Ottawa, ON (Aug. 15, 2024) – Cycling Canada is pleased to announce the team representing Canada at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Luoyang, China, on Aug. 21-25.   

Fresh off successful participation in the Team Pursuit at the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Ontario back in April, Anika Brants will look to reach success with her junior teammates. A handful of 2024 Track and Road Canadian Championships will be rounding the team, including Jonathan Hinse, Larissa Pederson, Jayden McMullen and Gabriel Séguin. 

The event will mark Albert Taylor and Brants second participation at the World Championships, while the rest of team will make their official debut on the Junior Track World stage.  

Racing will start on Aug. 21 with the team sprint and the scratch race and continue with more events over the week. Results and the full detailed schedule of the event can be found here. 

Team Canada:
Anika Brants – Strathroy, ON
Kimberly Chen – Victoria, BC
Cole Dempster – Milton, ON
Jonathan Hinse – Vaudreuil, QC
Raphaëlle Houde – Candiac, QC
Larissa Pedersen – Kitchener, ON
Jayden McMullan – St.Thomas, ON
Monty Rigby – West Vancouver, BC
Gabriel Séguin – Les Cèdres, QC
Albert Taylor – Cambridge, ON  

St-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Aug. 11, 2024) – Canadian cyclists wrapped up their Olympic adventure on the final day of competition at the St-Quentin-en-Yvelines national velodrome.  

In the cumulative women’s omnium, Maggie Coles-Lyster of Maple-Ridge, British Columbia, held the crowd spellbound, finishing second in the scratch race, collecting 38 points. In the tempo race, she finished tenth, collecting 22 points. The elimination race, where she collected 36 points, put her in third place heading into the final race of the event, the points race. In medal position, she was unable to pick up any more points, collecting 101 points to finish in 9th place.   

“That points race is really chaotic and there are a lot of girls here who are really strong at taking laps,” said Coles-Lyster. “It’s bittersweet; I was happy after the first three races and proud of how I raced. I was hoping for more, for sure.”  

American Jennifer Valente took top honours, accompanied on the podium by Poland’s Daria Pikulik in silver and New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston.   

In the men’s keirin, Ontario’s Nick Wammes of Bothwell and James Hedgecock of Ancaster, who had been able to reach the quarterfinals, all finished sixth in their respective heats, not allowing them to advance any further in the rounds. Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen won his third Olympic title, joined on the podium by Australians Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer in silver and bronze.    

“I definitely got stuck in the back, the whole race bunched up into a wall,” said Hedgecock. “I’m disappointed I didn’t make it through, but the legs felt good, and I kept up. The Olympics have been my dream and I’m hoping that in four years’ time, I’ll be able to get a medal. It’s my first Games, I’m one of the youngest guys out there, so in a way I can look forward to LA2028.”  

In the individual sprint classification waves, Alberta’s Kelsey Mitchell of Sherwood Park, who had been eliminated by Germany’s Lea Friederich in the quarterfinals, finished eighth. Friedrich took silver behind New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, while Britain’s Emma Finucane took bronze.   

Further information, including results and the full schedule of events, is available at olympics.com This concludes Canada’s performances at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where cyclists have been performing since July 27. 

St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, FRA (Aug. 8, 2024) – Things didn’t go as planned for the Canadian athletes in action at the St-Quentin-en-Yvelines national velodrome for the women’s keirin and men’s omnium events held on August 8.    

With a medal in his sights, Canada’s Dylan Bibic, starting in the men’s omnium, had to be content with a 19th-place finish well below his expectations. Right from the first race of the four cumulative events – the scratch race, where he finished 16th – the Mississauga, Ontario-born rider mentioned that he wasn’t feeling his usual self. The feeling was confirmed at the end of the tempo race, where he finished in 21st place, collecting just one point for the overall total.    

The elimination race being his favorite event, having won the honors at the Milton Nations’ Cup in April, he was only able to obtain twelfth place allowing him to accumulate 18 points, but the damage had been done. His fate was decided by not collecting any additional points in the points race, and he finished 19th, having accumulated only 29 points. 

“This omnium meant a lot to him,” said national team coach Laura Brown. “We still believe in him and we’re proud of the way he fought through this brutal event, where there’s no time to recover. He fought and finished, and we’re proud of that.”  

France’s Benjamin Thomas took the Olympic title, while Portugal’s Iuri Leitao and Belgium’s Fabio van den Bossche took silver and bronze.  

