Vancouver, BC. Rocky Mountain Bicycles team rider Marie-Hélène Prémont will be contesting the mountain bike World Cup for at least one more year in 2009. The 31 year old native of Chateau-Richer, Quebec had previously intended to retire at the end of the 2008 season.

Prémont enjoyed her most successful racing season ever in 2008, winning two World Cups on the way to capturing the UCI World Cup overall title, and successfully defending her National Champion title for the sixth time in a row, a Canadian record. “I am really looking forward to coming back for another season. I feel like I am only getting better and I want to see what more I can do”, Marie commented. “Rocky Mountain was happy for me to ride another year, so it wasn’t too difficult of a decision.”

Prémont is in her third year of her Pharmacy degree at the University of Laval in Quebec with one year left to go, which makes her recent racing accomplishments that much more impressive. “Eventually I want to have a family, so I will have to stop racing one day to do that, but for now I want to focus on school and racing.”

Marie-Hélène was instrumental in launching Rocky Mountain’s first foray into carbon fiber with its new Vertex RSL. She was delivered the frame four days before Canadian Nationals at Mont St. Anne and she took the win there and the following weekend at the World Cup. “The new Vertex is the nicest bike I’ve ever ridden; super light and stiff. It’s a true World Cup bike.”

In March, look for Marie-Hélène to line up with the best in the world again at the first World Cup of the 2009 season in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

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