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SIXTH PLACE FOR DUEHRING ON LAST DAY OF TRACK WORLDS

HONG KONG, April 16, 2017 – Jasmin Duehring was Canada’s top finisher on the final day of the 2017 Track World Championships, in Hong Kong, on Sunday. Duehring finished sixth in the women’s Points Race after briefly leading earlier in the event.

Duehring scored points in the first 40 laps of the race that put her in the lead, however, she missed the move that saw the eventual top two finishers – Elinor Barker of Great Britain and Sarah Hammer of the United States – take a lap on the field. Duehring continued to ride aggressively, but fell to sixth in the final standings after 100 laps of racing.

“I came here to win, I’m not going to pretend otherwise,” said Duehring. “I think I was leading the race at one point, but it was a really hard race and I think I just blew up a little bit. I missed the group of two riders that took a lap on the field, and that was the race right there. I’m definitely disappointed, but I’m trying to keep perspective; coming off two Olympic cycles without a break, my goal was to take a step back, get married and go back to school and finish my degree.”

In other competition, Kate O’Brien failed to advance out of the first round of the women’s Keirin, while Stefan Ritter finished 13th in the men’s 1000 metre Time Trial. Ritter, racing in his first world championships after moving up from the Junior ranks, set a personal best time with his ride.

“It is correct that this is the first time we haven’t won a medal at Worlds since 2012,” agreed Jacques Landry, Chief Technical Officer at Cycling Canada. “We decided to take an approach at the start of this Olympic quad to give riders a bit more liberty to recover from Rio. Some of them have come not necessarily 100% ready for these Worlds. We wanted to give them a bit more rest. We’ll need to ramp it up for Tokyo, but there’s plenty of time for that and we aren’t too worried.”

“But you also have to look at some of the performances from the sprinters – they have put down some good personal bests here, including the Women’s Team Sprint in fifth; our best ever result for that event. So we are showing progress. Some of this was anticipated, but we also can’t ignore the fact that we had some bad luck with crashes in the Men’s Team Pursuit and Steph Roorda going down in the Omnium. Those are things that we can’t really control; it’s unfortunate, but it happens.”

April 16, 2017/by Communications

CANADA SIXTH IN WOMEN’S TEAM PURSUIT

HONG KONG, April 13, 2017 – Canada finished sixth in the Women’s Team Pursuit on Thursday at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong. It was a disappointing result for the squad that has finished in the medals at the world championships every year since 2012, and has won two Olympic bronze medals.

On Wednesday, the team qualified third, leaving the possibility open to making the gold medal race. However, in the round of eight teams on Thursday, Canada could only manage the sixth fastest time, putting them out of contention for either the gold/silver or bronze finals later in the evening. The Olympic champion British team also missed the medal rounds.

The team of Laura Brown, Jasmin Duehring, Annie Foreman-Mackey and Kirsti Lay had a strong start against Australia, taking the lead for the first 3250 metres of the 4000 metre race, before fading in the final three laps. Australia would win the silver medal behind the United States.

“I won’t say it is a complete surprise,” admitted Craig Griffin, Women’s Track Endurance Coach. “The depth of field here is such that we knew coming in it was going to be tough. The girls rode their hearts out and that’s all I can ask as a coach. We didn’t have the length of preparation that we usually have, so we knew we were less than optimally prepared.”

“As the women’s sport develops the depth of field is going to continue to increase, and this is great for the sport and women’s cycling in general. I’m really happy to see this get tougher, but it means we can’t expect to be on the podium all the time either. This is a wake up call for everyone. So now we have to get back to reality and see who’s prepared to do what over the next three years.”

In other competition, Kate O’Brien qualified 14th in the Women’s Sprint 200 metre time trial, with a time of 11.106 seconds. She won her first round race against Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands, but then faced reigning Olympic champion Kristina Vogel of Germany in the next round. O’Brien rode a tactically smart race, but was just beaten by a strong rider. Hugo Barrette did not advance past the first round of the Men’s Keirin, finishing fifth in his first race and fourth in the second.

