April 15/24 13:52 pm - Canada Wins Third Medal at Milton Nations Cup

Posted by Editoress on 04/15/24
 

The Nations Cup concluded on Sunday in Milton, at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, with Canada winning its third medal of the event. Lauriane Genest took bronze in the women's Keirin, the event in which she is the Olympic bronze medalist, to go along with gold in the men's Elimination Race and bronze in the men's Team Sprint. Canadian riders also finished top-10 in the women's Omnium and 11th in both the men's Sprint and Madison.

Canada also, unofficially, qualified for every event in track cycling - sprint and endurance - at the upcoming Olympic Games, the first time it has managed to accomplish this feat. It appears that Canada will also get two spots in the individual Sprint events (Sprint and Keirin).

Genest had to qualify to the second round of the Keirin through the repechage, before moving on to the medal Final. In the Final she left her surge until the final half lap, passing Hetty van de Wouw (Ned) in the final metres. World champion Ellesse Andrews (NZl) took gold and Steffie van der Peet (Ned) silver. Kelsey Mitchell had a strong first ride to move straight to the second round, but faded in that race to finish fourth and qualify for the small final. She won that race to finish seventh overall. Jackie Boyle came back from a crash in her first ride to race the repechage but did not advance.X



"I had to be really patient in the final," commented Genest. "When I saw that I was sixth with one lap to go, I didn't really believe that I could go up in front, but things fell into place, and I really gave it my all in the last lap. The medal solidifies that I'm capable of doing well in the Keirin, especially as I won bronze in Australia last month."

In the women's Omnium, Maggie Coles-Lyster started the final Points Race in fourth place, after finishing fourth (Scratch), eighth (Tempo) and fifth (Elimination) in the first three events. However, she was only able to score points in one sprint in the final event, and was overtaken by two riders to finish sixth overall. Katie Archibald (GBr) was dominant, winning all three of the events leading into the Points Race, with world champion Jennifer Valente (USA) and Letizia Paternoster (Ita) tied for second going into that final race. Archibald raced defensively to take the win, with Paternoster overtaking Valente for silver.

In the men's Sprint, Nick Wammes made it through to the quarter finals before losing to Sebastien Vigier (Fra), to finish 11th overall. World champion Harrie Lavreysen (Ned) showed, once again, why he is the dominant male sprinter in the world, easily holding off Jair En Fa Tjon (Sur) for gold. Nicholas Paul (TTO) took bronze. Three other Canadians made it through qualifying to the first round of racing - Tyler Rorke qualified 16th, Ryan Dodyk 20th and Cole Dempster 22nd. Dempster, who won bronze at the Junior Worlds last Fall, is racing at his first elite event, and rode a remarkable 9.900 seconds in qualifying.

In the men's Madison, the Canadian team of Michael Foley and Mathias Guillemette finished 11th overall, one lap down on the leaders, just missing out on their goals of top-10 and finishing on the same lap as the leaders. Foley crashed during an exchange, adding to their difficulties. Belgium dominated the race, beating the Netherlands by 17 points and Portugal by 21 points.

"The form was there to stay on the same lap as the others, but with the collision it was a bit difficult to stay with the pack," commented Guillemette.

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