March 24/18 13:35 pm - Commonwealth Games Profile - Allison Beveridge

Posted by Editoress on 03/24/18
 

We published a profile of Allison Beveridge prior to the Rio Olympics, so this is an updated version to include the past two years.

Allison Beveridge began cycling at the age of 14 in her hometown of Calgary, and by the time she was a Junior was already on the national team, representing Canada both on the Track and the Road at the world championships in both 2010 and 2011.

"Growing up in Calgary, my sisters were involved in the Oval Cycling Centre.  I was a swimmer, but I had an injury so I tried out cycling, and it went from there.  One thing I aspire to do is get better each year."

She almost immediately made the transition from Junior to the senior team, and joined Canada's powerhouse Team Pursuit squad in 2014, when she helped the team win a silver medal at the world championships, following that up with a bronze in 2015 and a silver again in 2016.  The team took the gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games on home soil.  Allison was also part of the team when it won the overall World Cup title in the 2015-16 season.

2015 Pan Am Games Road Race, bronze medal

Track World Cup  New Zealand - Omnium Gold medal

However, Allison has strong individual results as well.  She won a bronze medal in the Road Race at the 2015 Pan Am Games, and a gold medal at the second round of the 2015-16 World Cup season in the Omnium, and finished fourth in the same event at the world championships.  She also won a bronze medal in the Scratch Race at the Worlds in 2015.  In the 2015 Tour of California, Allison finished fifth overall in the Points competition, eighth in the Mountain competition and ninth overall in the Young Rider classification.

At the Rio Games, she was a member of the Canadian squad that won the bronze medal in the Team Pursuit and finished 11th in the Omnium after a crash in the Scratch Race put her out of medal contention.

2016 member of the bronze medal winning Team Pursuit squad

Allison missed the 2017 Track Worlds after undergoing surgery in early January last year to relieve vascular thoracic outlet syndrome.

"They removed my left top rib to alleviate the compression of my vein between the collarbone and the top rib, which was causing my subclavian and axillary veins to clot in my left arm. They also went in and smoothed out the actual vein. The arm clot originally showed in March of 2016, a couple months after I separated the shoulder in January at the World Cup in Hong Kong, when my left arm began swelling and the clot was diagnosed. At the time, the clot was treated with medication and angioplasty; however the clot reoccured after I came off the medication to race the Games in Rio. Due to the risk of the medication I had to be on to treat the clot, I decided to put down my bike for five months while it got sorted. At that point it was a bit of a process to get the surgery done, but I am very relieved to have it dealt with and fortunate that the surgery worked and no new clot has reformed."

Racing for the powerhouse Rally Cycling team on the road, Beveridge came back later in the season to win the national road title in a sprint and finished third in a stage at Cascade.

Winning 2017 National Road Championship

"I definitely plan to get back on the road this summer with Rally cycling. Track continues to be a main focus for me as well; last year it was mainly just absent because of my surgery time and injury, but it did allow me to build into the road season and be a bit more full on and I did really enjoy my time with the team and race myself back into some fitness. The road race at Commonwealth Games will be the start of my road season and then from there I plan to continue into the season building into it and supporting the team as best as possible until I find my road legs a bit more."

Gold at Milton Track World Cup

Silver Women's Omnium at Milton Track World Cup

On the track, Beveridge was a member of the Team Pursuit squad that was second in the first round of the 2017-18 World Cup and won the second round on there home track in Milton last December.  Individually, she finished second at the World Cup Omnium event in Milton and won the Omnium at the Berlin Six Day a month prior to the Worlds.  At Worlds in Apeldoorn, Netherlands less than a month ago Beveridge was part of the squad that finished just outside the medals in fourth, and was taken down in a crash in the Points Race during the Omnium.

"Worlds was a bit of disappointment for me and the crash was pretty heavy. Fortunately though, other than a few effects immediately during and following the crash, I had no long term effects of the concussion."

Allison will compete in both track and road events at the Commonwealth Games.