ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL TRACK CYCLING WORLD CUP COMES TO AN END

(Hong Kong, CHN – January 17, 2016) Team Canada ended the third and final UCI World Cup of the season with two medals – gold for the women’s team pursuit squad and silver for Hugo Barrette in the men’s keirin.

In addition to the two World Cup medals, Jasmin Glaesser took the silver medal in the C1 Points race.

Canada made history on Saturday with the Women’s Team Sprint securing its best result ever – a fourth place in the event, which will improve its chances to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Kate O’Brien cracked the Top 10 for the first time on the World Cup during the women’s sprint event, advancing to the 1/8 final repechage.

Cycling Canada’s High Performance Director Jacques Landry is thrilled with the outcome of this World Cup in Hong Kong. “Another great weekend for our track program at the last world cup of the season. Thanks to our athlete pool, coaches, facility in Milton and our support staff, our performances are repeatable and in some cases improved. The weekend performances bode really well as our teams will travel back home to turn their focus on preparation for the penultimate targeted event of the year, the world championships in London GBR, in March.”

On Sunday, Allison Beveridge battled through an injury sustained the day before during the scratch race and completed the omnium in ninth place. Beveridge had won this event at the previous world cup in New Zealand.

“I woke up not feeling too great in my shoulder,” said Beveridge who was involved in a crash on Saturday night during the elimination race. “Basically the objective this weekend was to race the best I could, tactically as well as technically. I tried to make the most of it but stay safe out there. Standing starts were really bad and it was getting worse throughout the day. I’m just looking forward to getting home and recovering.”

The next international race for the Canadian track cycling team will be the 2016 UCI World Championships, the final Rio 2016 Olympic qualifying event. The event takes place in London, GBR.