The reemergence of the south Island’s cycling tradition continued with the success of cycling teens Annie Ewart and Adam de Vos at the UCI’s (U19) Road World Championships in Denmark, Sept. 18 to 20.
Brentwood Bay’s Ewart, who turns 18 this month, is the junior national time trial and road champion. She continued a promising campaign to represent Canada at the 2016 Olympics with a seventh-place finish in the time trial event, up from 20th overall in 2010.
Ewart was 45 seconds back of winner Jessica Allen (Australia) in the individual race, an all-out sprint for 13.9 kilometres with “a hard second half,” during which she “could taste blood in her throat,” she said in a YouTube release.
Ewart managed 50th in the 70 km road race, 19 seconds behind winner Lucy Garner (U.K.).
Thirty-nine riders competed in the 13.9km time trial in downtown Copenhagen.
Starting 12th, Ewart was third with five riders to go, but strong competition from Australia, Great Britain and Germany pushed her off a podium position into seventh place. This was an improvement over 2010 when she finished 20th, and it is the best Canadian TT performance in 13 years.
Fellow PCC athlete and Peninsula rider Erinne Willock competed in the Elite Women’s Road Race and finished 33rd.
It was the first international event for de Vos, a recent graduate of Oak Bay High who took up competitive cycling late in his Grade 11 year. The 18-year-old was Canada’s only finisher in the junior men’s road race, 65th out of 170, as crashes dampened the hopes of his teammates.
