Gold Coast, Australia, April 14, 2018 – Cycling at the Commonwealth Games concluded on Saturday with the road races for women and men, at Currumbin Beach, south of Gold Coast. Annie Foreman-Mackey was the top Canadian finisher for the day, in 17th place in the women’s 112.2 kilometre competition.
The women rode six laps of the 18.7 kilometre circuit around Currumbin Beach. The course featured two climbs per lap and gusty wind discouraged breakaways.
Canada had five starters, with Foreman-Mackey joined by Allison Beveridge, Ariane Bonhomme, Kinley Gibson and Steph Roorda. Gibson and Bonhomme were among the one-third of the field that did not finish; victims of the high pace of racing.
Foreman-Mackey stayed with the lead group until it split with a lap remaining, and came in fourth in the second group, finishing one minute and 14 seconds behind the leaders. Roorda finished 25th and Beveridge 29th. Chloe Hosking won for the host nation in a sprint finish ahead of Georgia Williams of New Zealand and Danielle Rowe of Wales.
“It was a pretty tough day out there for everyone,” admitted Foreman-Mackey. “We came to the Games with a focus on the track, so this was longer than what we’ve been training for. It’s the first road race of the season for me, so it’s always a bit of a tough one. It was Australia’s race to lose and they performed very well. I was yo-yoing a bit off the [lead] group on the climbs, but I just tried to not give up.”
The men’s nine lap, 168.3 kilometre race, began with immediate attacks, which split the field. Michael Foley was the only Canadian rider to survive the attacks and finish the race, ending up 48th in his first international road race. Less than half the field finished the race. Steele von Hoffe made it a double win for Australia, taking the sprint ahead of Jonathan Mould of Wales and Clint Hendricks of South Africa.
“I was dropped on the fourth lap,” said Foley, “and I just kept racing; there’s no point in sitting up. I kept racing and luckily it let up a bit [at the front] and I was able to get back to the front group. It was hard but not too hard, so I was able to stay with them until the second last lap on the hill when I got cramps in both legs and I had to let them go. I caught them at the bottom, but by the second climb I was cooked. So at that point I was just willing myself to finish. It was a really good experience at the Games and now I’m even more motivated to keep pushing.”
Kris Westwood, Team Manager for Cycling at the Games, summarized the Canadian cycling performances for the Games, which included three bronze medals: “Overall, I would have to say that these were a pretty successful Games for us, in terms of the objectives we came in with. We were really trying to test our systems around jetlag and heat management, but also see if we could push our track athletes through an extra month after the end of the regular track season. They were running on fumes, but delivered some pretty good results.”
“We also had a couple of great revelations – Lauriane Genest with her fourth place in the women’s sprint; she really turned a lot of heads here. And then Haley Smith finishing on the podium in the women’s mountain bike was a fantastic result to see; a real validation of her career pathway. She’s been steadily moving up the ranks, and we had flagged her as a potential Games medalist.”
“For the road events we didn’t really have any targets; we were just going to see how the athletes would do. It was important for athletes like Michael Foley – guys who are going to be part of our program for a long time – to get that Games experience under their belt. So now we can start focusing and planning for Tokyo 2020.”
