Ottawa, September 6, 2017 – Cycling Canada is pleased to announce the team of athletes that will represent Canada at the 2017 UCI Road Cycling World Championships, to be held in Bergen, Norway, on September 16-24.  The Road World Championships are the culmination of the road season, with title winners awarded the Rainbow Jersey, which they will wear at competitions around the world for the following 12 months.

Team selections have been confirmed for Junior men and women, Under-23 men and Elite women, in both the Individual Time Trial and Road Race events.  The Elite men selection will be confirmed following the WorldTour races to take place in Quebec City and Montreal on September 8-10.

“The 2017 Road Worlds mark a special time for Cycling Canada,” commented Jacques Landry, Chief Technical Officer and Head Coach at Cycling Canada.  “It highlights the culmination of the first year that Cycling Canada has truly invested in our road athletes through the Maple Leaf Project.  Under the leadership of road manager Kevin Field, a team has been selected from among our best road athletes, as well as some track endurance riders.  They are equipped to battle both the gruelling time trial and road courses designed by the Bergen organizing committee, in addition to the challenging weather condition that only this part of the world can offer.”

The Junior squad includes recently crowned track world champion Maggie Coles-Lyster of Maple Ridge, BC, and national road champion Charles-Etienne Chretien of Amos, Quebec.  The Junior squad includes four women and four men, with all riders participating in the road races, and two from each team entered in the time trials.

The Under-23 men’s squad of five riders includes recent Canada Summer Games champion Pier-Andre Cote of St-Henri de Levis, QC, as well as Alec Cowan of Calgary, Alberta, who was 12th in the time trial at last year’s world championships.  All five are scheduled to start the road race, with Cowan and Jack Burke of Squamish, BC, entered in the time trial also.

Six riders will represent Canada in the Elite women, including Rio Olympians Karol-Ann Canuel (Gatineau, Quebec), Leah Kirchmann (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and Kirsti Lay (Montreal, Quebec).  Lay, who won a bronze medal on the track in Rio as a member of Canada’s Team Pursuit squad, has put more emphasis on road racing this season, with multiple podium appearances to her credit.  All six riders will compete in the road race, with Canuel and Kirchmann also racing the time trial.

“It’s always a thrill to bring our team to the World Championships,” said Kevin Field, Road Manager at Cycling Canada.  “We’re seeing really interesting progressions in our performances at Road Worlds and I’m excited for our outcomes in Norway.  I’m especially thrilled with the work happening across the cycling community in Canada at the regional, provincial and national level, through the work we’re doing with the Maple Leaf Project. We’re building fantastic relationships with new funders like Bob and Kim Disbrow, and Bernard Leroux, and we are working really closely with our provinces and trade teams to create more holistic and aligned athlete development.”

“We’re seeing our system-work pay off, notably in our U23 category, where we’ve established consistency with our ability to qualify for the world championships, and are developing athletes sooner. This year it was a particular pleasure for me to reconnect with our Junior categories while working closely with our provinces.”

Junior Women
Erin Attwell – Victoria, BC [Trek-Red Truck]
Simone Boilard – Quebec City, QC [Desjardins-Ford]
Maggie Coles-Lyster – Maple Ridge, BC [TAG]
Laurie Jussaume – Contrecour, QC [VC Contrecour]
TT: Attwell, Jussaume
Reserves: Ann-Pascale Ouellet, Dana Gilligan

Junior Men
Charles-Etienne Chretien – Amos, QC [IAM Gold]
Michael Foley – Milton, ON [La Bicicletta]
Kurt Penno – Brandon, MB [Trek-Red Truck]
Graydon Staples – Orillia, ON [Toronto Hustle]
TT: Chretien, Staples
Reserves: Guillaume Davidson, Noah Simms

U23 Men
Jack Burke – Squamish, BC [Aevolo]
Pier-Andre Cote – St-Henri de Levis, QC [Silber]
Alec Cowan – Calgary, AB [Silber]
Marc-Antoine Soucy – Amos, QC [Silber/Garneau-Quebecor]
Nickolas Zukowsky – Ste Agathe, QC [Silber]
TT: Cowan, Burke
Reserve: Adam Roberge, Will Elliot, Adam Jamieson

Elite Women
Lex Albrecht – Montreal, QC [Tibco-SVB]
Sara Bergen – Coquitlam, BC [Rally]
Karol-Ann Canuel – Gatineau, QC [Boels-Dolemans]
Alison Jackson – Vermilion, AB [Bepink]
Leah Kirchmann – Winnipeg, MB [Team Sunweb]
Kirsti Lay – Montreal, QC [Rally]
TT: Canuel, Kirchmann
Reserve: Sara Poidevin [Rally], Joelle Numainville [Cyclance]

After a rest day following the time trial, Canada’s top U23 male riders were back at Birds Hill Provincial Park today to compete in the 120 kilometer road race. The calibre was very high with 49 riders taking the start, some of which have been competing in continental teams all season. Racing conditions were much better than yesterday, but not necessarily ideal for stronger riders who were hoping for harsher conditions to make the race more challenging. According to Quebec’s Pier-André Côté, “We wanted to make the race hard because we had a more complete team, with 5 really good athletes. The course was pretty easy and the wind wasn’t a huge factor, so we had to make the race hard and that’s what we did.”

