Canada will be represented by its top three male mountain bike cross country athletes at the Pan Am mountain bike championships in Villa la Angostura, Argentina, on the weekend of March 11, 2007.

Max Plaxton, Seamus McGrath and Geoff Kabush (the three of them from Victoria, BC), will make the trip with the objective of bolstering Canada’s 2008 Olympic qualification chances. Olympic mountain bike qualification is based the accumulated points of each nation’s top three ranked riders at the end of 2006 and at the end of 2007.

“Our men were ranked 11th at the end of 2006, which is dangerously close to dropping from two starters at the Olympics to one starter: the cutoff is 13th place,” said CCA High Performance Director Kris Westwood. “We need to gather as many points as feasible in 2007 to ensure we don’t fall off the map; the Pan Am championships are worth a lot of points; and realistically it’s only Max, Geoff and Seamus who will have enough points to be counted when it comes to qualification.”

National coach Michel Leblanc will manage the team, with the support of mechanic Chad Grochowina. Canada will not be sending any other athletes to the championships, as Westwood explains:

“On the women’s side, we were ranked third at the end of 2006, and we just need to make sure we stay top eight to keep our two Olympic spots. With Marie-Hélène Prémont doing a full world cup schedule, we aren’t likely to have any problems doing this, and Alison Sydor and Kiara Bisaro will also be picking up plenty of points. These athletes don’t need the stress of traveling to Argentina in March, so we can spare them the trip.

“We debated including development athletes in the projects as well, but the event is very early in the season, so preparing for it would be disruptive for younger athletes. Also, travel to southern Argentina is very expensive, so we need to focus our limited resources on areas that will help us achieve our mandate of achieving Olympic performances.”