The first 59 national titles of 2024 were handed out at the Canadian Track Championships for Elite and Masters athletes at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, ON, held Jan. 5-7, 2024.
In the largest-ever edition of the event featuring over 170 athletes, three names stood out with numerous appearances on the podium’s top step: Dylan Bibic (Israel – Premier Teach Academy Team), James Hedgcock (National Cycling Institute Milton) and Rosa Phillip (Midweek Cycling Club).
In the Elite Men category, Bibic upheld his reputation as Canada’s leading endurance rider after recently becoming Men’s Endurance Champion in the 2023 UCI Track Champions League. He successfully defended his titles in the omnium and Madison, which he rode with his gold medal partner from last year, Mathias Guillemette, and also became the inaugural champion in both the elimination and points race, newly introduced for the Elite category in 2024. The first-ever champions on the Women’s side were both BC riders— Jenna Nestman (Tesseract Racing) for the elimination race and Diane Snobelen (Cycle Capital) for the points race.
Meanwhile, Hedgcock used the experience gained winning team sprint gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games to take top honours in the three Elite Men’s races in which he participated: the sprint, 1km time trial and keirin. His three-day streak upped his remarkable tally of Canadian Track Championship medals to over 20 since his debut as a U17 athlete in 2016.
“We’re going to Australia in a few weeks for the first Track Nations Cup of the year so it’s looking good going into that,” said Hedgcock of his feelings coming off the year’s first competition. “It was a lot of fun, I always love racing nationals. It feels good to win every time; it still feels the same [after so many medals] so I’m happy.”
After winning six titles in 2023, Rosa Phillip (Midweek Cycling Club) continued her reign of the Masters Women A category. She earned the maple leaf jersey in the 500m time trial and scratch race; she also won the overall Women’s keirin and sprint titles, as well as the team sprint with Amy Maher and Denise Magnini (Opus Elite Cycing P/B Cyclepath Oakville).
“My legs actually surprised me,” commented Phillip. “I haven’t sprinted much this year: I’ve been focusing on cyclo-cross so I had five or six weeks between cyclo-cross nationals and track nationals. Feedback came in time for track nationals so I’m really happy with how my legs were. It always feels good to get the jersey. It never gets old, it just feels good to be racing with my friends. We all race together and it’s a ton of fun, they keep me coming back to the track.”
The 2024 Canadian Track Championships also featured a brand-new category, Masters D for athletes aged 65+. The inaugural titles went to Ken Germaine (Pedalhead Race Room) for the Men’s 500m time trail and Ralph Schatzmair (Realdeal Racing), who swept the Men’s pursuit, points and scratch races.
Masters athletes also broke a number of Canadian records to start the year with a bang, including: Tim Hadfield (Mariposa Cycling Team) in the B Men’s individual pursuit (3:30.952m); Paolina Allan in the B Women’s individual pursuit (2:43.417m); Roland Fletcher, Jacques Cormier, Robert Meneguzzi and Scott Elliott (Midweek Cycling Club) in the Men’s team pursuit (4:40.055m); Magnini, Maher and Phillip (Opus Elite Cycling P/B Cyclepath Oakville) in the Women’s team sprint (58.381s); West Vancouver’s Thomas Schelesny (Flying Gorilla Academy) in the C Men’s 500m time trial (35.121s); and Gail Wozny (Juventus Cycling Club) in the C Women’s 500m time trial (46.047).
The full list of podium results from the Canadian Track Championships (Elite/Masters) can be found here. Next up on the Canadian Championships calendar is the Canadian ESports Championships, hosted on Zwift on Feb. 10-11. Then, U17, Junior and Para track athletes will have their chance at a title from March 29-31. The full calendar of national events can be found on the Cycling Canada website.
Source: Cycling Canada
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Cycling Canada is one of the oldest national sport organizations in Canada and has one simple purpose: to inspire Canadians to cycle. Cycling Canada administers programs to promote and grow cycling across the country, hosts national and international events and manages the National Team in all levels of international competition.