Photo Credit: Kevin Light/COC

On the women’s side, Lauriane Genest, keirin bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020, and her teammate Kelsey Mitchell, who had finished fifth in Japan, were unable to make the final rounds, both losing in the quarterfinals, a disappointment caused in part by tactical errors.  

“It happened very quickly,” said Genest. “In this kind of race, you realize you only get one chance, and I didn’t take it today. I was last with one lap to go and thought I could overtake two girls, but I got stuck in that position. I felt I had the legs, so that was the most frustrating part.” 

Photo Credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Photo Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews took gold, accompanied by the Netherlands’ Hetty van de Wouw in silver and Emma Finucane from Great Britain in bronze.    

Further information, including results and the full schedule of events, is available at olympics.com. Competition for Team Canada cyclists continues on August 8, when athletes will be in action in the individual events, including the women’s sprint, where we will see Genest and Mitchell and in the Women’s Madison.  

St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, FRA (Aug. 7, 2024) – Canadian athletes used strategy on the second day of track competition on August 7 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Adopting a brand-new strategy, the men’s team pursuit team wanted to give it their all for their final race of the day. After a reshuffle of rider positions, the quartet of Quebec’s Mathias Guillemette and Ontario’s Dylan Bibic, Carson Mattern and Michael Foley earned themselves a seventh-place finish, ahead of Belgium with a time of 3:54.517.

“We were happy with what we were doing, but it wasn’t fast enough,” said Foley, who finished fifth in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “We needed to try something new to try and get back on Belgium, so we talked about it and came up with a new strategy, we changed it completely. It didn’t really work, we kind of blew up, but it wasn’t a bad idea.”

Australia won gold with a time of 3:42.067, ahead of Great Britain, while Italy took bronze.

This was a young team, with three of the four runners making their Olympic debuts. Only Foley had been part of the Canadian team at Tokyo 2020.

Photo Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Men’s Team Pursuit: Dylan Bibic, Mathias Guillemette, Michael Foley, Carson Mattern

Affected by a virus in the days leading up to the competition, the team pursuit quartet of Ariane Bonhomme (Gatineau, QC), Erin Attwell (Victoria, BC), Maggie Coles-Lyster (Maple Ridge, BC) and Sarah van Dam (Victoria, BC) finished eighth, losing out to Australia.

“It’s been a rollercoaster, for sure, but I wouldn’t want to share this experience with anyone other than my teammates,” said Attwell. Teammate Van Dam added: “It’s not the result we were hoping for, we came here with the hope of fighting for a medal and I really, really think that if we’d had an easier run before the Games, we would have fought for that medal, but with the cards we had, we came here today and yesterday and gave what we did and that’s really all we can do on the day.”

The team, of which only Bonhomme, 29, had Olympic experience having finished fourth in the event in Tokyo, set their best time of the Games in the first round, with a time of 4:10.471. The United States took top honors, followed by New Zealand in silver and Great Britain in bronze.

Photo Credit Ed Sykes/SWpix.com
Women’s Team Pursuit: Maggie Coles-Lyster, Sarah van Dam, Erin Attwell, Ariane Bonhomme

Having failed to qualify from the women’s keirin qualifiers, sprinters Kelsey Mitchell, of Sherwood Park, Alberta, and Lauriane Genest, of Lévis, Quebec, holder of the bronze medal at the Tokyo Games in the discipline, were forced to go through the repechage stage, where they both won their heat, earning their ticket to the quarter-finals to be held on Thursday, August 8.

“I’m feeling good – I think this morning in qualifying I was maybe a little too stressed, I took things too seriously,” said Genest. “After the race, the stress disappeared, and I was able to concentrate on the task at hand. I had an easy draft; I took it to my advantage. I tried to make it as easy as possible.”

Photo Credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Ontario’s Nick Wammes of Bothwell and Tyler Rorke of Baden ended their day early, as they were unable to get past the qualifying stages of the men’s sprint, bowing out in the round of 32. While both Canadian riders were in the same repechage start, pitted against France’s Rayan Helal, Rorke, who had achieved a personal best in qualifying, kicked off hostilities with two laps to go, but was unable to hold on. It was the Frenchman who slipped through to the next stage.

Photo Credit: Ed Sykes/SWpix.com

Further information, including results and the full schedule of events, is available at olympics.com. Competition for Team Canada cyclists continues on August 8, when athletes will be in action in the individual events, including the women’s keirin and men’s omnium.