“Worlds can be a funny thing,” said Erin Hartwell, Sprint Coach. “Last night’s Team Sprint [where Canada finished a career-high fifth in the women and a disappointing 15th in the men] took a lot out of everyone, so we saw a bit of flatness today. For Hugo, we still have some tactical work to do with the new Keirin format.”

“For Kate, she is a little bit sick and we are trying to deal with that. She has two days to recover for Sunday’s Keirin. She wasn’t on top of her form and it was reflected in her performances. It’s always going to be hard going up against someone like [Vogel]; that’s a hard second ride. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that tactically Kate’s getting better and better every race.”

April 13, 2017/by Communications

CYCLING CANADA HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS OPEN

OTTAWA, April 12, 2017 – Established in 2015, the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding achievement and contribution to cycling racing in or for Canada. There are currently two categories of membership in the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame; Athletes and Builders. At present, sixteen members have been inducted to the Hall of Fame; fourteen athletes and two builders that were selected in 2015 and 2016.

In 2017 the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame Selection Committee is inviting nominations from the cycling community for consideration for induction at the annual Hall of Fame Luncheon which will be held Sunday, October 1, 2017 in Milton, Ontario. The Hall of Fame celebrations will once again be held in conjunction with Cycling Canada’s annual Legends Ride presented by Lexus.

The Nomination Form must be completed and submitted no later than May 26, 2017. Successful nominees will be notified by June 12, 2017. Unsuccessful nominations will be kept for consideration for the following years’ nomination up to a maximum of three additional years.

April 12, 2017/by Communications

WOMEN’S TEAM SPRINT SQUAD 5TH AT TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

HONG KONG, April 12, 2017 – Canadian women had some strong results on the opening day of the Track World Championships in Hong Kong, with the Women’s Team Sprint squad finishing fifth overall, the Women’s Team Pursuit squad qualifying third and Jasmin Duehring taking sixth in the Women’s Scratch Race.

The Team Sprint duo of Kate O’Brien and Amelia Walsh are having an excellent first season working together, with a silver medal in the final round of the World Cup and now finishing fifth overall at the world championships, missing the medal round by one place. Russia successfully defended their title, beating Australia in the gold medal final, with Germany taking third.

“I’m very pleased,” agreed Erin Hartwell, Sprint Coach. “I was projecting sixth to eighth, with fifth being the best possible we could attain. We came up on Spain to take fifth after qualifying seventh, which was a huge ride for us. Overall, a very solid night for the girls.”

In the 10 kilometre Scratch Race, Duehring was part of an initial three rider break that grew to six before lapping the field. Duehring immediately attacked again, but was brought back with three laps to go. Italy’s Rachele Barbieri won the field sprint to take the medal, with Elinor Barker of Great Britain and Jolien D’Hoore of Belgium completing the podium.

“This year’s been a little different in preparation, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” explained Duehring. “The Scratch Race is one of those races that can go any which way. I’m happy that I read the race right and made the move to take the lap, but unfortunately, the others in the break were pretty strong sprinters and we got the field so late in the race that there wasn’t an opportunity to make a move.”

In the Women’s Team Pursuit qualification round, the Canadian squad of Laura Brown, Jasmin Duehring, Annie Foreman-Mackey and Steph Roorda set the third fastest time, behind the United States and Australia. Canada will race Australia on Thursday, with the winner going to the gold medal final.

“I was satisfied with how we performed today,” said Craig Griffin, Women’s Track Endurance Coach. “There were a couple of errors in the middle of the ride. We can clear those mistakes up and have some more time up our sleeves. We’ll make some changes and we got five good riders we can rotate through for the next round, so we can have a good race against Australia tomorrow and hopefully move through to the gold medal race.”

Canadian men also competed on Wednesday in the Team Pursuit and the Team Sprint. The Team Sprint squad of Hugo Barrette, Stefan Ritter and Patrice St-Louis Pivin finished 15th, with New Zealand successfully defending their title. The Team Pursuit squad of Aidan Caves, Adam Jamieson, Jay Lamoureux and Bayley Simpson suffered a bad crash with two laps remaining and did not finish the race. Unfortunately, Caves suffered a broken collarbone in the crash and will not be able to compete in the Men’s Omnium on Saturday.

