LOS ANGELES, February 27, 2017 – Team Canada concluded the final round of the Track World Cup series on Sunday night in Los Angeles, California, by winning two silver medals.  Hugo Barrette of Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec, finished second in the Men’s Keirin, while Jasmin Duehring of Vancouver, BC, won the silver medal in the Women’s Scratch Race.  Canada concludes the World Cup final with four medals – three silver and one bronze.  Canada tied for second in total medals won.

Barrette finished second in his first race and third in his second race, putting him into the medal final.  The Canadian took the lead going into the final lap, but was passed by Colombian Fabian Zapata in the final 100 metres.  Zapata also won the Keirin in the previous round of the World Cup.

“I had good legs today,” said Barrette.  “I was patient … I had a rough race in Cali [Colombia, in Round 3] and I learned from that to be patient and go at the last minute.  It paid off today.  I have been frustrated with the new format, after six years of racing [the previous format].  I feel like I am starting back at zero.  But it’s not like I am the only one that is new to this, so I need to work on it.  This is a good start, but I still have a lot of work to do.”

In the Women’s Scratch Race, Duehring and Tetyana Klimchenko of Ukraine were the only riders to lap the field, with the Ukrainian taking the gold medal just ahead of Duehring, after the Canadian got caught behind a crash.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” admitted Duehring, who is racing her first World Cup of the season.  “I didn’t know what to expect of myself.  The focus is – as always – the Team Pursuit and we had some solid rides [bronze medal].  The Scratch Race is another opportunity to race and gain experience going into Worlds.  The finish was a bit disappointing; I just wasn’t paying enough attention and I didn’t realize that another rider had lapped the field behind me.  At the end of the day it’s my fault for not being aware.  Unfortunately I got caught behind a crash on the last lap and wasn’t able to sprint against the Ukrainian.”

In other competition on the final night, Vancouver-based Laura Brown and Steph Roorda finished seventh in the Women’s Madison, while Annie Foreman-Mackey of Kingston, Ontario, was eighth in qualifying in the Women’s Individual Pursuit and did not move on to the medal rounds.  Kate O’Brien of Edmonton, Alberta, qualified seventh in the Women’s Sprint and won her one-eighth final race before being defeated in the quarterfinals by eventual bronze medalist Anastasiia Voinova of Russia.  O’Brien finished the competition ranked seventh, and finished the World Cup series ranked 12th overall after having raced two of four events.

“It was definitely a pretty good weekend,” agreed Jacques Landry, Director of High Performance at Cycling Canada.  “For the Team Pursuit it is the first time the team has come together this year but they were able to come up with a bronze medal.  The real revelations here for the weekend are on the sprint side of the team, with Kate [O’Brien] and Amelia [Walsh] in the Team Sprint getting a silver medal and Hugo stepping it up in the Keirin with his medal ride.  It was a good weekend and sets the stage for the world championships coming up in April.”

LOS ANGELES, February 25, 2017 – Canada had two teams qualify for the next round of competition at the World Cup Final in Los Angeles, California, on Friday evening.  The Women’s Team Sprint squad was fourth in qualifying and the Women’s Team Pursuit squad was third.

The Women’s Team Sprint duo of Kate O’Brien (Calgary, AB) and Amelia Walsh (Ayr, ON) were fourth in qualifying with a time of 34.093 seconds.  The top eight teams move on to the next round of competition, and Canada will race China on Saturday in the next round of competition.

“I’m pretty happy with the girls,” said Erin Hartwell, national sprint coach.  “Qualifying fourth, only a few hundredths out of third, so a win in the next round would put us in the medal round.

In the Men’s Team Sprint, the squad of Hugo Barrette (Iles de la Madeleine, QC), Stefan Ritter (Edmonton, AB) and Patrice St-Louis-Pivin (Sherbrooke, QC) finished tenth with a time of 45.451 seconds and will not move forward in the competition.  They missed qualifying by less than three-tenths of a second.

