Pelletier-Roy wins thrilling bronze in cycling on final day at the velodrome in Glasgow

Canadian cycling won their first medal on the final day of track cycling as Rémi Pelletier-Roy (Longueuil, QC) sprinted to bronze in the men’s 20km scratch race. 

The medal came as a relief to the team as it capped a track tournament where Canadian cyclists finished just off the podium on several occasions.

Sunday’s track session started with the scratch race qualifiers. Pelletier-Roy, Zach Bell (Watson Lake, YK) and Aidan Caves (Vancouver, BC) all easily advanced to the final.

Next up was the first round of the men’s keirin, with Joseph Veloce (Fonthill, ON), Vincent De Haître (Cumberland, ON) and Hugo Barrette (Cap-aux-Meules, QC) all on the start line. It was a very strong field and none of the Canadians finished well enough in the first round to advance to the semifinal, but  Barrette won his repechage heat and moved on to the semi-final. 

In the semi-final he was perfectly positioned to advance, but a New Zealand rider took him up the track on the final lap and he finished fifth. Although the New Zealander was relegated, it was not enough for Barrette to get the top-three placing he needed to go to the medal final. Barrette took out his frustrations by handily winning the "B" final by several bike lengths.

"My goal coming here was to make top-6, so I guess 7th isn't too bad. Of course I was disappointed in the semi-final by not making it through, but I made the best of a bad situation and showed what I truly can do in the [7th-12th place] final. I wanted to prove a point that I can compete and belong in the final," said Barrette. 

In the women’s points race, Jasmin Glaesser (Coquitlam, BC), Laura Brown (Vancouver, BC) and Steph Roorda (Vancouver, BC) had a very smart ride to get Glaesser into position to contend for the podium, and a placing in the final sprint would have earned her enough points for a medal.

"Our plan was as a team to find the right way to move up the track to try and take a lap on the rest of the field and gain those 20 points. I was able to do that about half way into the race and after that our focus switched to getting points in the sprints." said Glaesser.

"I think I won one [sprint] and placed in a couple of others but I just think tactics were working a bit against us with every nation having three riders in the mix." 

"I think we have proven over the last few years that team Canada has one of the strongest women's endurance teams in the world so we definitely expected to be able to show that here. In the last couple days we ended up just falling short a little bit," added Glaesser.

The men’s scratch race final was the penultimate event of the evening. Former world championship medalist Zach Bell was heavily marked so Canada’s hopes shifted to Pelletier-Roy when he gained a lap on the field with a small group of riders. Thanks to some smart riding by Bell, Pelletier-Roy got into perfect position for the sprint in the last five laps and he completely emptied the tank in the final sprint to claim the final podium spot.

"For the team it is a pretty good achievement. The track program came here with big goals and I think getting a medal was the very least we were hoping for. Getting to the last race, it was our last chance to do it so I'm pretty happy to put that on the board for us as a program and for myself," said Pelletier-Roy.

No cycling competitions are scheduled for Day 5 of the Games. The Canadian mountain bike team of Emily Batty (Brooklin, ON), Catharine Pendrel (Fredericton, NB), Max Plaxton (Victoria, BC) and Raphael Gagné (Québec, QC) will be pre-riding the Cathkin Braes course in advance of Tuesday’s cross-country.