Action continues at 2014 Canadian Track Championships presented by Cisco

(January 4, 2015 – Milton, ON) The sprint competition dominated Day 2 of the Canadian Track Championships presented by Cisco, at the new Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome in Milton, Ontario.  Alberta’s Monique Sullivan of Team PCL and Hugo Barrette of Equipe de Quebec won the elite women’s and men’s sprint competitions, respectively.  National titles were also awarded in the individual pursuit, with Jasmin Glaesser of Team BC winning the women’s title and Remi Pelletier Roy of Equipe du Quebec the men’s.

Both of the sprint competitions saw aggressive racing on the new 250 metre track which will play host to the Pan Am Games later this year.  Sullivan and her team mate Kate O’Brien, who combined to take the Team Sprint title on Day 1, worked their way through the heats to meet in the Final.  While O’Brien tried to win from both the back and the front, Sullivan was clearly stronger, powering by her rival to win the title in two straight rides.  An impressive newcomer, Lizanne Wilmot (Team NCCH p/b DEC), overcame defending champion Candice Vermeulen (Team Ontario) in the quarterfinals, and took the bronze medal.

Kate’s speed is really good,” explained Sullivan, “but her speed is not as snappy as mine, so I just tried to take advantage of my speed.  I wanted to get a gap on her and stay away.  We are sharing a room here, and we know each other’s tactics, so it was just about executing the ride.”

The men’s competition was always expected to come to a showdown between Barrette and Joseph Veloce (Team Ontario), Canada’s top sprinters on the World Cup circuit.  Barrette took the first ride in the final, by a tiny two-thousandths of a second, but Veloce came back to even it up in the second ride.  The third deciding ride saw Barrette dictate the pace, gradually ramping up the speed each lap.  Veloce tried to come by on the last lap, but Barrette held him off to take the title.  Evan Carey (Team BC) took the bronze medal.

“I had a rough start to the day,” commented Barrette, “I felt a little flat.  I’m coming back from illness and on the road to recovery.  I had really good legs in the final.  It’s a new track and we are still learning how to ride it, which includes some misses, sometimes.  I mismanaged the second ride, but I wanted to come back strong, and I got it done in the third ride.”

The Individual Pursuit was part of the omnium competition, but also a stand-alone national championship.  In the women’s competition, Annie Foreman McKay (The Cyclery-Opus) set a very fast early time of 3:42.885 for 3000 metres.  Her time held up until the final four riders, when Glaesser took over four seconds off to record 3:38.378 for gold.  Allison Beveridge (Trek Red Truck) took the bronze.

“Making it two for two, in two days, is pretty exciting,” said Glaesser. “It’s a good sign of where I’m at heading into the world championships, so definitely looking forward to the rest of these championships and the six weeks of training leading into the world championships.  Today it was mentally tough, travelling from the west coast, and coming to the snow, and the cold … I just had to put it together in my head and have the best ride I could.”

In the men’s Individual Pursuit, road pro Ryan Roth (Silber Pro Racing) set the early fast time of 4:35.658 for 4000 metres, which held up through rider after rider, until Pelletier Roy knocked nearly two seconds off to record 4:33.815 and take the gold medal.  Ed Veal (Real Deal Racing) took bronze.

“I think I had a good ride, but a bit slower than I expected,” admitted Pelletier Roy.  “I was aiming for 4:32 today, and 4:28 earlier in the week, but a 4:33, considering it is the third event in the day … I’m really happy with the result.  I’m aiming for the omnium overall, but it’s really nice to get the Team Pursuit yesterday and the Individual today.  So tomorrow if I can bring home the omnium title it will be a perfect weekend.”

In the omnium competition, after three of six events, Beveridge leads with 114 points, two points in front of Glaesser.  Veal leads the men’s competition with 110 points, six points ahead of Pelletier Roy.

Two other events were worthy of note:  past world champion Gord Singleton took bronze in the men’s Master C Sprint competition, and Tour de France star Steve Bauer won the Master C men’s Time Trial title, his first national title since 1996.

