Orillia’s world-class cycling family continues to make their mark at the highest levels of the sport.
Isabella Holmgren, who recently represented Canada at the Olympics and is a graduate of Nouvelle-Alliance high school in Barrie, won a pair of titles at the recent 2024 Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra.
And her twin sister, Ava, brought home a bronze medal from the event that featured the globe’s top cyclists.
“It was a fantastic week for local mountain bike riders,” said the Holmgrens’ mom, Lisa.
On the opening day of the world championships, Isabella raced to the gold medal in the U23 ladies' short track cross-country competition.
She clocked a time of 20 minutes and 31 seconds to capture the title. Ava won the bronze medal for Canada.
Two days later, Isabella had “the race of the day,” said Lisa Holmgren, noting the 19-year-old won the cross-country championship in the U23 women’s event, finishing one minute and 17 seconds ahead of France’s Olivia Onesti.
Ava, after starting in 96th position, rode her way to an impressive seventh place finish.
“The drama of the race was that due to a predicted lightning storm, the organizers changed the schedule late Saturday night with a different start time and combined the U23 and elite women's field on the same start,” explained Lisa Holmgren.
Despite starting 46th — five rows back — Isabella made her way through the large pack, ending up fifth amongst the elite women's field, “turning heads with the performance of the day,” said the proud mom.
The Holmgren sisters brought home half of the Canadian medals — a best-ever showing for Team Canada at Mountain Bike Worlds.
Their brother, Gunnar Holmgren, who also competed for Canada at the Olympics in Paris, turned in solid performances in the elite men’s races with a 19th in the short-track event and 36th in the cross-country race.
Severn Township’s Ian Ackert had a top-20 (18th) finish in the short-track race and finished 43rd in the cross-country race — his first year in the U23 field.
The conditions were tough as the races were held at 2,000 metres altitude on a technical dry/dusty/rocky circuit with brutal, steep sustained climbs, making the results from these Canadians outstanding, explained Lisa Holmgren.
The mountain biking season is not over as North American World Cup events will be happening in Lake Placid (Sept. 27-29) and Mt. Ste. Anne (Oct. 4-6), which Gunnar Holmgren and Ackert are now preparing for.
Ava is now busy preparing for the road cycling world championships which will be held in Zurich, Switzerland at the end of September.
Isabella will be racing on the road in some European UCI races for her professional team, Lidl-trek, as she was not selected for Canada's team in the road discipline this season.
