Dylan Bibic put on the top Canadian performance in Saturday’s first of five rounds of the 2023 UCI Track Champions League in Mallorca, Spain. It’s the Champion League’s third season. Bibic took the elimination race and came eleventh in the scratch event. Maggie Coles-Lyster placed third in the scratch and fourth in the elimination.
2023’s Canadian Sextet
Women’s sprint: Kelsey Mitchell, runner-up last season; Lauriane Genest
Women’s endurance: Coles-Lyster, 3rd overall last season and seventh in the elimination and eighth in the scratch at the Glasgow Worlds; Sarah van Dam, eighth last season
Men’s endurance: Bibic, 11th last season and silver in the elimination race at the Glasgow Worlds; Mathias Guillemette, 5th last season.
Mitchell was the first Canuck up in the Velodrom Illes Balears in the women’s individual sprint. She was in a semi-final qualifying trio with Ireland’s Orla Walsh and Brit Lowri Thomas. Mitchell came from Position 2 to grab the lead with two laps to go and won at a canter.
Genest started this season wearing a great maple leaf lid. She was set up with Chinese rider Lijuan Wang and Colombian ace Martha Bayona. Genest went high and looked to have made a good outside move going into the final lap but couldn’t get around Wang and Bayona, the latter of whom advanced.
In the semi-final, Mitchell met British world champion Emma Finucane and another Brit, Sophie Capewell. Mitchell started the last lap in Position 3 and could not gain ground on the Brits. Mitchell was fifth on the day and Genest placed 12th.
Bibic and Guillemette were part of the 18-strong men’s scratch gang that took on the boards over 20 laps, very short for a scratch. A breakaway of five shook loose early and grew by two over the next 10 laps. It caught the rest of the riders with 3 laps to go, causing a messy sprint. Guillemette came ninth and Bibic was eleventh.
Coles-Lyster and van Dam started their 20-lap women’s scratch race with 16 others. There was no early bid for glory, but then Katie Archibald animated things with 12 laps to go. Van Dam and an Irish athlete tried to bridge, but it all came back together. Another Brit pounced, drawing an American partner in the breakaway. America’s Lily Williams stuck it out and took the victory. Coles-Lyster, who finished her road race season on the 17th with fourth in the Tour of Gaungxi, placed third.
Guillemette and Bibic got back to work in the men’s…
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