OLYMPIC PROFILES – CANADA’S ROAD CYCLING ATHLETES

In anticipation of the Men’s and Women’s road races which will take place on Saturday, August 6th, and Sunday, August 7th, here is a quick introduction to the Canadian athletes that will be representing our nation at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Mike Woods

Mike Woods, it is fair to say, has had a meteoric rise in the ranks of men’s pro cycling. Mike started as a middle distance runner, and was one of the best young athletes in Canada. He still holds the record for the fastest mile run by a Canadian on Canadian soil, and was the 1500m Junior Pan Am champion, as well as the Canadian Junior track and field athlete of the year in 2005. However, a series of injuries and stress fractures destroyed this dream, and he took up cycling as a low impact way to train and compete.

He competed in his first Road Nationals in 2012, finishing 21st, and by 2014 he was finishing fourth at Nationals. In 2015, Mike won the fifth stage of the Tour of Utah while racing for Optum (now Rally), and finished second overall, as well as second at the Philly Classic and winning the Classica Internacional Loule. This garnered lots of attention, and he signed with the WorldTour Cannondale squad for 2016. This year, he has finished fifth overall in the Tour Down Under, including finishing third on two separate stages, and third in the Climber’s competition. He was also 12th at Fleche Wallonne A bad crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege resulted in a broken hand, and put him out of action for the rest of the Spring.

The Ottawa-based Woods is known primarily as a climber, which means he will be the protected rider on the Canadian squad for the Road race in Rio.

“The [Rio] course suits my skill set, which [features] climbs that are between 10 and 20 minutes in duration. Real steep climbs. I’m not the purist climber but I do have a good sprint amongst climbers and that’s basically how the race is going to unfold in Rio, a sprint amongst five or 10 climbers.”

Leah Kirchmann

Leah Kirchmann comes to cycling from cross-country skiing, which she began at the age of five, like her Rio team mate Tara Whitten. However,eah also began cycling in the well-regarded Winnipeg ‘Kids of Mud’ mountain bike program, starting at age 13. Initially, Leah raced both Road and Mountain Bike, and represented Canada in both disciplines as a Junior at the world championships in 2008.

However, she decided to focus on Road, and by 2010 was representing Canada at the Commonwealth Games, and won both the National criterium title and the Under-23 women’s road title – these were not her first national titles either, since she was the Under-17 Mountain Bike Champion in 2006. In 2011, Leah turned professional with the Colavita team, and began racking up victories with her sprinting abilities. She repeated as the National Criterium Champion, won the Tour of Elk Grove, was the top U23 rider at the Tour de Dottignies, won a stage of the Nature Valley GP and took wins in other North American events. In 2012 Leah began to appear in international results, taking the silver medal at the Pan Am Road Championships, winning the sprint classification at Energiewacht Tour and ninth overall (best U23) at l’Ardeche.

In 2012 Leah had also moved to the powerhouse Optum team, and she continued to develop her skills as a sprinter; in 2013 winning another Criterium title, as well as finishing second at the National Road Championships. However, 2014 was a breakthrough year. Leah dominated the Road Nationals, winning all three titles – Road Race, Time Trial and Criterium. She won the Delta Road Race and Gastown, plus numerous other U.S. events. But the event that propelled her onto the world scene was finishing third at La Course, the women’s race at the Tour de France that had all the top riders in the world.

2015 was Leah’s final year with Optum, and she continued to work her way up the international rankings, finishing 11th overall at La Route de France, third in a stage of the BeNe Tour, second at the Nationals Road Race and third in the Time Trial, seventh overall at the Aviva Women’s Tour, and second overall at the Tour of California (plus winning the Points competition). She then signed for three years with the European pro team Liv-Plantur, starting in 2016.

So far this season, Leah has finished 8th overall in the Giro d’Italia (including winning the Prologue and donning the Pink Jersey), third at Road Nationals, third at the Chongming Island World Cup, and numerous other top-10 finishes. While Leah has shown her strength as a sprinter, she has the ability to get over the climbs and be part of a select group at the end of a tough race.

