Selection criteria has been released for the Cycling Canada Men’s Track Endurance (MTE) Program for 2017.
The vision of the Cycling Canada MTE is to create a World Class Men’s Track Endurance program that will be medal competitive by Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Underpinning this vision will be a committed U23 endurance program for emerging talent supported by world class infrastructure and ambitions creating a long-term career pathway towards World Tour professional status.
It is well documented that track cycling is a leader in youth development and a long term career pathway towards professional road status. Many nations have proven this over the years and continue to do so today;e.g. GBR, AUS, DEN, NZL, SUI, etc. Canada, with the opening of the Mattamy Homes Cycling Center built for the 2015 Pan- American Games, now has the crucial tool to allow us to follow in these footsteps.
A World Class Team Pursuit program relies on the identification of young emerging talent with appropriate physiologyandskillsets.Theseriderswillhavetocommit toa year-roundtrainingandinternationalracing programleadingupto theultimategoal:aworldclassperformanceatthe OlympicGamesinTokyo 2020.
To support the development of the program and to underpin its track performances , a strong road program is required to maximise the physiological preparation needed to deliver on the boards. Such a program will also offer these young cyclists thebest possibleopportunity to develop towards a long-term professional road career through a developing network of connections with professional agents and Pro-Continental and World Tour teams.
In 2017, the planned size of the NextGenMTE program is 10 to 12 riders, all having met the selection criteria as laid out in the selection document. Each selected rider will compete for Team RaceClean throughout the 2017 season. During the year, riders will be presented with a fully supported development program including track endurance training camps and competition in addition to complete road racing calendar split between North America, Europe and Asia.
For more information on the selection and maintenance criteria please check out Cycling Canada’s selection document here.