December 21/09 13:04 pm - CCA Track Program Update

Posted by Editoress on 12/21/09
 

From National Coach Richard Wooles:

Congratulations to all the athletes who competed at the World Cup in Cali, Colombia, you represented our country and the CCA track program well! Congratulations need to be extended to all the athletes who have been a part of the CCA track program this year as well, your commitment, enthusiasm, and positive energy have created a strong training group that has resulted in faster times and increased skill.

The track season is entering its second half and there are only a few CCA track projects left on the calendar. Having seen where we stand against the best in the world in the men’s team pursuit, we believe it is a realistic goal to qualify for one of the 8 spots that will be available at the 2012 Olympic Games. We need to work harder and improve times in a training environment, especially over the next 10 months, as qualifying for London will begin in the 2010/11 season. Because greater improvements can be made in training, it has been decided that the next event for the men’s team pursuit pool of riders will be a training camp in Los Angeles from February 8-13, rather than the China World Cup, in order to carry on the focus heading toward the 2012 Olympic Games. The main focus of the training camp in February will be the men’s team pursuit.

The next project on the CCA track calendar will be a training camp scheduled for LA in January for final preparations heading in to the fourth and final World Cup in China. The athletes who have received invitations for this project are the Cali World Cup Gold Medal winning women’s team pursuit team of Tara Whitten, Laura Brown, and Steph Roorda, the men’s team sprint team of Travis Smith, Joseph Veloce, Stephane Cossette, as well as Monique Sullivan and Zach Bell. Julia Bradley was named as an alternate to the women’s team pursuit and Allan Leparskas was named alternate to the men’s team sprint. The team will travel directly from LA to China for the World Cup in Beijing on January 22-24, 2010.

Preparation for the World Championships will begin in March with a training camp in Burnaby, then a holding camp in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, before arriving for the season finale in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 25-28, 2010.

Videos from the third World Cup in Cali, Colombia have been updated to www.youtube.com/canadiantrackcycling. Updates are also being posted on our Facebook page (Canadian Track Cycling) and on Twitter (Cantrackcycling).

The 2009/10 calendar and 2010/11 tentative track calendar can be found on the CCA website - Track Program. Athletes and coaches who are interested in becoming involved in the national program are encouraged to contact Petrina, the CCA coordinator, at track@canadian-cycling.com.

We would like to thank [everyone] for [their] commitment to the National Track Program, it is because of your dedication that we are seeing successful results. The goal is to build on what has been started and you are all a valuable part of the process.