Leah is also an ambassador to Fast and Female, the Canadian organization that works to empower young girls through sport. She is also an alumni of the Global Relay Bridge the Gap program, that supports Canadian road cyclists as they develop to the professional level.

“I’ve worked really hard on becoming better at climbing and now I’m a very versatile rider. [After not being selected in 2012] I definitely took it as an opportunity to step back and really look at where were the gaps in my performance. I really can’t wait, it’s going to be my first Olympics experience so I’m really looking forward to it.”

 Hugo Houle

Rio will be the first Olympic Games for Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Quebec, who will represent Canada in the men’s Road Race and Time Trial. Hugo is one of a handful of Canadian riders to race professional at the highest level of the sport, racing for the AG2R la mondiale team since 2013, and competing in the Giro d’Italia in 2015 and 2016.

Hugo started as a triathlete at the age of 9, but his strongest sport was cycling, and he became a full time cyclist at 14. At the age of 15, he joined the Club Cycliste Vélocité Drummond where he raced for two seasons in the Quebec Cups before, at the age of 17, joining the junior team Louis Garneau-Crocs. His success began with a national title in 2008, followed by the Canada Games in 2009, winning gold in the criterium and bronze in the Time Trial. By 2011 he was racing with SpiderTech p/b c10, Canada’s first and only Pro Continental squad, run by Steve Bauer. After two years with SpiderTech, Hugo made the jump to Europe and AG2R.

Hugo’s first international Games was last year’s Pan Am Games, where he won the Time Trial gold medal. At the world championships, he just missed the podium as a U23 rider in 2012, finishing fourth in the road race. He was the 2015 National Champion in the time trial. This season, he also finished second overall in the Tour de Beauce (which he also did in 2012).

Hugo is also a strong supporter of Operation Red Nose, a Quebec-based organization fighting against impaired driving, after the tragic death of his younger brother Pierrik in 2012, who was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in 2012. Hugo now competes with a cross in his honour.

Hugo, after arriving in Rio straight from the Clasica San Sebastian, commented, “After my first practice on the ITT course, I think it’ll be very technical with a steep ascent, winding descents and cobblestones. I probably won’t have the time to appreciate the view.”

Tara Whitten

Tara Whitten is already an Olympic medalist, as part of the bronze-medal winning squad in the Women’s Team Pursuit at the 2012 Games in London. However, for the 2016 Games, Whitten has turned her focus to the Road, and will compete in both the Road Race and the Time Trial, although her focus is on the Time Trial.

Originally a cross-country skier, the Calgary-based (and Toronto born) athlete attended the 2005 world championships in the winter sport before turning to cycling; her cross-training summer sport. By 2007 she had made the transition to track cycling and success followed quickly, with a silver medal in the Omnium at the 2009 Worlds. Tara followed that up with world titles in both the Omnium and Points Race in 2010 and a second Omnium title in 2011, plus multiple medals in the Team Pursuit. She also won four medals (1 gold, 3 bronze) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and was the Closing Ceremonies flagbearer for Canada.

On the road, Tara also had success, with multiple national time trial titles (including as the current champion), plus a fourth place at the Worlds in 2011 and a silver medal at the 2015 Pan Am Championships.

Tara had semi-retired from cycling after the 2012 Games, to go back to school and finish her PhD in Neuroscience, becoming ‘Doctor Tara Whitten’ this past June. However, she always knew that she wasn’t finished with cycling.

“This Olympics feels so different from the last one. After London, I felt like I wasn’t totally done, and I felt like I still had something to prove on the road. So I decided to come back, although my comeback hasn’t been as smooth as I had planned.”

Tara is referring to an accident she was in during a Rio orientation visit in March, went she crashed head first into the back of a bus. Unknown to her, she had fractured the base of her skull, and had to wear a neck brace for three months, and was restricted to training on a trainer. However, she was second to former world champion Amber Neben (USA) in her first race back (GP Gatineau), then won the national TT title and, most recently, won the time trial and the overall title at the Cascade Classic, beating other Rio-bound athletes, including two-time Olympic champion Kirstin Armstrong (USA).

