Photo: Sterling Lorence

The Olympics will soon be upon us, and one team hoping to repeat its success at previous Olympics is the Rocky Mountain Bicycles XC team, with the 2008 team having just been announced.

Marie-Hélène Prémont and Alison Sydor both bring medal winning talent and experience to the team, with Sydor winning silver at Alanta in 1996 and followed up in 2004 at Athens where Prémont took silver also.

Joining this stellar line-up will be Jean Anne McKirdy, following a strong 2007, with a third place at the mighty Cape Epic in South Africa.

On the mens side, 2006 World Champion bronze medallist Max Plaxton and Raphael Gagne will be gunning for victory, and have both represented Canada in previous years. Three time Trans Rockies winner Andreas Hestler will be back too.

Reining all this talent in will be new team manager Peter Vallance. Vallance has been getting his hands dirty with bikes for more than twelve years and has crewed for several professional mountain bike teams including six years with the Canadian National Team.

The team’s deep talent pool will also see competition at World Cups, NORBAs and a continued effort in the epic market that will include events such as TransRockies, TransAlp, TransGermany and the BC Bike Race.