The remarkable speed of Team Canada’s women’s team sprint squad earned silver and the reliable endurance of the women’s team pursuit outfit took bronze on Friday’s first full day of competition of the final 2023 UCI Nations Cup round at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, ON.
The action started on Thursday, with team pursuit qualifying. The hosts Canada had two teams entered in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
On the women’s side Canada A was comprised of Sarah van Dam, Maggie Coles-Lyster, Erin Attwell and Ariane Bonhomme, while Canada B was made up of Devaney Collier, Adele Desgagnes, Kiara Lylyk, and Fiona Majendie. Great Britain was the fastest quartet with 4:14.824, Canada A the fourth fastest and Canada B the last team to sneak into the first round.
In the men’s qualifying, Canada A featured world scratch champion Dylan Bibic, Michael Foley, Mathias Guillemette and Carson Mattern, and Canada B was Chris Ernst, Daniel Fraser-Maraun, Campbell Parrish and Sean Richardson. After nine of 12 squads, Canada A was top with 3:52.749, but the Aussies and world champion Brits posted faster times. Canada B would go no farther.
On Friday the team pursuit squads returned to the boards, starting with the women’s team pursuit first round in which Canada A met the Brits in Heat 4 and Canada B was matched up with Italy in Heat 2. Canada B couldn’t overcome a very fast Italian foursome, and Canada A submitted to Great Britain. However, Canada A set the fourth fastest time and would meet the Americans to vie for bronze.
Canada beat the U.S.A. by a fairly wide margin, 4:15.961 to 4:19.105. The first tally was on the board.
The men’s team pursuit first round had Canada A facing the Brits in Heat 3. Bibic, Foley, Guillemette and Mattern weren’t faster than Wood, Bigham, Charlton and Gill. Their time of 3:52.802 just missed out on the medal races.
Next came the women’s team sprint qualifying. Canada’s crack women’s trio was Kelsey Mitchell, Lauriane Genest and Sarah Orban, qualifying with the fourth best time of 47.969 to top squad Poland’s 47.555. This result matched Canada against China in…
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