Canadian medal hopefuls on the track at 2018 Commonwealth Games
Canadian team pursuit squads amoung top medal contenders on the boards of the Gold Coast
Canadian cyclists competing at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games from April 5 to 15 will be looking to secure medals across numerous events on the track, road and trails.
The cycling events get underway at the Anna Meares velodrome on Thursday with the track competition last four days with 16 gold medals up for grabs. The road cycling time trials are on April 10 with the road races Sunday April 14. The cross country mountain bike events take place April 12.
Canada go into the women’s team pursuit on Thursday as strong medal hopefuls with Great Britain, Australia and New Zeland as other top contenders in the event. Canadian road champion Allison Beveridge earned an Olympic bronze medal in the team pursuit in Rio and will hope to add to the collection on the Gold Coast.
“The track is the focus for now and then we’ll have some time to look at the road,” explained Beveridge who is pulling double duty at the Commonwealth Games. “It’s a super nice track, super smooth; yesterday was our first day training there, but it went pretty well, although it’s really hot, for sure, which will be a factor.”
Canada’s men’s team pursuit will look to build on their Canadian men’s best eigth place performance from the world championships. Aidan Caves who at 22-years-old is the team’s veteran from the 2014 Commonwealth Games is optimistic of the teams chances saying the track suits the team very well.
“There’s been a lot of new faces come to our team [since Glasgow]. That was basically the first major race the Canadian men’s team pursuit ever did,” Caves said. “Since then, a couple of people have retired and we have filled the gaps with people like Adam Jamieson and Derek Gee, and last year Michael Foley stepped in. I guess I’ve just been the constant in the group.”
The young team has had their fair share of drama winning a gold and silver medal at World Cups in 2016 before some dramatic crashes at the 2017 world championships and Milton World Cup. The development of the team bodes well for their Commonwealth Games performance.
“It’s been pretty awesome to see it evolve and we’ve dropped about 14 seconds off what we did last time. We came fourth in Glasgow so we are definitely looking for a podium here,” Caves explained. “Obviously we have New Zealand, England and Australia here, but we are hoping to give them a run.”
Rio Olympian Hugo Barrette and former junior kilo world champion Stefan Ritter will look to make the team sprint medal round while Canada’s Amelia Walsh and Lauriane Genest compete together at the international level for the first time.
Later on the track competition, Stefan Ritter will look for a result in the 1,000 m time trial while Barrette will vye for a result in the spring and Keirin. Annie Foreman-Mackey is capable of a strong result in the individual pursuit as she showed winning a medal at the 2016 world championships. Beveridge is a threat in every event she enters and will be joined by Steph Roorda in the points and scratch races.
