Cycling Canada withdraws team from Pan Am road race for security reasons
"Given this security and safety issue in Venezuela, we will be contacting the UCI to voice our concern and frustration around this event."
Cycling Canada has announced that it will not be sending a team to the upcoming Pan American road race in San Cristobal, Venezuela on May 18 to 22, due to security risks.
The region the race is being held in necessitated the team to fly into Cucuta, Colombia and then travel by ground to San Cristobal. The Canadian government issued a travel advisory for the region over concerns of cross-border violence, kidnapping, smuggling and drug trafficking with foreigners being specifically targeted. Additionally, there is an increased military presence in the region as a state of emergency is in effect. Canada is not alone in being hesitant to send its athletes to the event, the U.S. has also opted not to send their team to the race.
.@CyclingCanada pulls out of @UCI_cycling Pan-American Road Championships for security reasons https://t.co/kUozynZuSi
— Cycling Canada (@CyclingCanada) April 16, 2016
The road races would have had minimal effect on Olympic qualifications for the Cycling Canda. The men’s quota for the Rio Olympic road race and time trial has already been announced by the UCI while on the women’s side due to the strong performance of Canadian athletes Cycling Canada is comfortable in it’s position in the standings.
“On the women’s side,” said high-performance director for Cycling Canada Jacques Landry, “not participating will have an impact but not a huge one if we continue performing on the world stage as we are now with riders such as Leah Kirchmann and Karol-Ann Canuel. As of March 27, we are ranked ninth among nations which would grant us three spots in the road race at the games and we are more than 500 points from falling past the 14-placed nation which would give us only two road race spots.”
The impact of non-attendance is more significant for the World Championships quota and could affect Canada’s ability to obtain maximum quota spots according to Landry. A new UCI points system means that there are 250 points up for grabs in the men’s road race and those points are even more valuable to securing spots at the Worlds.
“However,” said Landry, “the security of our athletes and staff is paramount and based on the information and advice we have received, we are not comfortable with sending anyone to these championships. Given this security and safety issue in Venezuela, we will be contacting the UCI to voice our concern and frustration around this event.”
