Track rider bounces back from disappointing result in 2011 to win silver months out of Olympic Games

(Melbourne, AUS – April 6, 2012) Canadian versatile cyclist and international track star Zach Bell, a rider from Watson Lake, Yukon who currently resides in North Vancouver, BC won the silver medal in the men’s omnium at the 2012 UCI Track World Championships.

The silver medal comes a day after Canada won two medals in the women’s team pursuit and points races, adding to the Canadian medal tally now at three.

Bell, who is part of professional cycling squad Team SpiderTech but races track event with Team Canada, was sitting in second place of the overall standing as he entered the second day of competition.

As the day started, Bell posted the second fastest time of the Individual Pursuit, crossing the line with a time of 3:20.371, before finishing in second place of the 100-lap points race.

The suspense at the Melbourne velodrome drew bigger as, with two consecutive second places, Bell jumped to the first place of the overall standings tied with Australian and home crowd favorite rider Glenn O’Shea, with just one event to go – the 1-kilometre time trial.

As the last ride of the day unfolded, Bell posted the eighth fastest time of the groupn—1:04.216, and unfortunately for the Canadian track star, O’Shea was the fastest of the two, posting a time of 1:03.042 to win the World title.

Bell, who won the omnium silver medal at the 2009 edition of these World Championships, has been a consistent and performing rider at international events in the grueling events. Since the omnium has been presented at UCI World Cups and World Championships, Bell climbed on the podium in each but one of the events in which he took part. In 2011, Bell was crowned the UCI World Cup Tour Champion, a title that is awarded to the best overall rider of the entire season, but had failed to win a World Championships medal.

This season, Bell competed at two UCI World Cup events –Cali, Colombian and London, GBR–, and stepped on the podium at both events.

With a ticket to the 2012 Games secured for the men’s omnium, Bell can now focus on his training plan and preparations for optimal performance. Bell will carry with him some valuable Olympic experience in the next four months, as the only rider on the current National Team showing Olympic Games experience. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Bell came in seventh of the points race.

“We are extremely proud of this well deserved silver medal by Zach bell, as well as the two medals won by the women’s team pursuit and the points race. We have invested significant efforts and energies in our programs targeted by Own The Podium, such as the omnium and the women’s team pursuit,” said Jacques Landry, Director of High Performance for the Canadian Cycling Association.”

“Canada is enjoying remarkable success with its track program, as well as with our other disciplines. With only four months to go before the Olympic Games, we are confident our riders are among the best in the world.”

In the men’s sprint, Canada did not fare as well as hoped. Joseph Veloce of Fonthill, ON and Travis Smith of Calgary, AB, who both raced the men’s team sprint on Wednesday, placed in the 34th and 41st respectively in the qualifiers, and did not advance to the elimination rounds.

Tara Whittenof Edmonton, AB also began her day of racing in the women’s omnium race. Whitten, the two-time defending World Champion, is currently sitting in eighth place of the event, after three races.

The 2012 UCI World Championships in Melbourne continues tomorrow with the conclusion of the women’s omnium, as well as the women’s keirin, in which Canadian rider and 2012 Panamerican Champion Monique Sullivan of Calgary will participate with the objectives to solidify her Olympic spot.

Full results and live timing of the event can be found at www.tissottiming.com or by visiting www.uci.ch.

Women’s team pursuit shows it’s a contender for 2012 Games; Jasmin Glaesser grabs silver in Points race

(Melbourne, AUS – April 5, 2012) It was a great day for the Canadian Track Cycling Team at the 2012 UCI Track World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, as Canada won a silver medal in the women’s points race and a bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit on Thursday.

The Women’s Team Pursuit squad comprised of Tara Whitten (Edmonton, AB), Jasmin Glaesser (Coquitlam, BC) and Gillian Carleton (Victoria, BC) took the bronze medal by edging the New Zealand squad in the bronze medal race, posting a time of 3:19.629.

“This is our first World Championship medal for the team pursuit program, and it is a great position to be in four months out from the Olympic Games! Our main focus for this season was the London World Cup, so it was a pretty quick turn-around to build back up for these World Championships. We chose to focus a lot on technique after London, and I think we executed two technically near-perfect rides to secure the bronze medal.”

Added Whitten : “Both Australia and Great Britain showed today that the level of the Women’s Team Pursuit is moving higher and higher, but we are excited by the challenge of rising to the next level at the Olympics,” said Tara Whitten after the race.

Gillian Carleton, a young rider who is making a spectacular run after suffering from a broken pelvis in December, was excited for this race: “We were really happy with our ride – after making the London World Cup our biggest priority race this season, it was nice to come to Melbourne and do a good time, even though we didn’t prepare quite as much. It’s also very motivating to see the Aussies and the Brits constantly lowering the world record.”

For Jasmin Glaesser, she stepped on the podium in every international Women’s Team Pursuit race in which she participated this season — the 2011 Pan-American Games, the 2011 Pan-American Championships, the UCI World Cup in London, and now the 2012 UCI World Championships. The 19-year old who just received her Canadian citizenship this fall before the Pan-American Games, explains that Canada can still be faster and climb higher on the podium.

“I am really proud to have been a part of the women’s team pursuit here at the World Championships in Melbourne; we were up against some tough competition but kept our focus entirely on producing the best ride that we could. Of course there is room for improvement, not just in placing, but in our execution and technique as well.”

The Canadian Women’s Team Pursuit squad, which was already qualified for the 2012 Games, entered this event with the objectives to fine tune technical elements of the team pursuit, notably exchanges between riders.

A few hours later, In the women’s points’ race, Jasmin Glaesser won the silver medal, her second medal of the day. Glaesser went on to finish second in the fourth sprint and won the fifth sprint to break the ice and get on the scoreboard, and then went off to gain a full lap over the field to secure the maximum 20 points, which put her tied for first place with Russian Anastasia Chulkova with only two sprints to go. Chulkova surpassed Glaesser in tenth and final sprint, scoring three points to ride to the gold medal.

“I trained mostly for the Women’s Team Pursuit. Everytime you come to World Championships, this is an amazing opportunity. I had a chance to race the Points race, and ended up with the silver medal – its fantastic,” said Glaesser, winning the two medals at her first appearance at World Championships. “It definitely took a few laps to get into the groove, having raced two team pursuit earlier in the day. I was certainly tired, but having been on the podium just before the race, there was a little bit of adrenaline in the system, and that helped out.”

In the men’s omnium, Zach Bell (Watson Lake, Yukon/North Vancouver, BC) started his day of racing with the first three of six events of the Omnium. Bell, a regular on the podium at UCI World Cup, is racing in Melbourne to redeem himself from a disappointing performance at the 2011 World Championships, where he finished in sixth position.

Bell started the day conservatively by posting the fifth fastest time in the flying lap race, and then took the third place in the points race. In the elimination race, he placed in eighth position to sit temporarily in second place of the overall standing halfway through the event.

The three first races are a significant improvement over his placing the 2011 World Championships, which will be critical as Bell enters the second day with three events for which he usually excels. Tomorrow, Bell will race the individual pursuit, the scratch race and the 1-kilometre time trial, the remaining three events of the omnium

Bell has stepped on the podium in all the UCI World Cup race he competed throughout his career.

Racing resumes tomorrow in Melbourne, with the continuation of the men’s omnium, the men’s sprint as well as the beginning of the women’s omnium, an event for which Tara Whitten will be defending her back-to-back titles.