Powerful season nets a record quota for Canada at the UCI road world championships

Its riders boasting a strong season at the UCI America Tour this year, Canada has earned six elite start positions at the 2015 UCI road world championships in Richmond, Va. It’s the largest quota for the Canadian men’s team since the UCI’s blending of professional and amateur road categories into one, back in 1996.

It also makes 2015 the first time since 1992 that Canada, nationally, has been represented by six elites on the men’s side.

Canada joins a select few other countries with six riders ready to start, a list that includes Norway, Poland, Russia, and the United States. Of note, though, is the fact that Canada is the only one of these nations without a UCI WorldTour team of it own, with Canadian riders typically riding on American teams. Top-ranked Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies, leading standings in the UCI America Tour, and sixth-overall Team Smartstop are among them.

Countries like Russia and the United States, on the other hand, have two and three WorldTour teams registered, putting Canada in a very unique category unto itself.

The stellar season for Canadian riders, Cycling Canada officials say, was thanks to a policy of “collaboration and open communication,” to quote the organization’s officials. “I was brought in Cycling Canada for the great relationships I maintained with the riders and teams,” said Kevin Field, men’s road program manager with Cycling Canada, “and we worked hard to cultivate collaboration and open communication this year. That strategy obviously worked.”

“The teams, directors, riders and Cycling Canada were all well aligned this year,” he said. “Riders and teams knew what we were trying to do, why, how it benefited us and them. Everyone knew where we stood this year along the way, and that certainly helps the riders stay focused on goals.”

With that strong, well-oiled national cycling machine, Canada is certainly left with some mighty names to choose from

Along with being the only country without a registered WorldTour team at September’s racing in Virginia, Canada is also the only nation with three riders among the UCI America Tour’s top 15 rankings. In second place among those standings is Optum’s Michael Woods, while teammate Guillaume Boivin, who recently took first in the road race at the national championship, takes 10th in the top 15. Silber’s Ryan Roth, with 87 points, rounds out that list at number 15.

The 2015 UCI Road World Championships roll out between Sept. 19 to 27.