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2014 Commonwealth Games: Day 1 track cycling

July 24, 2014
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The Canadian men’s team sprint track cycling trio finished fourth in a bronze medal heat against Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow, Scotland on Thursday.

Joseph Veloce, Hugo Barrette and Vincent de Haitre had set the goal of ranking in the top four during semi finals in order to secure a spot in the finals and have a shot at a medal.

The Canadians finished the race in a time of 45.054 seconds, dropping to the Australians who finished in 43.709.

England and New Zealand battled all the way through the competition, breaking and re-breaking Commonwealth Games records. The two teams faced off in the gold-medal heat, in which New Zealand blitzed a new record time of 43.181 to England’s 43.706.

The team sprint was the first race at a large scale event for the current Canadian team. Both Barrette and Veloce have been part of the track program for some time. Veloce impressed during the keirin competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games but missed most of last season after a big crash one year ago.

De Haitre represented Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympics in speed skating and has shifted to track cycling.

The fourth place represents a strong performance that bodes well for Canadian cyclists. New Zealand and England are powerhouse nations in track cycling, with Australia not far behind. This result proves that the Canadian team in continuing to improve. The program is well positioned to capitalize on the opening of the Milton Velodrome ahead of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.

All three Canadian men will compete in the 1-km time trial on Saturday, July 26, and the keirin slated for Sunday, July 27.

In the men’s team pursuit competition, the squad of Zach Bell, Rémi Pelletier-Roy, Ed Veal and Aidan Caves made it to the final bronze-medal round against New Zealand. The Canadians end up finishing fourth in the competition.