“We’re a young team, so it’s a lot of ups and downs,” said Hugo Barrette.  “We all showed up with great legs but we probably could have executed the ride better.  We had an amazing ride last week [at the Cali World Cup], which gives me a lot of hope for the future, but for now there are some little things that we need to learn from.”

The Women’s Team Pursuit squad of Laura Brown (Vancouver, BC), Jasmin Duehring (Vancouver, BC), Kirsti Lay (Montreal, QC) and Steph Roorda (Vancouver, BC) finished third with a time of 4:25.651 seconds.  Canada still has an opportunity to race for gold on Saturday evening, based on their results in the next round on Saturday afternoon, when they race New Zealand.

“We didn’t really know what to expect,” said Craig Griffin, national women’s track endurance coach.  “This is the first time we have had Kirsti and Jasmin in the line-up since Rio [Olympics], so we didn’t know what to expect.  We got caught out a bit [trying to pass] the Poles [Poland] in the last kilometre.  We have plenty of room for improvement against the Kiwi’s tomorrow.”

CALI, February 18, 2017. – Team Canada had mixed results on Day 2 of the UCI Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia.  The Women’s Team Pursuit squad qualified second, keeping them in contention for the medals on Sunday.  Kate O’Brien did not advance past the quarterfinal round of the Women’s Sprint, while Hugo Barrette was knocked out of the first round of the Men’s Keirin.  Steph Roorda was scheduled to race the Women’s Scratch Race but will not to better prepare for the Team Pursuit.

Canada brought a mixture of veteran and development riders to the Team Pursuit, with Rio bronze medalist Laura Brown (Vancouver, BC) and Steph Roorda (Vancouver, BC) joined by NextGen athletes Kinley Gibson (Edmonton, AB) and Ariane Bonhomme (Gatineau, QC).  The team qualified with a time of four minutes and 25.705 seconds, 0.635 seconds behind Italy.  On Sunday, a further round of racing will determine who races for the medals.

“Team Canada’s qualifying ride was a solid start to the team pursuit competition,” said Craig Griffin, national coach for the women’s track endurance program.  “We performed close to expectation and with a couple of minor tweaks should be able to improve on this time at some point in the competition. I’m really pleased with both Ariane and Kinley’s contributions to the ride. While relatively new to this level of racing, they rode like seasoned pursuiters. A testament to the work being done with our NextGen program. Racing Australia in this next round won’t be easy and it never has been. They’re experienced and tough competitors so we will be taking it one ride at a time.”

In the Women’s Sprint competition, O’Brien (Edmonton, AB) qualified with the fourth fastest time of 11.024 seconds, less than one-thousandth of a second out of third.  She won her one-eighth final against Juliana Gaviria of Colombia, but lost in two straight rides against Daira Shmeleva of Russia in the quarterfinal round.  O’Brien ended the competition ranked fifth overall.

“I wasn’t sure how today was going to go,” admitted O’Brien, who has not raced internationally since the Olympic Games, six months ago.  “You always hope for better, but I have found Cali a challenging track.  I was three-tenths faster [in qualifying] than last year, so I can’t complain too much.  The first race [in the quarterfinals], let’s just say I screwed it up.  I lost sight of her [Shmeleva] and she took the pole position.  I did what I wanted to in the second ride and she just won.  Sometimes you get beaten.”

Hugo Barrette of Iles de la Madeleine, QC, finished third in his first heat of the Keirin, one spot out of qualifying for the next round.  In the Repechage heat he was also third and did not advance further.

Barrette admitted that he did not fare well with the new format of the Keirin, which increases the distance that the riders race without the pace motorcycle.

“I don’t think it’s Keirin anymore,” said Barrette, “they have changed the event completely and it just doesn’t fit me anymore.  I’m sad to say that because I was doing good in the Keirin [previously].  But I was going to focus on the Sprint for Tokyo [2020 Olympics] anyway.  I’ll finish the season in the Keirin, but that will be it.”

“Now it’s a mixture of sprint and endurance and that’s not a style I’m good at right now. I could be, but it is so specific that I would have to give up on the Team Sprint and Sprint, and I’m not going to do that.”