Good start for Canada on brief first night of LA track World Cup
Canadian women's team pursuit squad posts third best qualifying time, fourth for team sprint duo
A short program on Friday’s opening night of the season’s final UCI track cycling World Cup saw Canadians race all three qualifying events, with the steady women’s team pursuit outfit and the women’s team pursuit duo moving on to Saturday’s first round.
One of the stories of the night, and possibly of the entire final round of the World Cup, regarded Team Australia and a few other squads arriving without their bikes and other equipment from last week’s round Colombia. Most notably, the women’s team pursuit gold medalists of Cali, Australia, were unable to compete.
TP Gold last week in Cali, but sadly no ride this w'end in LA for our women's TP team with bikes & equipment still in Colombia ????? pic.twitter.com/fXT5i3RfB3
— Cycling Australia (@CyclingAus) February 24, 2017
Other Aussie athletes were able to train on machines provided by Canada and New Zealand.
Shout out to @CyclingNZL & @CyclingCanada for the bike loans this week while we wait for ours to arrive in LA! ????Feeling the ❤️ https://t.co/mCAktvjoFD
— Cycling Australia (@CyclingAus) February 24, 2017
Cycling Canada was just showing the love.
What the cycling community is all about ? We're sure they enjoyed training on @lookcycle bikes ? https://t.co/Y60Bh4pPqi
— Cycling Canada (@CyclingCanada) February 24, 2017
There were only three events on Friday evening: the men’s and women’s team sprint qualifying and the women’s team pursuit qualifying.
Matched up against Mexico, Kate O’Brien and Amelia Walsh had another fine qualifying round in the women’s team sprint, coming fourth with a time of 34.093 over 200-metres. They face China on Saturday in the first round.
The men’s team sprint outfit didn’t have as much luck, placing 10th with a time of 45.451 over three laps. Hugo Barrette, Patrice Piven and Stefan Ritter had to make the top-8 to carry on to the first round.
The Canadian women’s team pursuit quartet was a little different from last week in Cali, with Jasmin Duehring (née Glaesser) and Kristi Lay in for Ariane Bonhomme and Kinley Gibson. Nevertheless, the result was nearly the same, with the team taking third place after stopping the clock at 4:25.651. Canada faces New Zealand in Saturday’s first round.