“It was a tough afternoon for the team,” admitted Ian Melvin, Men’s Track Endurance Coach. “We had great preparation coming into these world championships; and the boys are in the form of their life. It was a tough day and we never really seemed to get things going. The Kiwis [who Canada was racing against in qualifying] were on a blistering pace and as they caught us, a rider was clipped by our first rider, and the whole group hit the floor. We’ve got to take today out of the equation because it’s been a fantastic year for the team, including a World Cup win. We know we are going in the right direction, today is just one of those humbling days that come around once in a while.”

April 12, 2017/by Communications

CANADA’S SPRINT PROGRAM – JUST GETTING STARTED

Canada’s Track Sprint program has come a long way in a short time. At the 2012 London Olympics, Canada struggled to qualify two riders; one man and one woman. Contrast that with the upcoming UCI Track World Championships in Hong Kong, where Canada will have a full complement of five riders – three men, two women – who will compete in seven events.

The program really began to take shape in 2013, when Cycling Canada hired a dedicated Sprint coach, two-time Olympic medalist Erin Hartwell. Since then, Canada has taken three athletes to the 2016 Olympics; and won multiple World Cup medals, including a silver and bronze in the final World Cup leading into the world championships.

“A program had to be developed,” explains Hartwell. “I was hired December of 2013 and the first World Cup was a month later in Guadalajara [Mexico]. At that point we had two cyclists in the sprint program; Hugo Barrette and Joe Veloce. There was no bonafide program; we had no women of an international standard, because Monique [Sullivan] had retired and Kate [O’Brien] had not yet been discovered. So it was a fairly tall task.”

“When I was hired, it was more about ‘let’s look towards 2020’. It was a development program; we might be able to get one rider to Rio, but that wasn’t our focus. But after we did the Pedal to the Medal talent ID series in the spring of 2014, we were able to discover a few more riders, like Evan Carey and Kate, and Monique came back. At that point, we had the makings of a team. We still didn’t have access to Milton yet [Mattamy National Cycling Centre velodrome] – that wouldn’t come until January 2015 – but my mindset did shift, and I thought, ‘you know what? Let’s see what we can do for Rio’.”

“It was going to be a tall order, because the qualifying period had started and our backs were against the wall. But we did a lot in a very short time with a small team. We were pretty much maxed out with two women and three men, and I’m very, very proud of what we were able to accomplish in a very short time, qualifying three athletes [two women, one man] for the Olympics. Men’s Team Sprint [which would have meant three men] we missed on, in part because of Hugo’s bad crash in Cali [Colombia, at the 2015 World Cup].”

Now it is the start of a new Olympic cycle, and Hartwell feels the Canadian sprint program is in a strong position.

“Milton was the proverbial game changer, and now we can start the beginning of a new quad [Olympic four year cycle]. Instead of having just two years to thrash about and try to piecemeal a team together for the Olympic Games, we actually have four years to fully prepare, and that’s a very exciting opportunity for us.”

The program has seen some changes, with Monique retiring after Rio, and Joe before [after 2015 Pan Am Games].

“I think we are in a great spot, we do have some returning veterans, and Kate O’Brien is now a veteran! Hugo is on the form of his life [taking a silver medal at the World Cup final in Los Angeles at the end of February]. Those two are the foundation of what we need going forward. Monique is taking a hiatus – she may be coming back – and we are drawing in more athletes; not necessarily bike riders, but people we are going to turn into cyclists. People like Patrice [St-Louis Pivin] from bobsleigh and weightlifting; he is now our starter [in the Team Sprint].”

“There is also Stefan Ritter, the Junior world champion in the Kilo and Junior world record holder for the Kilo and 200m. He has stepped to the elite ranks and, to me, is going to be one of the absolute best in the world in the near future. And we have Amelia Walsh, coming over from BMX, and she’s made incredible strides already, with she and Kate winning a bronze medal in the Team Sprint at only her second World Cup.”

