A quartet of accomplished local athletes are heading to Lenzerheide, Switzerland where they will represent Canada at next week’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championship.
Gunnar Holmgren will represent Canada in the U23 competition with his fellow Oro-Medonte teammate Quinton Disera. The two are among just five competitors from across Canada chosen to race in this ultra-competitive division.
National champion Peter Disera, a former world championship silver medalist as a junior rider, is a strong medal hope in the senior elite division, while Barrie’s Colton Woods will race in the junior age group at the event in Switzerland.
Holmgren is hoping to cap his outstanding first year racing in the U23 division with a strong showing at the world championship.
In Friday’s race, he and his teammates will be racing against the world’s best. It won’t be his first time on the world stage, however. He competed as a junior racer in both the 2016 and 2017 world mountain bike championships.
The track in Lenzerheide, with its rooty technical sections interspersed with short punchy climbs, is thought to suit a powerful rider like Holmgren.
Holmgren races for team Hardwood Next Wave team and is proud to be representing a grass-roots, not- for-profit youth development program.
Most competitors have major private sponsors and professional teams behind them.
Although Canada’s national team organizes the project/trip, the majority of the cost is the responsibility of the individual athlete to self-fund.
Like the other local riders, Holmgren has worked extremely hard in training this year to be named to Team Canada. He set a new Canadian passing record at a World Cup race in the Czech Republic in May, passing 72 racers. He has also had to overcome in-season injuries.
Holmgren, 19, is coached by his father, Rob Holmgren, the head coach of the Hardwood Next Wave team.
The quartet of local athletes are among the 44 riders who will represent Canada in Switzerland from Sept. 5-9 in both cross-country and downhill events.
This is the first world championships within the qualifying period for the 2020 Olympics, so the stakes go beyond racing for the medals, as nations begin to collect valuable ranking points for athlete quotas.
“We’re really excited about this year’s team,” said Dan Proulx, Mountain Bike Head Coach at Cycling Canada. “It’s a nice mix of rookies and experienced riders. We have a good team dynamic in this group already, which will certainly help us create an environment that is conducive to personal best performances. We hope to build off the momentum we had at last year’s World Championships in Australia.”
