UCI road and track world championships Day 5 recap

It truly was a super day at the track and road events of the UCI “super worlds.” Canadian riders competed in the elite men’s road race, men’s omnium, individual pursuit and the women’s Keirin, elimination and C 4 500 TT.

Men’s road race

The masses showed up in force to George Square for the elite men’s road race. The 270 km race started in Edinburgh and then proceeded to navigate the countryside en route to Glasgow for 10 laps of the very challenging circuit. Not even rain or a race delaying protest could dampen what turned out to be an incredibly entertaining affair.

Canada’s team of Hugo Houle, Benjamin Perry, Derek Gee, Charles-Etienne Chretien, Guillaume Boivin and Nickolas Zukowsky kept pace with the main peloton only to lose contact once the race hit the Glasgow circuits. With close to 50 corners, cobbles, and short punchy climbs it was more like a criterium than a road race.

Stop and go go go: Mathieu van der Poel wins wild, enthralling world championship

The fab four of Mathieu van Der Poel, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen and Tadej Pogacar took charge late in the race with van Der Poel going solo and taking his first Road World Championship win. Out of over 190 starters only 51 finished with Boivin and Zukowsky making the cut.

Track races

Back at the track, the morning sessions saw Kelsey Mitchell advance through to the Keirin semi finals with teammate Lauriane Genest failing to move through. In the evening’s semi finals, Mitchell placed 4th, just missing the top three finishers who advanced to the medal round. In the end, she had to settle for 9th place.

Para sprinter Kate O’Brien had Canada’s best result on the track today with a silver medal in the women’s C 4 500 TT. In the elite men’s individual pursuit, Chris Ernst was the top Canadian finishing in ninth.

UCI track and road worlds day 4 recap

Sarah van Dam raced the elimination in a solid field, including the likes of American Jennifer Valente and the Belgian Lotte Kopecky, who recently donned the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. Van Dam hung in to finish seventh, bettering last year’s eighth place world championship result.

Dylan Bibic took charge of the first three races of the elite men’s omnium placing fifth in the scratch Race, seventh in the tempo and fourth in the elimination. He was sitting pretty in second place heading into the final points race, but with a target on his back. Riders, the likes of seasoned veterans Benjamin Thomas, Elia Viviani and Sabastian Mora were looking to move up in the standings and were about to take the young Canadian to school.

Bibic had no much for the onslaught of laps being taken by the field. Once the dust had settled, he had fallen to 13th overall with Portuguese rider Luri Leitao taking the win.
Tomorrow will have Canadians compete on the Track in the women’s sprints, men’s elimination, men’s C2 1 km time trial, women’s C3 500m time trial and the women’s C4 individual pursuit where Keely Shaw will be going for gold.