July 3/17 17:34 pm - Canadians Win 8 Medals at Para Road World Cup on Canada Day Weekend

Posted by Editoress on 07/3/17
 

Canada's para-cycling team had strong results over the Canada Day weekend, with eight medals, including three golds at the third and final round of the 2017 UCI Road World Cup, in Emmen, Netherlands.  The team also had an additional 12 top-10 results just outside the medals.

The competition began on Friday with the individual time trial events, where Canada won six medals, led by gold medals for Shelley Gautier of Toronto in the Women's T1 category, and Michael Sametz of Calgary in the Men's C3.  Also winning medals were Ross Wilson of Sherwood Park, Alberta with a silver medal in the Men's C1, plus bronze medals for Charles Moreau (Victoriaville, QC) in Men's H3, Marie-Claude Molnar (St-Hubert, QC) in Women's C4 and Nicole Clermont (St Denis de Brompton, QC) in Women's C5.

Bronze medal for Marie-Claude Molnar in Women's C4 TT

Gold for  Shelley Gautier

Wilson, a double silver medalist at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, said "It was my first World Cup of the 2017 season and it was great to be back racing as part of the Canadian national para-cycling team.  It was a wonderful opportunity to test myself, and I was very pleased to be standing on the podium.  Unfortunately, it was second rather than first, but I think I'm in a good position for [the world championships] in August."

"After the Paralympics, I was on a bit of a high and continued to work and train with [national coach] Sebastien Travers, and go in a different direction from what I had done in the past.  I think we've seen some very good results and progress.  What also motivated me was the letter we received from Prime Minister Trudeau, encouraging the entire team to have great races and results.  It was wonderful."

The final two days of competition were devoted to road race events, where Canada won two more medals.  Gautier took her second gold medal (and third of the World Cup season) in the Women's T1 road race.  Charles Moreau also became a double medalist at this World Cup, with a second bronze in the H3 Men's road race.  There might have been more medals if not for some bad breaks.  Ross Wilson was well positioned in the Men's C1 road race going into the final 500 metres until a crash took him out of contention.  The multi-time medal winning women's tandem team of Robbi Weldon (Ottawa, ON) and Audrey Lemieux (Montreal, QC) lost their opportunity in the road race also due to a crash.

Arnaud Litou, Para-cycling Coordinator, stated, "The Canadian Para-cycling team won eight medals at the final Road World Cup in Emmen, and showed lots of character.  All the staff and athletes would like to dedicate these World Cup results to Sébastien Héroux [NextGen para-cycling athlete] who passed away this past Wednesday in Bromont-QC after losing a long fight with illness. In those hard moments for us all, we think about his wife and two children ... as Sébastien always said:  'Pursue your dreams and live your life fully!' He will always be with us!"

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