{"id":499964,"date":"2026-02-26T03:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499964\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T03:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:46:08","slug":"ian-ackert-and-ella-myers-lead-canadians-at-continental-series-xco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499964\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Ackert and Ella Myers lead Canadians at Continental Series XCO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tropical MTB Challenge is, for many Canadians, the first real test of form after a long off-season of training. Wednesday\u2019s Continental Series XCO \u2013 a new category between HC and World Cup level events \u2013 was the marquee event in a trio of races down in Puerto Rico this week. And the Canadians? They were flying.<\/p>\n

Ian Ackert landed a win in the under-23 men\u2019s race while Ella Myers won the under women\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In the elite races, Gunnar Holmgren finished second in a close battle with U.S. national champion, Riley Amos while Savilia Blunk controlled the women\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Elite men and women: Holmgren resurgent, Blunk dominant<\/p>\n

In the elite women\u2019s race, U.S. Olympian Savilia Blunk took control, setting the pace early on. The Decathlon Ford rider continued to push until she was alone on the front, and never looked back. Blunk takes the win, and the continental leader\u2019s jersey ahead of fellow U.S. racer Madigan Munro. Giuliana Salvini takes the final podium spot.<\/p>\n

In the elite men\u2019s race, Mexico\u2019s World Cup winner Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo\u00a0 tried to set the tone early on with Riley Amos and Tyler Orschel following. Amos was the first to challenge the reigning Pan Am champ but Ulloa was quick to respond with an acceleration of his own. That stretched out the field with a group of five or so forming. Canada\u2019s Gunnar Holmgren, in a solid show of his return to form, led for a good part of the last lap before Amos attacked to take the win in Salinas.<\/p>\n

Holmgren finishes second, Ulloa third, Orschel fourth and Austin Beard fifth.<\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/a>Ian Ackert Tropical MTB Challenge
\nCanada takes home U23 wins at Tropical MTB Challenge<\/p>\n

In the under-23 XCO events, it was all about Canada. Ella Myers landed a win in the women\u2019s race before Ian Ackert repeated that result in the under-23 men\u2019s race, with four Canadian\u2019s following him in a sweep of the U23 men\u2019s extended podium.<\/p>\n

The under-23 men\u2019s XCO came down to a duel between Ian Ackert and Zorak Paille, both for Pivot Cycles-OTE. Ackert separated himself on the final lap to win by 19 seconds. Paille held on for second. Mika Comaniuk, Felix-Antoine Leclair and Alexander Woodford filled out the top five. Canada\u2019s success didn\u2019t stop there, with Maxime St.Onge in sixth and Tristan Taillefer in eighth.<\/p>\n

On the under-23 women\u2019s side, Ella Myers takes the win. Only the U.S.A.\u2019s Ingrid McElroy could disrupt a repeat of the U23 men\u2019s podium sweep. Lily Rose Marois continued a very good week in Puerto Rico with a third place, Elli Clark followed in fourth and Alexia Harel fifth for the final wide-angle podium spot. Marie Fay St.Onge in sixth, Lily Boucher in eighth, and Ayana Gagne in ninth made the top 10 a very Canadian event.<\/p>\n

2026 Tropical MTB Challenge \u2013 Continental Series XCO
\nElite Men (Top 5)<\/p>\n

Riley Amos
\nGunnar Holmgren
\nGerardo Ulloa Arevalo
\nTyler \u00a0Orschel
\nAustin Beard<\/p>\n

U23 Women\u00a0(Top 5)<\/p>\n

Ella Myers
\nIngrid Mcelroy
\nLily Rose Marois
\nElli Clark
\nAlexia Harle<\/p>\n

Elite Women\u00a0(Top 5)<\/p>\n

Savilia Blunk
\nMadigan Munro
\nGiuliana Salvini
\nSuheily Rodriguez
\nBayli McSpadden<\/p>\n

U23 Men\u00a0(Top 5)<\/p>\n

Ian Ackert
\nZorak Paille
\nMika Comaniuk
\nFelix Antoine LeClair
\nAlexander Woodford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tropical MTB Challenge is, for many Canadians, the first real test of form after a long off-season of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,199972,635,62722,82,198086,78832],"class_list":["post-499964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-continental-series","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-news","tag-sports","tag-tropical-mtb-challenge","tag-xco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}