{"id":911399,"date":"2026-09-27T08:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T08:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911399\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T08:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T08:44:10","slug":"heartbroken-to-say-the-least-finn-iles-misses-out-on-first-home-world-cup-in-whistler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911399\/","title":{"rendered":"“Heartbroken, to say the least” Finn Iles misses out on first home World Cup in Whistler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday\u2019s racing was dramatic. The track conditions, the lingering clouds all morning, and the electric atmosphere in the crowd<\/a>, all eager to see the first World Cup in Whistler, meant the day was always going to be exciting. But Whistler local Finn Iles found himself on the wrong side of the dramatic day<\/a>. On a day when he was a pre-race favourite at home, he instead misses finals for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

Iles grew up in Whistler. It\u2019s where, at just 14, he first attracted the attention of the broader cycling world by winning Crankworx whip-off worlds (after the #LetFinnIn pressure campaign convinced organisers to wave the minimum age requirement to let Iles ride). Like many other Canadians, Whistler finally getting a World Cup is a moment he\u2019s dreamed of for years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming into the season, everything looked good. Iles won his first World Cup since Mont-Sainte-Anne in 2023. Then, a week later, he won another and briefly took the overall leader\u2019s jersey. Even after a broken foot forced him out of world championships and the Les Gets World Cup, Iles was sitting third overall in the points standings.<\/p>\n

\"Finn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to give whatever I had\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend was not the comeback from that injury Iles was hoping for. The Specialized racer crashed in his first qualifying run. Energy depleted from a heavy flu, he struggled with the physical 1199 course and crashed again in Q2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I haven\u2019t qualified all year,\u201d a visibly exhausted, physically and emotionally, Iles said after the race. \u201cI\u2019ve had the flu all weekend. I tried really hard to push through that, and tried to do my best today. But two crashes in two runs is not really normal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I pushed myself the the limit today and tried to give whatever I had, but it didn\u2019t go my way,\u201d Iles said, adding \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the pressure of being at home and feeling like I\u2019ve got to deliver something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weight of that pressure was immediately evident on an emotional Iles\u2019s face during his live interviews post-run. The Canadian apologised to fans, family and organisers, saying he felt like he\u2019d \u201cLet them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iles is, to state the obvious, \u00a0accustomed to the pressure of a start hut, and the weight of expectations. His first elite World Cup win actually came in front of a Canadian home crowd at Mont-Sainte-Anne. But home country and home town can be different things. Both Iles and Goldstone, who also failed to qualify, were constantly surrounded by fans and doing a steady stream of media and sponsor obligations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had nothing left.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the pressure came crashing down on Iles as soon as he missed out on qualifying, he said the hometown World Cup was more motivating than distracting in the lead-up to the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d Iles said of having the World Cup come to town. He said the weight of the experience didn\u2019t hit until after the racing. \u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t think about the pressure. It wasn\u2019t something that was in the back of my mind. I was more just excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the physical effect of the unfortunately timed illness is what derailed his day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think more than anything, the sickness just took it out of me completely. I thought this morning I had a good run going, then I had a stupid little crash that took me out of Q1. In Q2, I came out of the gate and I just had no energy. I just had nothing left. I tried to push and ended up crashing. It\u2019s just the way it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking, to say the least. I\u2019m not going to get to experience the race tomorrow because today was such a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend\u2019s not over, though, even if Iles\u2019s own race is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s other Canadians that made it in, so tomorrow I\u2019ll be up there cheering for them and for Tahn\u00e9e [Seagrave].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday\u2019s racing was dramatic. The track conditions, the lingering clouds all morning, and the electric atmosphere in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,264750,1700,62722,82,314227],"class_list":["post-911399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-finn-iles","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-news","tag-sports","tag-whistler-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911399","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=911399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}