SAGUENAY, June 10, 2017 – Team Canada’s Guillaume Boivin made his second podium appearance in two days on Friday, in stage 2 of the internationally sanctioned stage race Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay.  Boivin finished third on the 171 kilometre stage in a sprint finish.

Canadian professional squad Silber Pro Cycling finished 1-2 on the stage, with Emile Jean taking the win ahead of Stephen Bassett.  Boivin also moved to within three seconds of the overall race lead, after time bonuses were factored in.

“On the last lap there was a split of eight guys,” explained Boivin.  “I was really driving that group; it was a gamble but we had to take it. I was a bit flat in the sprint as a result.”

Team Canada manager Kevin Field commented, “”It’s great to see all the Canadian teams active here. Congrats to Silber. Great rebound race for them. They lost a lot of guys in the crash on the last lap, but fortunately, everyone should be ok. For us, it was another great day. The team was awesome – James [Piccoli], Leandre [Bouchard] and Ben [Perry] all did the job for Guillaume today. We’re in a good spot with two stages to go! Fingers crossed … there is a lot of racing still to go.”

SAGUENAY, June 7, 2017 – Cycling Canada is pleased to announce the team that will represent Canada at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, an internationally sanctioned stage race [UCI 2.2] that will take place in the Saguenay region northeast of Quebec City on June 8-11.

The team of five riders (plus two reserves) represents a unique integration of athletes from across the Road and Mountain Bike disciplines.  The team will be led by Guillaume Boivin and Ben Perry, two of Canada’s most promising road athletes, who ride for the professional Cycling Academy team. In 2016, Perry won a stage at Saguenay and was second overall in the final standings.

They will be joined by two members of the national mountain bike team, Saguenay-region native Leandre Bouchard and Raphael Auclair.  Bouchard represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Rio last year and is a professional mountain bike athlete, who has finished 16th on the World Cup circuit this season.  Auclair is an Under-23 mountain bike racer who has also raced on the road.

The final member of the squad is James Piccoli, who had his first UCI win in Trinidad and Tobago last fall, and has had a very strong early season racing in the United States.  Two Canadian road professionals have also been named as reserve members of the team – Pierrick Naud and Alex Cataford.

Kevin Field, Men’s Road Manager at Cycling Canada, said, “I’m thrilled to be taking this unique team to Saguenay. The opportunity is thanks to an open collaboration-based approach of working with our community. The FQSC, [GP Saguenay founder] Roger Fillion and [current Saguenay Race Director] Gaetan Larouche made this work for Cycling Canada. I can’t thank them enough.”

“On the sport side, this project represents an experiment in discipline integration that’s exciting. Leandre and Raphael are primarily MTB athletes, and I’m working close with [national mountain bike coach] Dan Proulx to develop process goals for these riders around tactics and team work that can benefit them in the shifting styles in MTB racing. It’s also great to get MTB/Road integrated again – we used to do more of it in the mid-late 90’s and early 2000s. The disciplines are still very compatible.”

“We’re also trying to increase community involvement in our national team road projects. In Saguenay, for example, the team will be participating in a meeting and dinner with local federal Member of Parliament Denis Lebel and other leaders in the community. In addition, we will participate in meet/greets with important local youth clubs, especially with Leandre Bouchard, who is a cycling success story from the region.”

Pierre Lafontaine, CEO of Cycling Canada, confirmed that outreach is an important part of domestic projects, “One of the crucial aspects that we need to keep developing in Canada is to help enhance our domestic calendar, increase the depth of the events and continue building memorable events.”

Raphael Auclair – Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Leandre Bouchard – Alma, QC
Guillaume Boivin – Montreal, QC
Ben Perry – St Catharines, ON
James Piccoli – Montreal, QC
Reserve: Pierrick Naud – Amos, QC
Reserve: Alex Cataford – Ottawa, ON

TECHNICAL GUIDE
Further information on the 2017 Global Relay Canadian Road Championships p/b Lexus can be found in the Technical Guide for the Championships.

REGISTRATION
Competitive cyclists can register on the Cycling Canada website. Registration for all championship race events will close on Monday, June 19, at 11:59pm, ET. No exceptions. For registration fees and other registration information, please refer to the Technical Guide.

GATINEAU, May 20, 2017 – Canada put five riders in the top-10 at the Chrono Gatineau UCI time trial on Friday, with Team Canada’s Karol-Ann Canuel finishing second.  American Lauren Stephens (Team TIBCO – Silicon Valley Bank) held off two world champions to win the competition.  Stephens, who finished fourth last year, finished 3.64 seconds ahead of Karol-Ann Canuel and 11.15 seconds in front of American rider Amber Neben (VeloConcept), the reigning individual time trial champion.