“I expect us to be competitive even ahead of where I thought we would be only a few months ago. I like where we are at. Do we need more people? Absolutely. But that’s part of a talent ID program we are going to be rolling out over the next couple of years, as well as looking at the RBC Training Ground athletes that come through that ID program, and attracting more athletes from other sports that want to try track cycling.”

Olympic qualifying doesn’t start for another two years, but Hartwell says the first big milestone is in a year.

“I’ve told our team that our next big target is Commonwealth Games [in Brisbane, Australia, in 2018]; that’s 12 months away. We’ve got a mix of absolute green riders with some grizzled vets, so it’s going to take some time to make us truly competitive internationally. I do expect that [for Worlds] with the preparation we’ve put in, that we are going to be as best as we can be.”

“Right now, a lot of teams are in development mode, but once you get to the Commonwealth Games, everything changes – everyone is starting to bring A squads. So that will be our next big target and soon after that the Olympic qualifying window will open, and starting with the 2018-2019 season, that’s where it’s going to start to get serious.”

“So right now we have the luxury of a year to prepare, to find new talent and to continue to hone the athletes that we have, just sharpen this bunch up to be truly internationally competitive when it’s time.”

April 11, 2017/by Communications

CANADA’S WOMEN’S TRACK ENDURANCE PROGRAM – AIMING FOR THE NEXT LEVEL

The Canadian Women’s Track Endurance (WTE) program has been the most consistently successful high performance program for Canada since 2010. The Team Pursuit squad has won bronze medals in the past two Olympic Games, and has been on the podium at every world championships since 2012, with three bronze and two silver medals (including a silver medal in 2016). In the individual events, Canadian riders have won three world titles and multiple silver and bronze medals, including two silver and one bronze medal at the 2016 world championships.

Craig Griffin, the Women’s Track Endurance Coach, sat down to discuss the WTE program as it begins the new four year cycle leading into Tokyo.

“Right now we are really just ‘putting the band back together’,” explains Griffin. “It was such a big mental and physical effort to get to Rio and to put athletes on the podium. It takes a lot of mental and physical commitment, and with that there has to be time for everyone – athletes and staff – to relax and unwind. So it has been a time of reflection; looking at what worked and what didn’t. Who might be around for the next four years and who might not be; kind of let the dust settle and start to rebuild.”

“Immediately post-Rio we really didn’t know what athletes would be coming back. I was thinking maybe 50% of them would come back, but it looks like the majority of them are interested in continuing for the next four years. With that said, we have to take a slow and calculated approach with the athletes so that they are mentally and physically ready in four years’ time. That gives us a chance to invest in our NextGen program and athletes, and build that part of our program.”

However, Griffin says that this is also a chance for athletes and the program to try other events, rather than just focusing on the Team Pursuit.

“The Olympic events will always be priority, and so the Omnium, in its new format, and the Team Pursuit will be the priority. That being said, there are opportunities with the Madison, the Individual Pursuit, the Points Race and the Scratch Race. Those are all events that we are going to create opportunities for, and allow the existing athletes in the program to spread their wings a bit on the track, and have some fun with. Give them some more freedom within the program.”

“In addition, most of the riders have signed with professional road teams for 2017, and we are giving them the opportunity to race with those teams and take more of a road focus once Track Worlds are done. It’s something that they were never able to do in the years leading into the Games. We have some very accomplished riders that have not yet fully developed as road riders, so I think the next couple of years are going to be a great opportunity for those riders to develop into better road athletes, and better athletes in general, before, hopefully, they turn their attention back to the track as we start to prepare for Tokyo.”

“It does fit well with what we are doing. We have the Commonwealth Games next year and, with that, it is going to be similar to the [2015] Pan Am Games, where the majority of the team will be track riders. We’ll have a few road riders, but everyone will have the opportunity to do the road race [at the Commonwealth Games]. It’s a nice time for our athletes, I think, because they can get to race as individuals a bit more. Now they can have the opportunity to grow as a cyclist and not just a team pursuiter.”

