It was a world-class competition to remember for Squamish riders representing Canada.
Five local athletes in a variety of disciplines and categories attended the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.
As previously reported, Marin Lowe clinched silver at the competition, which was held Aug. 3 to 13, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lowe, 18, dazzled in the Women Junior Cross-country Olympic race.
She chased her fellow Canadian, Isabella Holmgren, throughout the race and finished 39 seconds behind her but ahead of Polish rider, Natalia Grzegorzewska, by 45 seconds.
Lowe told The Squamish Chief recently that she would love to compete for a Top 10 spot, but wasn’t focusing too much on her placement.
“I try not to get too worked up about the actual numbers. I just want to go out there on the day of and just give it my all and make Canada proud and just make myself proud,” Lowe told The Chief.
It’s safe to say she made Canada proud.
Equally impressive, Lowe also raced in the mixed team relay, consisting of her and five other Canadian riders. Ultimately the team finished fourth, just one second behind the third-place Denmark.
Meanwhile, Ella MacPhee is another local 18-year-old phenom who raced in the U23 Women Cross-country Olympic category.
MacPhee told The Chief that she hoped for a Top 25 finish before the race and she accomplished just that by climbing from her starting position all the way to 24th.
“Just wow! I couldn’t be more proud of this result after leaving everything out on course and meeting my goal as a first year U23!” MacPhee wrote on Instagram after the finish.
Brothers Dane and Jakob Jewett were also in Scotland with Lowe, MacPhee, and Sean Fincham.
The Jewetts were among the first bikers from Squamish to compete.
Both were tackling the mountain bike downhill course in Fort William. With Dane competing in the junior men's category and Jakob in the men’s elite category, the two brothers finished in 8th and 34th place, respectively.
Although the two didn’t smoke the competition as they did at Crankworx just a few weeks ago, where Dane posted the fastest time of any rider in the downhill competition, each posted to Instagram that they were proud of their accomplishments in Scotland.
“8th place at my first ever World Champs, I’ll take that!” wrote Dane. “Fort William is a big one, so to have a clean run was sick. Feeling good on the bike and can’t wait for more racing to come.”
Meanwhile, Jakob wrote that he had been battling a cold since arriving in Scotland.
“P34 is all [I] could manage this week, but happy to have finally experienced the Fort William track & atmosphere,” he wrote. “Time to rest up & get back to 100% for Andorra!”
(The UCI MTB World Cup will be held in Pal Arinsal, Andorra from Aug. 25 to 27.)
Squamish’s Sean Fincham competed in the Men Elite Cross-country Short Track and the Men Elite Cross-country Olympic.
Fincham climbed up from his starting position and ultimately settled at 43rd in the finish during the short track. As for the Cross-country Olympic, Fincham once again climbed from his starting position and finished in 54th.
Two other Squamish bikers, Jackson Goldstone and Teigen Pascual, qualified but were unable to attend as they are recovering from surgery and injury, respectively.
Check out all the official times and finishes on cyclingworldchamps.com.
**This story was updated with new photos after it was first posted.
