Ontario’s Bayley Simpson considers his team’s performance in Astana a winning one, medals or not

Bayley Simpson, MyKawartha.com reported,”is carrying his head high” after his experience in Astana, Kazakhstan last week, riding at the UCI junior track world championships. It may not have gone the way he and his team had hoped, he told reporters, but it was a step up from past competitions.

That, he suggested, is enough to make anyone proud — especially considering the towering field of competition in Astana this year.

2015’s race represented Simpson’s second year in a row riding for his country, giving him a somewhat authoritative perspective on the team’s performance this year compared with others. “It was a pretty cool experience,” he told Kawartha Lakes This Week, a newspaper in his hometown of Lindsay, Ont. “It didn’t go quite the way I had hoped…but it was a huge improvement for everyone from Canada from last year.” In his last year as a Junior rider — he ascends next year to the ranks of U23 competitors — Simpson took seventh in the Omnium, and along with the rest of his team, eighth in the team pursuit.

It may not have been perfect, the Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team rider admitted, but riding one of your best performances as a team — particularly at the global level — says something in itself.

“[I’m] a little disappointed,” Simpson told Kawartha Lakes This Week, “but it was the best Canada has ever done there, so we were still pretty excited.” Being invited to compete in the event in the first place, he suggested, is also quite the tacit accolade, and there’s too many people to thank for the 17-year-old Ontario cyclist to count. “There’s so many people I’d like to thank,” he said. “I don’t want to leave anyone out. Our community as a whole has been great.”

Next up for the talented Lindsay, Ont. athlete is the Canadian championships in Milton, Ont., coming up in October.