{"id":821828,"date":"2026-07-23T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821828\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:13:10","slug":"interview-rafaelle-carrier-doubles-up-with-matching-u23-xcc-xco-titles-in-langford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821828\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Rafaelle Carrier doubles up with matching U23 XCC\/XCO titles in Langford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafaelle Carrier is only in her first year of racing the under-23 category but, at 2026 Canadian XC nationals, the Quebec racer walked away with two wins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, in the Short Track (XCC) event, Carrier emerged from a combined elite\/U23 field to take the U23 title and second overall. Then, in the Olympic cross country (XCO), the Trinity Racing rider locked into a race-long battle with Liv Factory Racing\u2019s Marin Lowe. The two were inseparable on course, with the race coming down to a thrilling sprint finish after over 90 min of racing. Despite heated racing, both riders were all smiles in the finishing straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was so much fun, such a great battle with Marin. We\u2019re the exact same speed on the climb and the downhill,\u201d Carrier beamed after the race \u201cWe were going super hard the whole race and couldn\u2019t drop each other. Marin tried on the traverse climb and couldn\u2019t get away, so it went to the sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite ending her race second, Lowe was just as enthused on the exciting race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just going all out the whole time, it was so much fun. It just felt like we were flying through the woods,\u201d Lowe added. \u201cShe\u2019s a buddy of mine, so it was pretty cool. I lost in the sprint, but I\u2019m still so stoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Carrier had just enough to out-kick Lowe on the final straight away after a long under-23 women\u2019s XCO.<\/p>\n

The double win in Langford adds to an incredibly successful debut under-23 World Cup season for Carrier. Six races in, the Quebec rider has added XCC podiums and XCO top-10 finishes to her already-extensive pal mares.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I\u2019m a bit faster in XCC which is surprising, I\u2019ve always been better in XCO,\u201d Carrier said of her strong start to the season. It\u2019s also her first year with the consistently-fast Trinity Racing team.\u00a0\u201cThe team is super fun. It allows me to do all the World Cups, so that\u2019s helpful and super nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Canadian championships, Carrier gets a break before international racing resumes at the end of August with world championships then the next World Cups. After a busy start to the year, spanning South Korea to Europe, the Canadian is looking forward to the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go back home. I\u2019m excited for that, because I haven\u2019t been home for a super long time. So I\u2019ll spend a lot of time with my family and train there for worlds,\u201d Carrier says, adding,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll try have a good last two or three World Cups, but world championships is actually the main goal for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Carrier leads Lowe down Berm Reynolds on the 2026 XCO nationals course.<\/p>\n

Carrier isn\u2019t just fast on a mountain bike. In fact, her first podium after joining Trinity actually came at the Gullegem Superprestige cyclocross just three days into 2026. While the Quebec racer isn\u2019t saying that\u2019s completely in the past, a mountain bike World Cup season that started in the first week of May and doesn\u2019t end until mid-October might leave a bit less room for drop bars in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure mountain biking is the focus. But I\u2019ll try to fit a bit of cyclocross in the schedule, depending. The mountain bike season is quite long this year with all the World Cups, so we\u2019ll see how I feel.<\/p>\n

For now, Carrier is happy with the opportunity to wear the maple leaf as part of a very strong group of Canadian under-23 women currently taking on the under-23 category.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadians are so strong, it\u2019s super motivating. And now, getting to wear this national champs jersey in that category this year, I can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafaelle Carrier is only in her first year of racing the under-23 category but, at 2026 Canadian XC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[287620,287132,49,48,635,1700,62722,151485,82,287621],"class_list":["post-821828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-canadian-xc-mountain-bike-championships","tag-2026-canadian-xco-national-championships","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-news","tag-rafaelle-carrier","tag-sports","tag-trinity-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821828","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=821828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}