Orschel, Pageau of Brevard College to Compete at Mountain Bike World Championships

Orschel, Pageau of Brevard College to Compete at Mountain Bike World Championships

BREVARD, N.C. – Brevard College student-athletes Tyler Orschel and Rachel Pageau will represent their home nation of Canada at this weekend's UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada.

Orschel, a junior from Uxbridge, Ontario, will race in the Men's Under 23 Cross Country event at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday.  Orschel also represented Canada at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships held last February in Bogense, Denmark.

Pageau, a transfer student to Brevard College from Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec, will compete for Canada in the Women's Elite Downhill events.  Pageau will race in the Elite Downhill qualifications on Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET.  With a successful qualification, she will then race in the Women's Elite Downhill Finals on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

"We are thrilled to have students selected to compete at the mountain bike world championships again this year," said Brevard College Head Cycling Coach Brad Perley. "Each student has taken a different route to reach this level of the sport and we are extremely proud of their efforts. This year in particular is special for both Rachel and Tyler since they will be competing for the host nation of Canada. Very, very few cyclists ever get to compete at a world championship and even fewer have the opportunity to race at one in their home country. We are excited to cheer them from afar and welcome them home to Brevard."

Orschel and Pageau become the fourth and fifth Brevard College cyclists in the last two years to compete at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.  Last season, Carson Beckett (USA), Nathan St. Clair (USA) and Tyler Clark (Canada) of Brevard College competed at the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships run from August 28 – September 1 at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec.  In total, 635 athletes from 44 nations are participating, including 73 from the host nation of Canada. Follow the event with on the official social media channels of UCI with the #MSA2019 hashtag on UCI Facebook, UCI Twitter and UCI Instagram.

The Brevard College Cycling team will be in action this weekend as well with a limited number of riders racing in the gravity events at the Volunteer MTB Weekend hosted by the University of Tennessee.  The full complement of BC riders, including Orschel and Pageau, will then return to action September 14-15 at the Rock & Roll MTB Showdown in Cleveland, Georgia.

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