While Canada has had great success in reaching the podium, Griffin recognizes that the goal is still to move up from bronze to silver and, hopefully, gold in Tokyo.

“It’s going to take a really good plan. When I look back at where we were four years ago, our programming at Cycling Canada, our staffing, the system we are building wasn’t even in place. We had a couple of coaches and a physiologist and that’s about it. Now we have a full complement of staff, and we have our NextGen program underneath that.”

“We’ve probably tripled our staff and our infrastructure to support the athletes and to build the program; that’s the first thing, you’ve got to find the right people, build the program and build the system. We started that process in the last quad and we are going to continue to build on that. We have a lot of experience now and we have a lot more knowledge within our athletes, within our coaching staff, within our science people. Just the knowledge that we have acquired and are gaining along the way will be the biggest performance enhancer for our athletes.”

“We are always on the lookout for new athletes; we are always going to look for that Georgia Simmerling [who joined the program leading into Rio], but we started the last quad with two athletes from the Olympic team and lost one along the way and took one [Jasmin Duehring] to Rio. So, we found and developed four or five really good athletes along the way. I have pretty high hopes that we can develop at least two or three more to that point, and continue to build the ones that we have, to the next level.”

April 6, 2017/by Communications

CYCLING CANADA ANNOUNCES STRONG TEAM FOR TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

HONG KONG, April 5, 2017 – Cycling Canada is pleased to announce the team of athletes that will represent Canada at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong, from April 12-16. A total of 15 athletes will participate in the project, with Canada qualifying for 17 of 20 medal events to be contested.

Jacques Landry, Chief Technical Officer – Head Coach at Cycling Canada, stated, “With these Track Worlds being the first ones since the closing of the Rio Olympic Games, it will be interesting to see how other countries are starting their build-up to Tokyo [2020]. The nations that have certain depth in their programs tend to show up in the early quad events with their development riders. In our case (Canada), while we have started some development riders in some earlier World Cups this season we will be, for the most part, lining up at these Worlds with our more established riders.”

The Sprint squad will consist of five athletes; two women and three men. Both the men’s and women’s squads are coming off a strong finish to the Track World Cup, with the Women’s Team Sprint duo of Kate O’Brien and Amelia Walsh taking silver in the final round of the World Cup, and Hugo Barrette winning a silver medal in Men’s Keirin.

O’Brien and Walsh will race the Team Sprint, with O’Brien also competing in the Sprint and Keirin. Barrette will be joined by Stefan Ritter and Patrice St-Louis Pivin for the Men’s Team Sprint. Barrette will also compete in the Sprint and Keirin, while Ritter will race in the 1000 metre Time Trial, where he is the current Junior world record holder.

The Women’s Endurance team will include five riders. All five are members of Canada’s consistent medal-winning Team Pursuit squad, and each will also participate in additional events. Jasmin Duehring, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, will race the Scratch Race and the Points Race, in which she won a silver medal in 2016. Steph Roorda and Laura Brown will compete in the first-ever Women’s Madison at the world championships, with Roorda also entered for the Omnium. Kirsti Lay and Annie Foreman-Mackey will compete in the Individual Pursuit, where Foreman-Mackey is the defending bronze medalist.

The Men’s Endurance squad comes to the world championships after their best World Cup season ever, with a win in the Team Pursuit at the second round of the World Cup. All five are scheduled for the Team Pursuit, with Aidan Caves also selected for the Omnium. Canada has also qualified for the Points Race and Individual Pursuit, and selections will be made onsite for these events from Caves, Adam Jamieson, Jay Lamoureux, Bayley Simpson and Derek Gee.

Landry commented, “Coming off two successful World Cups in the early season, my eyes will be on our men’s Team Pursuit squad to see how they fare against the top nations. Our sprint program has had some great success in the last two World Cups, so it will be interesting to see what performances this program can come up with in Hong Kong. Finally, our more established program, women’s track endurance, have really just come together in the last few days, coming off of road trade team commitments, to prep up for Worlds. While the WTE program’s eyes are focused on medals in Tokyo, it’s always good to get some podiums on the board at Worlds in the early stages of the quadrennial.”

