Canada sending five athletes to UCI paracycling track world championships

Cycling Canada announced Friday that five athletes have been chosen to contest the UCI Paracycling Track World Championship in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, March 26 to 29. The Omnisport Apeldoorn velodrome hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2011.

The Worlds will be an opportunity for coaches and managers to assess the athletes with the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics 18-months away. Cycling Canada’s director of high performance and head coach Jacques Landry said, “We’re excited about this event as it will give us the opportunity to see the progress made by our para-cyclists in actual competition settings. This will allow us to observe the international growth of the sport and where we stand, and take decisions as to what needs to be done to win medals in Rio.” The Rio de Janeiro Summer Paralympics run from September 7 to 18, 2016.

Coach Eric Van den Eynde will lead three Calgarians–Jaye Milley, Brayden McDougall, Michael Sametz– Edmontonian Ross Wilson and Marie-Claude Molnar from Longueuil, QC in Apeldoorn. Milley won two bronze medals at the 2014 UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Mexico in the kilo time trial and the individual pursuit. The team followed up some recent road work in Gainesville, Florida by hitting the boards of the Cisco Milton Pan Am/Parapan Am Velodrome to prepare for the Worlds.

Last year in Aguascalientes, Mexico, the Australians dominated the event.