The Canadian men’s track program has completed a very successful fall campaign in Europe at the opening rounds of the UCI Track World Cup. Team Canada finished the project with podium results in both of the first two rounds, including a first-ever win in the Men’s Team Pursuit plus a bronze medal in the same event. Canada completes the first half of the World Cup series as the overall points leaders in the Men’s Team Pursuit.
The squad of Aidan Caves, Adam Jamieson, Jay Lamoureux, Bayley Simpson and Ed Veal took their first World Cup podium at the opening round in Glasgow, Scotland, with a bronze medal performance. They followed that up a week later in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, by winning gold.
Canada now leads the overall standings for the Men’s Team Pursuit with 1800 points, followed by Round 1 winner Great Britain at 1700 and France, also with 1700 points.
“This has been a really encouraging two week trip for the program,” said Ian Melvin, National Men’s Track Endurance Coach. “We’ve witnessed significant growth in the boys’ ability to deliver performances consistently and now we’ve seen them back it up – all of the TP rides here in Apeldoorn finished within 0.6 seconds of each other. The attitude of the group has been fantastic and they’ve taken the last few weeks in their stride. Yesterday [Saturday] against Belgium was a thoroughly professional and controlled performance. We all know how big the job is in the next 4 years, but if we can move forward with this approach I’m confident we’ll be in a strong position in a few years time.”
“I’m so proud of these boys. Aidan, Adam and Ed have been here since almost Day One. They’ve grown with the program, been through the thick and thin, the good and the bad. I’m thrilled to still have those riders around, you can see how much it means to them and how much they want this.”
In addition to the Team Pursuit podium results, Team Canada participated in a number of other events. Aidan Caves finished 11th in the Men’s Omnium (Apeldoorn), Adam Jamieson finished seventh and 11th in the Points Race (Apeldoorn/Glasgow) and Jay Lamoureux was sixth in the Individual Pursuit (Glasgow).
The team will now return to Canada, to continue training for the UCI Track World Championships, to be held in Hong Kong April 12-16, 2017.