Women

Sprint
Kate O’Brien – Calgary, AB [Team Sprint, Sprint, Keirin]
Amelia Walsh – Ayr, ON [Team Sprint]

Endurance
Laura Brown – Vancouver, BC [Team Pursuit, Madison]
Jasmin Duehring – Vancouver, BC [Team Pursuit, Points Race, Scratch Race]
Annie Foreman-Mackey – Kingston, ON [Team Pursuit, Individual Pursuit]
Kirsti Lay – Montreal, QC [Team Pursuit, Individual Pursuit]
Steph Roorda – Vancouver, BC [Team Pursuit, Madison, Omnium; alternate for Scratch Race]

Alternates
Ariane Bonhomme – Gatineau, QC [first non-traveling alternate for Team Pursuit, Points Race]
Kinley Gibson – Edmonton, AB [second non-traveling alternate for Team Pursuit, Omnium, Individual Pursuit]

Men

Sprint
Hugo Barrette – Iles de la Madeleine, QC [Team Sprint, Sprint, Keirin]
Stefan Ritter – Edmonton, AB [Team Sprint, Kilo. Alternate for Sprint, Keirin]
Patrice St-Louis-Pivin – Sherbrooke, QC [Team Sprint]

Endurance
Aidan Caves – Vancouver, BC [Team Pursuit, Omnium, other events TBD]
Derek Gee – Ottawa, ON [Team Pursuit, other events TBD]
Adam Jamieson – Barrie, ON [Team Pursuit, other events TBD]
Jay Lamoureux – Victoria, BC [Team Pursuit, other events TBD]
Bayley Simpson – Lindsay, ON [Team Pursuit, other events TBD]

Alternate
Ed Veal – Queensville, ON [non-traveling alternate for Team Pursuit]

April 5, 2017/by Communications

FIVE NATIONAL RECORDS BROKEN ON FINAL DAY OF JUNIOR/U17/PARA TRACK NATIONALS

MILTON, April 3, 2017 – The 2017 Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus for Junior, Under-17 and Para cyclists concluded on Sunday at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario, after three intense days of racing, with five Canadian national records set on the final day alone.

Canadian records were set in three of four Team Sprint categories, with the winning squads in Under-17 Women and Men both setting records, as well as the Junior Men’s gold medal team. In the Time Trial events, Madison Dempster (Midweek Cycling) set a national record for the Under-17 Women’s 500 metre Time Trial, as did Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot Cycling) in the Under-17 Men’s 500 metre Time Trial.

The final day also featured the first-ever national titles awarded for Junior riders in the Madison, with the Tag Cycling team of Maggie Coles-Lyster and Micaiah Besler taking the women’s title and the Kallisto-FVC p/b Peloton Contracting of Chris Ernsy and Lucas Taylor winning the men’s.

Overall, two riders stood out – Maggie Coles-Lyster (TaG Cycling) and Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot (Cycling), both from British Columbia. Coles-Lyster won medals in all ten events contested by Junior Women, winning eight gold medals, one silver and one bronze. Pickrell dominated the Under-17 Men’s category, with seven gold medals and one silver for a total of eight medals in nine events. With their win in the Individual Pursuit, both Erin Atwell (Cycling BC) and Tristan Guillemette (Equipe Quebec) have automatically secured a spot on the Canadian National Team for the 2017 Junior Track World Championships.

In the Para Time Trial competitions, the Alberta tandem team of Carla Shibley and Erin Rutlan won the women’s 500 metre title, while the Quebec team of Mathieu Croteau Daigle and Benoit Lussier took the Men’s 1000 metre tandem title.

“We all agree that we have witnessed amazing racing this weekend. The athletes keep raising the bar, as we’ve seen with the numerous Canadian records being broken but also the fields in general getting bigger and more competitive. We are fortunate to have this facility here in Milton, but more so to have so many great people working on it, from the Town of Milton staff to our dedicated team of volunteers and officials,” said Jessika Grand Bois, Track and Road Program Manager at Cycling Canada.