Competition continues tomorrow and concludes on Tuesday.

–Rob Jones, Canadian Cyclist

World Cup in London showed good perspectives for the Canadian Track Sprint Program

(London, GBR – December 7, 2014) Canadian Track Sprint Coach Erin Hartwell is happy with the outcome of the 2014 UCI Track World Cup in London and only sees positives as the program continues to grow to new heights.

Hartwell joined the team of coaches at Cycling Canada this spring, with the objective to revitalize the sprint program. His arrival had an immediate impact, with the new team posting strong performances throughout the first two World Cup events of the season.

“We saw a little bit of a mixed bag here in London. We were coming off a high at Guadalajara with a couple of stellar performances in the individual events with Hugo [Barrette] and Monique [Sullivan], so I was looking for a little bit more here,” admitted Hartwell.

“I am however very happy with the team sprints here. The women, with Monique and Kate [O’Brien], are now ranked 13^th in the World, looking to jump in that top 12 position towards the World Championships. On the men’s side, we had a development rider with Evan [Carey] as a starter. With Hugo being sick coming into the race, I’ve shuffled Joe [Veloce] into the third position, and he came through very well.”

Monique Sullivan (Calgary, AB) raced for Canada at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and soon after announced that she would shift her focus to complete her studies at the University of Calgary. This year, Guadalajara marked her first international competition in two years, and she went on to finish tenth in the keirin.

Coach Hartwell only had good words for the Olympian. “Monique’s return to competition couldn’t have been better. I think she’s a bit hard on herself because she doesn’t win right away, but I saw nothing but constant improvements since her return at the Pan-American Championships last fall. She’s well positioned in terms of points for the World Championships, and she will continue to improve.”

Racing as the sole female sprinter for Canada leading up to the 2012 Olympics, Sullivan can now enjoy the presence of a teammate in Kate O’Brien (Calgary, AB). O’Brien is hailing from the sport of bobsleigh, and she also happens to study at the University of Calgary. The two women gelled instantly and are now becoming a very strong duo on the verge of sitting in qualifying position for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“Kate is a one of those real diamonds in the rough. It’s very cool to have found her at this stage in the game while we were at a talent ID camp in Calgary this past spring. She comes to us from bobsleigh, and the progress she’s made in such a short amount of time is truly phenomenal. We are seeing weekly improvements and she catching up very quickly with the rest of the world. Once we get to the next World Cup and at World Championships, we’ll be in the top 12 rankings, and hopefully in the Top 2 of the Americas rankings.”

Hugo Barrette (Cap-aux-Meules, QC) entered this world cup carrying a sickness from a training block in France and didn’t fully realized his potential this weekend. With Hugo off the line-up, the spotlight turned to Joe Veloce (Fonthill, ON), who is also making a return to the track suffering from a major crash in the fall. Veloce narrowly missed qualifying for the first round this morning, by only two-thousands (0.002s) of a second.

“It’s unfortunate for Hugo to come in here sick as he came off such a performance [in Guadalajara]. The sickness took a toll on him, and he wasn’t able to perform yesterday. I had to pull him off the individual sprint today,” said Hartwell, who added “Joe took the opportunity to represent his country, and he posted a really good time. He was only two-tenths off the leaders, and that’s the closest he’s been since his massive crash last year at Colorado Springs.”

The men’s team sprint welcomed two young rookies to its squad this year, with Joel Archambault (Ste-Christine, QC) and Evan Carey (Victoria, BC). Hartwell is pleased to see such progress from two rookies at international competition. “Joel [Archambault] and Evan [Carey] are green as grass. I am very impressed with their level of maturity, coming from regional development models. Evan in particular has stepped up and has impressed me more than anything. He can stay calm and composed, and get the job done. We are looking for reliability and consistency within our program, and Evan has shown that when he’s called upon, he can deliver and doesn’t make mistakes.