“I feel like my form has come around the last month, and I’m really excited to just put everything I have into being the fastest I can in Rio. We’ve done some recon of the [Olympic] course and it is very challenging. There is one very steep hill, which is unusual, but there are also some long, flat sections. I’ve been working on climbing on my TT bike, and I’ve been preparing mentally for the challenges it will bring.”

Antoine Duchesne

Antoine ‘Tony the Tiger’ Duchesne started cycling at age 14 after watching his sister race.  The Chicoutimi rider quickly became one of the top racers in Quebec, becoming the national champion as a Junior in the time trial in 2009, finishing fifth overall at Tour de l’Abitibi and representing Canada at the world championships in the same year.  When he moved to the Under-23 ranks, he followed that up with back-to-back national road race titles in 2012-13, representing Canada at the Worlds each year.  In 2012 he was also second in the Young Rider classification at Tour de Beauce.

In 2013 he joined the Bontrager Cycling Team in the U.S. – well known for developing young riders – and that led to his signing in 2014 with one of the top European pro squads – Team Europcar.  This was an introduction to racing at the highest level of the sport, and Antoine raced a punishing schedule, with nearly 7500 kilometres of racing that year.  Highlights include second at La Poly Normande, sixth at Road Nationals and 14th in Young Riders at the Tour de Wallonie.

He has remained with the team since – for 2015 it was still Team Europcar, and became Direct Energie in 2016.  He raced and finished in his first Grand Tour in 2015 – the Vuelta a Espana.  He also competed in and finished the legendary Paris-Roubaix and Tour des Flandres, was tenth overall in 4 Jours de Dunkerque and fifth overall in the Young Rider classification at the Tour de Luxembourg.

This season, he became the second Quebec rider to complete the Tour de France (and the only Canadian in the race this year), finishing 16th in the Young Rider classification, while in Paris-Nice he won the overall Climber’s Jersey, finishing 50th overall.

Karol-Ann Canuel

Karol-Ann Canuel – known as Karo – is one of two Canadian women who will compete in both the Road Race and the Time Trial.  Starting cycling at the age of 11 in the northern Quebec town of Amos, Karo’s talent was apparent from an early age, when she won the national road title as a Junior in 2006.  By 2010, she was racing in Europe with the Vienne Futuroscope team, finishing second overall in the Tour de Bretagne Feminin in 2011, and fourth overall in the Tour Féminin en Limousin.

A year later saw Karol-Ann crack the top-30 at the world championships, finish fifth overall at the Tour Cycliste Feminin l’Ardeche and ninth overall at La Route de France.  Karo continued to progress steadily in 2013, finishing fifth at the Plouay-Bretagne World Cup, third overall at l’Ardeche (including a stage win) and fourth at the Nationals.

These results brought her to the attention of the Specialized-lululemon for 2014 – the number one professional women’s team in the world.  It was here that Karol-Ann really began to shine, particularly in the timed events.  She was a cornerstone of the Team Time Trial squad that won the Vargarda TTT World Cup and captured the world championship TTT title.  Karol-Ann also finished sixth in the individual time trial at the Worlds, however, was injured in a bad crash during the road race, breaking her pelvis.

She was fully recovered for the 2015 season, still with the team (although the name was changed to Velocio-SRAM), and was part of the TTT squad that repeated as world champions.  Karol-Ann went so hard that she collapsed moments after crossing the finish line.  She also finished 13th in the road race at the Worlds.  In 2015, Karo also won a stage of Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen and finished second overall, along with a fifth place in a stage of the Giro d’Italia.  She also won her first senior national title in Individual Time Trial.

This season, Karol-Ann joined the Boels-Dolman team, after Velocio-SRAM folded, and continues to post strong international results, including second in the TTT at the Tour of California, second in the National ITT championship, third in the Chrono Gatineau ITT and sixth in the ITT stage of the Giro d’Italia.

“It has taken a lot of help from a lot of people, and a lot of hard work, but I am so happy to be selected for the Olympic Games.”