Allison Beveridge earns gold and silver at Milton World Cup in the span of an hour

It was a memorable day for Canada and Allison Beveridge on Saturday. Gold in the women’s team pursuit closely followed by silver in the omnium. The results on their own speak for themselves but how close they followed makes the achievement even more impressive for Beveridge a Rio Olympic bronze medalist and 2017 Canadian national road champion.

The day got underway for Beveridge riding the scratch race followed by the tempo race in the early afternoon session. Beveridge finished fourth in the scratch race and second in the tempo race which were both won by Yumi Kajihara of Japan.

While Beveridge was focused on contesting the opening two events of the omnium her teammates in the team pursuit lined up for the semifinals against Japan to move on to the gold medal race against New Zealand. Ariane Bonhomme, Kinley Gibson, Stephanie Roorda and Annie Foreman-Mackey earned the second fastest time to to the Kiwis.

The evening session featured the elimination race and the points race in the omnium. The team pursuit was also on schedule which the coaches had Beveridge penned in to ride for gold.

“I knew going in there was a good chance I would ride both the omnium and the team pursuit final but looking at the schedule I didn’t realize how close they were,” she said. The final team pursuit and omnium points race took place less than an one hour apart.

The challenge of contesting two events, a total of five races, on the same day presented a bit of a challenge with fatigue a factor. Beverdige had the afternoon session in her legs but also the elimination race—which she finished third in—before the team pursuit final in the evening. That was closely followed by the points race. The women’s team pursuit final was finished at 7: 15 p.m. Following the podium ceremony, Beveridge was warming up and back on the boards. By 8:15 p.m. she had earned her second medal.

“I got through the morning trying to be really consistent in the omnium and for the team pursuit I knew I had a really good team behind me so that took a lot of pressure off,” Beveridge explained. “I was a bit worried but we had a really great ride with the girls and to see so many faces in [the crowd] was really exciting.”

The success is even more significant because Canada is hosting it’s first track cycling World Cup in Milton. Competing on home soil at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre where the Canadian program trains with a near full crowd of supporters was a special moment for Beveridge and her teammates.

“To stand on the podium and sing your anthem at home is really amazing, she said. “There’s nothing quite like it, there’s no other feeling to describe it. I heard a lot of go Ally’s around the track from people, I don’t even know who’s here. To know you have support behind you it gives you a bit of an edge.”

The most impressive part of the double is how close the team pursuit final as the the omnium points race which was the final event and required multiple hard sprint efforts to not just defend her position in the classification but also go for the win.

“My legs hurt. I was kind of planning on backing off at the beginning but I say Dickinson go for the first sprint so I kinda had to go with her but that on hurt me 10 laps in.”

With her sister in the stands who had never had the chance to see her race on the boards, it was a satisfying performance. “I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t do double gold, because standing on top of the podium and singing your own anthem at home is pretty special, so the team pursuit gold is definitely a highlight.”