Hartwell also tipped his hat off to youngster Joel Archambault, who was scheduled to race in the team sprint at this event. “Unfortunately, Joel made a small mistake going down at full speed in training on Thursday, and he crashed pretty hard. He didn’t get to compete here, but I have full confidence that he will be back and ready to perform.”

Next up for the Canadian sprint program will be the World Cup in Columbia, the World Championships, followed by an intensive training block prior to the Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games.

Canada’s women team pursuit wins the bronze medal at Track Cycling World Cup

(London, GBR – December 5, 2014) The Canadian Women’s team pursuit squad kept the podium streak alive, extending it to seven consecutive medal performances at World Cups and World Championships.

Entering this World Cup race, Canada had been on the podium in the last six international women’s team pursuit races, and they managed to continue the streak adding a seventh podium to the tally.

“In the qualifiers, we were on to a good ride; we were on schedule. Just before the three-kilometer mark, Kirsti touched on the back of Allison’s wheel and crashed. Fortunately, Jasmin was able to dodge her and the team continued on to qualify in third. Ultimately, as close as Great Britain, Australia and we are to each other, all you need is to qualify top three,” said Craig Griffin, women’s track endurance coach at Cycling Canada. He went on to add “Kirsti was a bit bruised up, but we made the decision to keep her in the line-up for the semi-finals.”

The team comprised of Jasmin Glaesser (Coquitlam, BC), Stephanie Roorda (Vancouver, BC), Allison Beveridge (Calgary, AB) and Kirsti Lay (Calgary, AB) raced a tough battle in the first semi-final race against Australia, lowering by two seconds their qualifying time, but were ultimately unable to bridge the deficit created by the quick Australian start.

Griffin was nevertheless pleased with the ride, Canada’s best time at sea-level. “The semi-final was a good ride – I can’t say it was our best ride. The 4:26 we did was actually the best time we’ve posted at sea-level, so I feel pretty good about that. I gave Kirsti the same workload, so I didn’t have to change the strategy [as a result of the crash]. The bottom line is that we needed to execute better, from a technical standpoint. We just needed a greater focus in that semi-final.”

In the second semi-final race, Great Britain easily caught up to the Americans to win the second semi-finals, but the Chinese posted a faster time than the Americans in the first round, allowing them to race for the bronze medal.

In the race for the bronze medal, Canada faced the rising team from China, who posted a time of 4:30.032 in the first round to qualify for the bronze medal duel. Determined to climb on the podium, the Canadians took no time in taking the lead, and never looked back as they caught the Chinese with 400m to go, automatically ending the race.

“In the final [for the bronze medal], we slowly got the feel of things. We knew we had a bit of a cushion over China, so there was no stress. We had to go out and put a clean ride. The girls rode with very nice splits,” continued Grifin.

The coach was pleased to see that new changes helped the team, and will continue to help the team for the long-term. “For me, it was a good event, We totally changed our strategy with our line-up over the last month between the two World Cups. We realize we have to get better, so we are trying some new things. For the most part, I think the changes we’ve made turned good results, and it will pay dividends in the long run.”

As expected, the local Great Britain riders took the gold medal against the Australian team. The Brits remain undefeated in international competition since the 2012 Olympic Games, winning each World Cup and World Championship race in which they took part. Australia put up a good fight in the gold medal showdown, but their efforts proved unsuccessful, taking the silver medal.

The pressure increases on the rest of the world to dislodge the Brits from the top step of the podium, and Griffin wants Canada to be that team. “We are now expected to be on the podium. Our goal is always to be on top of the podium, and we aren’t too far off. We are a very young team, and the most important thing for me is that we have new talent coming into the team with Kirsti and Allison. Both were not part of the program prior to this Olympic cycle. We have Laura [Brown] and Gillian [Carleton] that are home. At some point, we will have a full contingent, and we are going to continue to push the envelope, and knock those guys off the podium at some point.”

The event in London continues tomorrow and ends on Sunday.