A Squamish athlete was the best-performing Canadian rider in the under-23 cross country Olympic division at the Andorra World Cup over this weekend.
Sean Fincham claimed fourth place with a time of 1:09:52 in his category at the UCI Mountainbike World Cup.
“It was a solid day for me on the challenging Andorra track,” Fincham told Canadian Cyclist magazine. “I was pushing the pace in the first half of the race and got away with three other riders. We rode together for most of the race until an attack went with two to go that I couldn’t respond to. It was hard to watch the podium slip away, but I’ll give it another shot next weekend. Thanks to the people that helped me achieve this result.”
Canadian Cyclist reported that the circuit was particularly challenging due to the hot, dry and dusty conditions. Rough descents caused several crashes, and the thin air at 2,000 metres also added to the difficulty.
The 21-year-old rider was 12 seconds behind Filippo Colombo of Switzerland, who claimed third place with a time of 1:09:40.
Jofre Cullell of Spain ranked second at 1:08:53 and Romanian rider Vlad Dascalu took the win at 1:08:08.