April 3, 2017/by Communications

B.C. CONTINUES TO DOMINATE JUNIOR/U17/PARA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

MILTON, April 2, 2017 – Saturday, Day 2 of the 2017 Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus for Junior, Under-17 and Para cyclists, saw titles awarded for men and women in four different events, for a total of 14 national titles.

Once again, British Columbia was the big winner, with seven titles, followed by five for Ontario. In the Para competition, Alberta and Quebec were the winners.

Maggie Coles-Lyster (TaG Cycling) swept all three of the Junior Women titles, winning the Sprint, Elimination race and Points Race. This brings Coles-Lyster’s total to five gold and one silver medal in the six Junior events contested so far. She is closely followed by fellow B.C rider Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot Cycling) in the Under-17 Men, who won two titles – Points Race and Sprint – to bring his total to five gold medals. A third B.C. rider, Sarah van Dam (Tripleshot Cycling), also won two titles in the Points Race and the Elimination Race, in the Under-17 Women category, bringing her total to four national titles.

Ontario’s Michael Foley (La Bicicletta Cycling) won two gold medals in the Junior Men’s category, in the Points Race and Elimination Race, bringing his total to three for the national championships. In other Ontario results, Je’land Sydney (Kallisto-FVC p/b Peloton Contracting) added the Junior Men’s Sprint title, Madison Dempster (Midweek Cycling) took the Under-17 Women’s Sprint title – her second of the Championships – and Dylan Bibic (Midweek Cycling) won the Under-17 Men’s Elimination title. Bibic, at only 13 years old, is one of the revelations of the Championships.

In Para competition, the Alberta tandem team of Carla Shibley and Erin Rutlan won the women’s competition, while the Quebec team of Mathieu Croteau Daigle and Benoit Lussier took the Men’s tandem title.

The Championships conclude on Sunday with national titles awarded in Team Pursuit, Team Sprint, Madison and Time Trials for Junior and Under-17 women and men, as well as Time Trials for the Para categories.

April 2, 2017/by Communications

12 TITLES AWARDED ON DAY 1 OF U19/U17/PARA TRACK NATIONALS

MILTON, April 1, 2017 – The 2017 Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus for Junior, Under-17 and Para cyclists opened on Friday at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario, with 12 national titles awarded. Nearly 100 athletes from across Canada are in attendance to compete for national titles. For the Junior category, the Championships have an added significance as the selection event for the world championships team.

National titles were awarded for men and women in three events on Friday – Individual Pursuit, Keirin and Scratch Race – for both the Junior and Under-17 categories. British Columbia was the top province for the day, winning seven national titles, led by Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot Cycling) with three straight wins in the Under-17 category, and Maggie Coles-Lyster (TaG Cycling) with titles in the Junior Women’s Keirin and Scratch Race. Also for British Columbia, Erin Attwell (Cycling BC) took the Junior Women’s Individual Pursuit and Sarah van Dam (Tripleshot Cycling) won the Under-17 Women’s Individual Pursuit.

Ontario was next on the winner’s list with four titles, including Nick Wammes (Kallisto-FCV p/b Peloton Contracting) in the Junior Men’s Keirin, Madison Dempster (Midweek Cycling) in the U17 Women’s Keirin, Elizabeth Archbold (Madonna Wheelers) for the U17 Women’s Scratch and Michael Foley (La Bicicletta Cycling) in the Junior Men’s Scratch. Quebec was the only other province to win a title on the opening day, with Tristan Guillemette (Equipe du Quebec) taking the Junior Men’s Individual Pursuit.

Mathieu Boucher, Performance Development Director at Cycling Canada, said, “What an exciting day of racing! The first day of the U17/U19 Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus is a testament to the good work that is being done by our coaches and clubs across the country to prepare the next generation of champions.”

The Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus continue on Saturday with titles to be awarded for Junior, Under-17 and Para athletes, and conclude on Sunday. Admission is free to spectators for all days and all sessions.

April 1, 2017/by Communications