The women’s team pursuit and team sprint athletes secured two medals for Canada during the first full day of competition at the 2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup on April 21, 2023, in Milton, ON.

Team Sprint Squads Post Personal Bests
The women’s team sprint squad raced to their first Track Nations Cup medal of the year in a nail-biting final. Olympic medallists Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest partnered with Sarah Orban to earn silver, crossing the finish line just 0.413 seconds behind Mexico. Poland rounded out the podium in the bronze position.

“This is very close to our best time. Going for the gold medal, we had nothing to lose and we really gave it our all,” said Genest. “The points we earned today are benefical for Olympic qualification. We were not at our best at the Jakarta Nations Cup so it’s really nice to be back to where we were last year and to be back here at home.”

Also scoring their best result of the season was the men’s sprint team, with Tyler Rorke, Nick Wammes and James Hedgcock scoring a fourth-place finish with a time of 43.398. They were edged out by Great Britain for the bronze, with China claiming silver and Australia taking the win.
 
Team Canada Edges Out Team USA
Racing together for the first time in the women’s team pursuit, Sarah Van Dam, Maggie Coles-Lyster, Ariane Bonhomme and Erin Attwell brought home the bronze medal, powered by the cheering of their home crowd. They narrowly beat Team USA, placing behind Germany (silver) and Great Britain (gold).
 
“This gives us confidence. We’re a new team and since the Tokyo Games, we’ve been trying to rebuild our program,” commented Olympian Ariane Bonhomme. “We knew we were capable of doing this but everything needed to come together on race day. We’ve been trying for more than a year and today everything worked out. We know that this is the start of something special.”

After scoring a personal best in the qualification round, the men’s team pursuit squad (Mathias Guillemette, Carson Mattern, Dylan Bibic and Michael Foley) finished fourth, just shy of the bronze medal final. It was Great Britain who brought home the gold medal, followed by Italy and France for silver and bronze.
 
Dylan Bibic, Sarah Van Dam and Mathias Guillemette were all part of the elimination race, finishing seventh, 10^th and 12^th, respectively.
 
Cycling Canada thanks Sport Canada for the valuable support provided by the International Single Sport Events (ISSE) – Hosting Program. The ISSE aims to enhance high performance sport development as well as the profile of Canadian sport organizations through the domestic hosting of international single sport events.
 
Full results can be found here. For more information on the 2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup Milton, visit www.tncmilton.com . 
 
About Cycling Canada

Cycling Canada is the nation’s oldest National Sport Organization and has one simple purpose – to inspire Canadians to cycle. Our mandate is to holistically develop the sport in partnership with our 11 Provincial/Territorial Sport Organizations, putting more Canadians on bikes from coast-to-coast and on podiums around the world. 

Article Source: Cycling Canada, April 21, 2023, Milton, ON, Photo Source: www.tncmilton.com

 
Contact Information: Caroline Soble | Cycling Canada |  caroline.soble@cyclingcanada.ca