August 30/24 14:27 pm - Canadians Have Record-setting Day on Their Bikes
Posted by Editoress on 08/30/24
There is an expression, 'It's been a day'. Well, Friday, August 30, 2024, has been that day for Canadian cyclists, with wins and podiums across the track, trails and road - in total, two Bronze medals on the Track at the Paralympics; Gold, Silver and Bronze at the Mountain Bike World Championships; and, to cap it off, a stage win at the Vuelta a Espana ... all within a six hour window. So, let's break these down chronologically:
Silver for Rafaëlle Carrier
In the Junior women's XCO at the Mountain Bike World Championships, Rafaëlle Carrier, a first year Junior, took the silver medal. Carrier finished 36 seconds behind Viktoria Chladoñova of Slovakia, with Marusa Tereza Serkezi of Slovenia third at 1:31. Both Chladoñova and Carrier moved up quickly on the opening lap - Chladoñova into the lead and Carrier to fourth from ninth. The Slovakian would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the race, while Carrier was up to second by the middle of Lap 2. The Canadian battled with Serkezi until mid-Lap 3, before pulling away to take Silver. In other Canadian results, Lily Rose Marois was 19th, Amalie Ruelland 22nd, Aislin Hallahan 25th and Eleanor Winchell 40th.
Bronze for Keely Shaw
After finishing tenth at the Paralympic Games in the 500 metre time trial yesterday, an event that Shaw admitted was just a warm up for her, the Canadian rode to a bronze medal in the women's C4 Individual Pursuit with a time of 3:46.942, finishing 1.647 seconds ahead of Samantha Bosco of the USA. Australian Emily Petricola caught New Zealand's Anna Taylor in the gold medal final.
"I can't feel anything right now, I'm almost numb," said Shaw after her ride. "I had so much doubt going into the final round; I did not think I had it in me. It was a race of pure mind games, [I had to] totally cut off my legs - my whole body was yelling at me to stop. I had to remind myself that I have a pretty good record when it comes to bronze medal finals. I'm so happy that I was able to repeat; obviously, it would have been awesome to upgrade the colour of my medal from Tokyo, but our sport has come so far, the times are getting so much faster. So to see myself up there on the podium with the greatest athletes at the greatest sporting event in the world is a feeling that I hope I never forget.
Holmgren Sisters Take Gold and Bronze in XCC
Isabella Holmgren came into the Under-23 women's XCC as a favourite, after dominating the rounds of the World Cup she competed in earlier in the season, and she did not disappoint, opening a gap on the second lap and riding away to a massive 22 second win by the finish line. Sister Ava Holmgren, who recently won the Under-23 women's national XCO title, moved up eighth in the first half of the race to third by the penultimate lap and came within four seconds of second by the finish to take bronze. Ella MacLean-Howell (Great Britain) took silver. Emilly Johnston put three Canadians in the top-4 with her fourth place, with Ella MacPhee finishing 15th.
Holmgren Sisters Courtesy Catharine Pendrel
"It was a really fun race, very hard," said Isabella Holmgren. "To see Ava come across the line in third was amazing."
Ava Holmgren agreed it was an amazing race: "I started last and had a lot of traffic at the start, so I was trying to pass as many people as possible and not go over the limit."
Bronze for Hayward in Men's IP
Alexandre Hayward, more known for his road and time trial results, improved from fourth in Paralympic qualifying to take the bronze medal in the C3 men's Individual Pursuit, finishing almost four seconds ahead of Eduardo Santas Asensio (Spain). The gold medal final was between two British riders, with Jaco van Gass beating team mate Finlay Graham.
"I'm proud of myself," admitted Hayward. "I didn't want to set too high of an expectation, but on this team I'm surrounded by Olympic and Paralympic legends, so it's easier to envision it when your team mates are doing it. I'm definitely proud of this."
Mike Woods Takes Third Vuelta Stage Win
Mike Woods (Israel Premier Tech) capped off an extraordinary day for Canadian cyclists with the third stage win of his career at the Vuelta, on Stage 13. Woods was in the break, and on the steep final climb up Puerto de Ancares rode away to a solo victory with 4.6 kilometres to go, finishing 45 seconds ahead of second place Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and 1:11 in front of Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates). The General Classification group was more than 12 minutes back, but second placed overall Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) put race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) under significant pressure, reducing his deficit in the GC battle from over three minutes to only 1:21 in a single stage.
Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency
"I'm on cloud 9 right now," says Woods. "My big goal was to win a race with this Canadian [national champion] jersey. I've had a tough season this year with illness and I've had a tough race with some bad luck, a lot of mechanicals, crashes and mistimed moments. So, this is a big moment of catharsis, a big moment of relief. The pressure has been building and to get this win now, I'm on Cloud 9."
"I was super lucky to get in the break with Dylan Teuns, and Riley Sheehan did a great job and helped me a lot to get into the break. I was a bit isolated later on when we had Jay Vine, Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler attack me, but I just tried to keep fighting with them. Then when Brandon and Jay crashed it really scared me and I hope they're ok, but I knew that I was the guy to beat on that climb."
"I had Puy de Dome in the back of my head [where he won in the Tour de France last year]. I knew that as long as I was in striking distance of the other guys, I had a shot of winning on the final climb because it's a good climb for me. I didn't want to go as early as I did, but with Mauro Schmid attacking me, I had to go then. It was a long four kilometers."
"It's my third Vuelta stage win and I'm really proud of that. Just the Giro d'Italia stage win is missing. I'm not getting any younger so it's always nice to win at this age. I'm going to savour this one."
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