The 21 kilometre out-and-back course climbs up into the Gatineau national park for the first half before the riders turn around for a long and fast descent back to the finish.  Race day was sunny but windy.

Jasmin Duehring (Sho-Air TWENTY20), a member of the bronze medal winning Team Pursuit squad from Rio, set the first fast time of 31:05, 11 riders in from the 49 starters.  Her time held up until eight riders to go, when Claire Rose (Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling) became the first to go under 31 minutes (30:57).  Two riders later, Leah Thomas (Sho-Air TWENTY20) knocked over six seconds off the leading time, but Canuel was right behind her, and took the top time down to 30:23.  Canuel, in turn, was immediately supplanted on the Hot Seat by Stephens, with the final winning time of 3:20.

“It was really a hard course,” commented Canuel.  “It was really hilly and also windy and it was hard to get your effort at first, but I’m happy with my ride. I finished second, and for sure I wanted to win, but three seconds is nothing. I didn’t know where I would fit today, I haven’t really worked on my time trial at all this year as I’ve been focussing on the classics and the road racing, so it was good to get an effort out there. I’m happy with my ride.”

“I’m racing tomorrow and then will take a little break to start prepping for Nationals and then the Giro in July. Last year the Giro was my favourite race. We won the pink jersey, but it was also a fun race to do and really hard.  I hope this year is going to be the same.”

Duehring finished seventh overall, 45.5 seconds back, followed by three more Canadians to round out the top-10:  Kirsti Lay (Team Canada) at 1:00, Leah Kirchmann (Team Canada) at 1:01 and Alizée Brien (Équipe du Québec) at 1:05.

OTTAWA, May 4th, 2017 – The post-Olympic year is a time for Cycling Canada to take stock and look at opportunities to improve performance and raise the profile of cycling in Canada outside of targeted Olympic disciplines.

Road cycling represents one such opportunity. It is an important and accessible entry point for the general public to participate in cycling and professional road cycling has the largest international fan base and the highest media profile of all cycling sports. Having Canadians in the highest echelons of road cycling as well as a robust development pipeline is of great importance for Cycling Canada. That said, generating funding for road programs via Cycling Canada’s public funding partners continues to be a challenge.

Recognizing the importance of Road to its broader strategic imperatives, Cycling Canada is addressing the challenge by hiring Kevin Field in the newly created role of Strategic Road Consultant. Over the last decade Kevin has led numerous road trade teams and has been influential in mentoring many of Canada’s top road athletes.

In his recent capacity as Cycling Canada’s Road Manager Kevin helped foster alignment between Canadian athletes, their professional teams and Cycling Canada’s road and track programs. In the past two years Canada has seen significant progress in this area, sending its largest ever teams to the UCI Road World Championships in 2015 in Richmond as well as in Doha in 2016. Improving Canada’s World Championships quotas has led to consistent improvement in results, most recently with Ryan Roth posting a 15th place finish at the 2016 event in Qatar, Canada’s best finish in the elite men’s road race in 13 years.

Over the past decade Kevin has also helped to bring forward significant funding to support road programs in Canada. Kevin’s experience will be an asset to the organization as it continues to establish new and stronger commercial opportunities and partnerships. Working alongside CEO Pierre Lafontaine and Marketing Director Matthew Jeffries, Kevin will help to architect and implement Cycling Canada’s business engagement platforms. Outside of cycling, Kevin has founded 4 companies, most recently co-founding the sports nutrition company The Feed in 2013.

“Few people in Canada have Kevin’s grasp for all aspects of road cycling, particularly from the sport technical, business and political dimensions,” said Cycling Canada CEO Pierre Lafontaine. “Kevin stands out as one of these rare assets in our system. He has been instrumental in assisting many of our top riders earn berths on the World Tour circuit and he is held in high regard amongst our top athletes, as well as by Canadian business leaders who have invested in the sport over the past 20 years.”

“I’m excited about this expanded role with Cycling Canada,” said Field. “I think there is a huge opportunity to bring more business value to the organization and better support to our road athletes. Canada’s approach to road is ripe for innovation and this year we’ll do two things. First, continue to build on the success we’ve established in the past two years at the World Championships. Second, look at tearing our approach to the sport back down to the studs, how we work with our community, athletes and private teams. We’ll have a new approach to road from 2018 onward and this year will be about laying the foundation for that. ”

Kevin will be based out of Cycling Canada’s head office in Ottawa, ON. He can be reached at kevin.field@cyclingcanada.ca.