XC) finished second with the U.S.A.\u2019s Kelsey Urban (KMC Nukeproof) just edging out Jackson for the final podium spot.<\/p>\n<p>On the men\u2019s side, Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) escaped Darrio Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon) for the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a busy weekend for Canada\u2019s cross country racers, with early season racing kicking into high gear&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,117138,85,250882],"class_list":{"0":"post-498516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mtb-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tropical-mtb-challenge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}