Milton, ON (October 7, 2021) – After kicking off the track cycling season last month at the Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia, the Canadian track squad is heading to Roubaix, France for the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships on October 20-24. The 16-person team will be made up of a combination of veterans and development athletes, with the majority of riders competing at their first Elite World Championships.

Leading the sprint team will be Olympic Sprint gold medallist, Kelsey Mitchell, and Keirin bronze medallist, Lauriane Genest, who will both be competing in the Keirin, Sprint and Team Sprint events. Their Team Sprint teammate will be announced on October 13^th. On the men’s side, Olympians, Hugo Barrette and Nick Wammes, will once again be joining forces with, Ryan Dodyk, to take on the Team Sprint after the trio won gold at their first international competition together. Barrette will also be tackling the Keirin, while Wammes will compete in the Sprint.

“It’s so amazing to be able to bring two Olympic medallists to Track Worlds,” said Cycling Canada’s High Performance Director, Kris Westwood. “Kelsey and Lauriane will walk into the Roubaix velodrome as riders to watch, which brings all sorts of new challenges, but I’m confident they are up for it. On the endurance side, the squad represents a generational shift for our teams. They have big shoes to fill, and I’m excited to see what they can achieve as we work towards the Paris Olympic Games in just three years’ time.”

The women’s endurance squad will be comprised of 2019 Pan Am Games silver medallists, Erin Attwell and Maggie Coles-Lyster, as well as Ngaire Barraclough, Devaney Collier and Sarah Van Dam. Attwell, Barraclough and Van Dam are coming off a gold medal win at the Cali Nations Cup, while Coles-Lyster has earned several podiums on the road this season. All athletes will be competing in the Team Pursuit, with some riders also competing in the Omnium, Scratch Race, Elimination Race and Points Race.

Olympians, Derek Gee and Michael Foley, will be leading the men’s endurance team, with development athletes Mathias Guillemette, Jackson Kinniburgh and Ethan Ogrodniczuk completing the Team Pursuit squad. One rider will also be selected to compete in the Omnium.

The event will be livestreamed on FloBikes and full results will be available here throughout the five days of competition.

Team Canada

Women’s Sprint
Kelsey Mitchell – Sherwood Park, AB [Team Sprint, Keirin, Sprint]
Lauriane Genest – Lévis, QC [Team Sprint, Keirin, Sprint]
Sarah Orban – [Team Sprint, Sprint]

Men’s Sprint
Hugo Barrette – Iles-de-la-Madeleine, QC [Team Sprint, Keirin]
Ryan Dodyk – Edmonton, AB [Team Sprint]
Nick Wammes – Bothwell, ON [Team Sprint, Sprint]

Women’s Endurance
Erin Attwell – Victoria, BC [Team Pursuit]
Ngaire Barraclough – Edmonton, AB [Team Pursuit]
Maggie Coles-Lyster – Maple Ridge, BC [Team Pursuit]
Devaney Collier – Edmonton, AB [Team Pursuit]
Sarah Van Dam – Victoria, BC [Team Pursuit]

Men’s Endurance
Michael Foley – Milton, ON [Team Pursuit]
Derek Gee – Ottawa, ON [Team Pursuit]
Mathias Guillemette – Trois-Rivières, QC [Team Pursuit]
Jackson Kinniburgh – Calgary, AB [Team Pursuit]
Ethan Ogrodniczuk – Vancouver, BC [Team Pursuit]

Cairo, Egypt (September 7, 2021) – After a two-year hiatus, the Canadian Junior track squad returned to racing in spectacular fashion, winning four medals and two world titles over four days of competition at the UCI Junior Track World Championships in Cairo, Egypt.

The team comprised of Dylan Bibic, Liam Langford, Carson Mattern and Campbell Parrish set the tone early on, with Mattern winning the rainbow jersey in the men’s Scratch Race on the first day of racing. The following day, Bibic captured Canada’s second world title in the men’s Points Race.

“The success of the whole competition has been pretty surreal,” said Cycling Canada’s NextGen Lead Coach, Jenny Trew. The entirety of the Canadian cycling community has helped these boys learn the trade and develop the skills to be competitive with the best in the world. It’s so rewarding to see the results of having the Mattamy Velodrome in our backyard, with both athletes developing through the programs provided by their clubs, the NCIM, the OCA and Cycling Canada.”

Both Bibic and Mattern continued their medal haul with Bibic securing a silver medal in the men’s Omnium before the duo paired up for the men’s Madison, where they finished third. Mattern and Parrish are now off to race at the Road Nationals in Beauce, Quebec on September 10-12, while Bibic is off to Europe to join the Junior road program.

Full results can be found here.

TOKYO (August 5, 2021) – Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell had a spectacular Olympic debut, securing their place in the Keirin final after breezing through three heats over two days of racing. Genest was physically and tactically strong in the final, sprinting to third place in the last lap to secure a bronze medal for Canada.

“I’m pretty stoked,” said Genest. “I’m just very happy with the outcome and I don’t quite realize it yet. In the moment when I crossed the finish line, I didn’t really know what I had done. It’s a life accomplishment honestly, we work so hard every day, we train so hard and it’s dedication and it’s amazing to see that work pay off.”

Genest and Mitchell kicked off the event yesterday by winning their respective heats in the 1/16 finals. They went on to compete in the ¼ finals, where Mitchell won her heat and Genest finished in the top-4 to secure her place in the next round. Competing in the same semi-final race, both women managed to finish in the top-3 and made their way to the finals against a stacked international field.

In the end, the Canadian women raced strong, with Mitchell fading in the last lap and being passed by eventual gold medallist Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands, followed by Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand and Genest in third. Mitchell finished the event in 5^th place.

Both Mitchell and Genest will have another shot at the podium in the women’s Sprint event which starts tomorrow. All rounds can be streamed live on CBC Olympics.

TOKYO (August 3, 2021) – The women’s and men’s Team Pursuit squads made a comeback on the second day of track competition. Both teams set personal best times and smashed their respective Canadian records. After a difficult start for the women’s team during yesterday’s qualification round, the quartet came back with a renewed sense of focus in Round 1 against France with a time of 4:09.249, a new Canadian record.

On top of beating their opponents, the team of Allison Beveridge, Georgia Simmerling, Ariane Bonhomme and Annie Foreman-Mackey set a personal best time and moved on to the bronze medal round against the USA. The race was neck-in-neck for the first 3000 metres, with Canada ultimately finishing 4^th.

“To be able to come back from qualifying in last to riding for a bronze medal was pretty special,” said Bonhomme. “For me, having the chance to step up and show what I knew I could do was amazing. A few years ago, we said that we wanted to ride a 4:09 at the Olympics and to be honest, after the qualifying run I didn’t know if we could do it. To be able to regroup after a bad performance and to go out there and do the time that we set out to do, it’s very special.”

On the men’s side, the team of Vincent De Haître, Derek Gee, Michael Foley and Jay Lamoureux initially qualified in 6^th clocking in only a few hundredths of a second off the Rio 2016 Olympic record. They faced Germany in Round 1, where they shaved almost 4 seconds off their previous time to finish in national record time of 3:46.769.

“We knew it was going to be close with the German team just because of qualifying,” said Gee. “We have a really unique strategy with Vince just doing one long pull to start, so we knew with what he’s capable of doing in the Kilo that we could get a little bit up on them and the boys held it together really nicely.”

Tomorrow, the men’s team will tackle the 5-6 Team Pursuit finals while sprinters Hugo Barrette, Nick Wammes, Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell will be making their debut in the men’s Sprint and women’s Keirin events. All competitions can be streamed on CBC Olympics.