October 25/18 23:25 pm - New Canadian Record on Opening Day of Milton Track World Cup
Posted by Editoress on 10/25/18
Canada had a strong start in Round 2 of the Tissot UCI Track World Cup at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario, on Thursday. Both the women's and men's squads qualified for the next round of competition in the Team Pursuit, with the women finishing fifth and the men fourth. The men set a new Canadian record in their ride.
The Canadian women's team of Ariane Bonhomme, Annie Foreman-Mackey, Kinley Gibson and Stephanie Roorda set a time of four minutes and 23.337 seconds for 4000 metres, 4.375 seconds behind Great Britain, the fastest qualifier and world record holders. Canada's NextGen development team, racing as Pedal 2 the Medal, finished 12th. Going into tomorrow's first round in the morning, Canada will face Japan, a team over six seconds slower in qualifying. New Zealand, Germany and Canada - third, fourth and fifth in qualifying, are all separated by only 0.227 seconds, so it is a good bet that two of them will square off for the bronze medal.
"Overall, we're pretty happy with our qualifying ride," said Gibson. "We executed technically pretty well; historically, the first ride has been tough for us in execution. Today, everyone stepped up and did their job. The time was pretty much right what we were shooting for; we're trying some new stuff this year and this was a bit of a trial, so we are happy with the time."
In the men's competition, the Canadian team of Michael Foley, Derek Gee, Adam Jamieson and Jay Lamoureux set the early fast time of three minutes and 56.931 seconds, over 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record, set by the same four riders last year at this World Cup. The Huub Wattbike Test Team of Great Britain set the fastest time, 0.303 seconds ahead of Canada. Canada's NextGen development team, racing as Pedal 2 the Medal, finished 13th. The top five teams in men's qualifying were only separated by 0.358 seconds, so it is likely that four of them will battle for the medals.
"It was really exciting," said Foley. "We went out with an idea of a time, and this was at the lower end of the range. Everyone's riding well right now, so hopefully the boys will attack it in the next ride. I think we knew we had it in us, and we were pretty confident. But, it's one thing to to think you have it in you, and another to actually do it. Even though it's only a couple of seconds, it's a big jump for us."
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