Five National Records Broken on Final Day of Junior/U17/Para Track Nationals

The 2017 Canadian Track Championships p/b Lexus for Junior, Under-17 and Para cyclists concluded on Sunday at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario, after three intense days of racing, with five Canadian national records set on the final day alone.

Canadian records were set in three of four Team Sprint categories, with the winning squads in Under-17 Women and Men both setting records, as well as the Junior Men’s gold medal team.  In the Time Trial events, Madison Dempster (Midweek Cycling) set a national record for the Under-17 Women’s 500 metre Time Trial, as did Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot Cycling) in the Under-17 Men’s 500 metre Time Trial.

The final day also featured the first-ever national titles awarded for Junior riders in the Madison, with the Tag Cycling team of Maggie Coles-Lyster and Micaiah Besler taking the women’s title and the Kallisto-FVC p/b Peloton Contracting of Chris Ernsy and Lucas Taylor winning the men’s.

Overall, two riders stood out – Maggie Coles-Lyster (TaG Cycling) and Riley Pickrell (Tripleshot Cycling), both from British Columbia. Coles-Lyster won medals in all ten events contested by Junior Women, winning eight gold medals, one silver and one bronze.  Pickrell dominated the Under-17 Men’s category, with seven gold medals and one silver for a total of eight medals in nine events. With their win in the Individual Pursuit, both Erin Atwell (Cycling BC) and Tristan Guillemette (Equipe Quebec) have automatically secured a spot on the Canadian National Team for the 2017 Junior Track World Championships.

In the Para Time Trial competitions, the Alberta tandem team of Carla Shibley and Erin Rutlan won the women’s 500 metre title, while the Quebec team of Mathieu Croteau Daigle and Benoit Lussier took the Men’s 1000 metre tandem title.

“We all agree that we have witnessed amazing racing this weekend. The athletes keep raising the bar, as we’ve seen with the numerous Canadian records being broken but also the fields in general getting bigger and more competitive. We are fortunate to have this facility here in Milton, but more so to have so many great people working on it, from the Town of Milton staff to our dedicated team of volunteers and officials,” said Jessika Grand Bois, Track and Road Program Manager at Cycling Canada.