Starting on the first lap, a group of 16 riders took the lead on the main group, distancing themselves by over one minute over the first two laps. Most provinces were represented in this break, including 4 riders from Quebec, 3 from Ontario, 3 from Manitoba, 2 from Alberta, 2 from BC, 1 from Saskatchewan and 1 from Nova Scotia. After the first laps, it was clear to all that the race was set and that the main peloton would not able to bridge a gap of over 3 minutes, with the top riders being part of the lead group.

The front pack saw many attacks throughout the race, with Soucy and O’Donnell going to the front during the last few laps. They were quickly followed by Toppings, Boersma, Lamoureux and Côté, forming a 6-person breakaway that would last until the very end. In the final 500 meters, the crowd went wild cheering for two riders sprinting to the finish line: Pier-André Côté, silver medalist in the ITT, and Alberta’s Connor Toppings. In the last meters, Côté had an obvious lead and made his way slowly across the finish line, followed by Toppings a few seconds later and BC’s Jay Lamoureux.

“Finishing with a sprint was definitely a card that I had,” commented Pier-André Côté. “You try to win the way you can and that’s what I did today.”

Pascal Choquette, the Quebec coach explains, “The outcome of the race was what we expected and on an easy course like that it’s hard to manage to do better than that. We need to isolate the team and it’s hard to do that because with no difficulty on the course everybody is racing against us. In that kind of race, if all the provinces are racing against us it makes it harder to break away. We had two riders in the group at the end, so we knew we had a good chance.”

After 3 full days of racing, the road events will come to an end Saturday evening with the criterium at Red River Exhibition Park. The course being open, spectators will have an amazing view of the riders and will be able to enjoy entertainment on site.

Winnipeg, August 9, 2017 – Cycling competition at the Canada Summer Games resumed on Tuesday with the Road events, starting with the individual time trial for men and women.  British Columbia and Quebec collected all the medals, with each winning a gold, while Quebec also won both silver medals and one bronze, and British Columbia took the other bronze medal.  Quebec took four of the top-10 spots in each race.

The women raced 13 kilometres, with Ontario’s Katherine Maine setting the early fast time of 19 minutes and 17 seconds.  Eventually she would be surpassed by three riders, with Gillian Ellsay of British Columbia setting the winning time of 18 minutes and 59 seconds.  Quebec rider Simone Boilard finished four seconds back for silver, with her team mate Catherine Ouellette taking the bronze medal, a further 11 seconds in arrears.

“It’s really cool to win,” said Ellsay.  “This is my second Canada Games, so to come back and be able to win the gold medal is pretty special.  It was a goal to be top-5, but I didn’t know how good my form was coming here.”

In the men’s 20 kilometre competition, Quebec’s Raphael Auclair, fresh from finishing 14th at the Mont-Ste-Anne Mountain Bike World Cup on Sunday, set the early leading time of 26 minutes and 50 seconds, eventually finishing sixth.  Quebec finished 1-2, with a pair of riders who had flown in straight from the grueling Tour of Utah stage race.  Adam Roberge, the Under-23 national time trial champion, took the gold medal with a time of 26 minutes and 10 seconds, while Pier-Andre Cote, the national Criterium champion, finished second, 17.87 seconds back.  Jay Lamoureux of British Columbia took the bronze medal, 20.3 seconds behind Roberge.

“I wanted to win, for sure,” said Roberge, “but I had just come from the Tour of Utah, so I didn’t know how my legs would feel.  At 3K [kilometres] to go I wasn’t sure if I had the win, so I went all out.  I didn’t even know that I had won when I crossed the line, and when Pier [Andre Cote] told me I was first, I couldn’t have asked for more. I’m super happy.”

The Canada Games cycling events continue on Wednesday and Thursday with the Women’s and Men’s Road Races.

AMOS, July 19, 2017 – Team Canada came into the Tour de l’Abitibi with Canadian champions for Road, Time Trial and Criterium, and they are already showing their strength, with Criterium champion Kurt Penno winning the opening stage on Tuesday and donning the Yellow Jersey as race leader.  Penno also won the Sprint Challenge competition on Monday evening.

The 119 kilometre stage from Rouyn-Noranda to Amos saw six riders break away and manage to hold off the field until the finish line, with Penno outkicking Nicholas Diniz (Team Ontario) and Riley Sheehan (Team USA).  Other Canadians in the break were Robin Plamondon (Quebec) in fifth and Guillaume Davidson (Team Canada) in sixth.  The peloton finished at 32 seconds.

“We were trying to work as a team and cover breakaways,” explained Penno.  “It just happened that the breakaway I covered ended up sticking and staying away. The American [Sheehan] and I rolled away and then the others joined us.  At the finish I had good legs, and I just gave it everything I had, and it went in our favour.  I went pretty hard, but I do have some left for the rest of the week.  It’s a good feeling, knowing that I haven’t gone too deep.  I didn’t expect this [to win] right off the gun, so it’s quite awesome.”

After time bonuses, Penno now leads Diniz by five seconds and Sheehan by seven seconds.  Penno also holds the Points Jersey, with 32 points to 24 for Diniz.  Sheehan leads the White Jersey (First Year) competition, as well as the one for the Climber’s Jersey (tied at five points with Ama Nsek (Stradling p/b Specialized) of Luxembourg.  Team Canada leads Team USA by 24 seconds in the team classification.