Tara Whitten to compete in Tour of California

Olympic medallist Tara Whitten will ride in the Amgen Tour of California’s individual time trial. The event will mark Whitten’s return to competition. Follow the London 2012 Olympics, where she, Jasmin Glaesser and Gillian Carleton won bronze in the team pursuit, Whitten took a break from racing to focus on her PhD. Whitten hopes to once again compete in the Olympics in Rio next year.

Whitten will race the ITT as part of Team Canada, which includes pursuiters Stephanie Roorda, Annie Foreman-Mackey, Kirsti Lay and Allison Beveridge. Denise Ramsden and Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin will round out the squad.

The women’s Tour of California features three stages and the final time trial. The first stage runs around Lake Tahoe on May 8. On May 9, the teams will have an 80-km out-and-back route that starts and finishes at the Heavenly Mountain Resort on the south end of Lake Tahoe. Stage 3 is a circuit race on a 3-km loop in Sacramento. The final event—on May 15, at Big Bear Lake—is the time trial. Whitten will only compete in the time trial stage. The other Team Canada members will ride the first three stages.

Other Canadians who will compete in the time trial include Laura Brown (UnitedHealthcare), Karol-Ann Canuel (Velocio-SRAM), Jasmin Glaesser (Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies), Rhae Shaw (BMW-Happy Tooth Dental), Anika Todd (Team Tibco-SVB).