The re-emergence 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.
Ewart, who turns 18 tomorrow, is the junior national time trial and road champion out of Brentwood Bay. 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 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 Canadian Cycling release.
Ewart was 50th in the 70-km road race, 19 seconds behind winner Lucy Garner (U.K.).
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.