Marie-H̩l̬ne Pr̩mont Р2011 Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Rider Profile from Rocky Mountain Bicycles on Vimeo.
Marie was a Canadian National Team snowboarder, she started competitive cycling in 1995. She has steadily worked her way up through the ranks in Quebec Cup, Canada Cup and World Cup races, capturing her first Elite Women Canadian Championship in 2003 and holding that National Champion jersey until 2009. She won two consecutive Pan American Championships 2000-2001. She won an Olympic silver medal at Athens in 2004, raising her profile and showing all of Canada that huge smile that was already well known in the mountain bike racing community.
She had her first World Cup gold medal at Spa Francorchamps in 2005 followed up by another gold medal at her home race at Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec that same year. She dominated the 2006 Commonwealth Games race in Melbourne, despite little distractions like having a kangaroo leap across the trail in front of her on the way to a gold medal. In 2006 Marie won gold medals in World Cup races at Mont Sainte Anne and at Schladming in Austria. Marie finished the 2007 World Cup season in second overall.
Marie had a great 2008 season with her 6th National Championship and in the World Cup had two gold, three silver and three bronze medals and secured the World Cup series first place after eight of the nine races of the 2008 season. She was the only woman to win a medal in every World Cup race she entered.
2009 had its own challenges for Marie as she struggled with sporadic breathing difficulties since Beijing in 2008. She had significant breathing problems at the World Cup race in Bromont which led to being diagnosed with exercise induced asthma in early August. Since then, Marie has been adapting to the additional challenges of competing at a high level with asthma.
The 2010 season was a combination of strong performance and bad luck, with the first race at Dalby Forest beginning with a start loop bottleneck that dropped Marie as far back as 40th before finishing in 8th. The second World Cup race in Belgium resulted in Marie’s first ever mechanical DNF after another rider ran over her rear wheel while she was in the group of five off the front. That early points deficit affected her World Cup starting positions throughout the season, but Marie still had a 4th place in Offenburg and a silver medal at Windham, NY.
Marie missed the Canadian Nationals in Cochrane due to severe bronchitis.
Finally, a last minute torrential rain storm at the World Championships in Mont Sainte-Anne resulted in the wrong tire choice for the course conditions and a frustrating missed podium opportunity.
Awards / Prizes
2008 UCI World Cup Overall Winner 2008 Canadian National Champion
2008 1st Mont St. Anne World Cup
2008 1st Fort William World Cup
2008 2nd Madrid World Cup
2008 2nd Bromont World Cup
2006 – World Championship Bronze medal.
2006 – Commonwealth Games Champion.
2004 – Olympic Silver medalist. 4 World Cup victories. 4 time Canadian National Champion.
