March 4/18 13:03 pm - Canada Wins Bronze Medal on Final Day of Track Worlds
Posted by Editoress on 03/4/18
Team Canada finished off the 2018 UCI Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, on Sunday with a bronze medal. Jasmin Duehring of Vancouver finished third in the women's Points Race.
The Netherlands led the rankings with a total of 12 medals, including five gold. Germany finished with six medals, including four gold, while Great Britain, Australia and Italy also had six medals each.
Duehring, who was seventh in the Scratch Race on the opening day of the Championships, came back from a disappointing Madison on Saturday, where the Canadian team did not finish, to finish third behind Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands and Jennifer Valente of the United States. Duehring was one of nine riders to lap the field, as well as scoring points in three intermediate points during the race, to finish with 30 points in total.
"We've had a strong team here, but it hasn't quite translated into medals, so I was really proud to have our Canadian flag go up once," said Duehring. "I've been on the podium a few times in this event and the rainbow jersey has eluded me, so I really wanted to go for it. So I raced agressively and a couple of times tried to make a move to get a lap, but Kirsten Wild was so strong out there and she wasn't letting anyone get away."
Stefan Ritter was the only other Canadian athlete to race on Sunday, finishing 16th in the 1000 metre time trial with a time of one minute and 1.923 seconds. Ritter raced with a broken clavicle from an early crash (June 2017). Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands won the world title.
"It's not the ride I was hoping for," admitted Ritter, "I was definitely hoping for a top-10. But considering that I could not do a bunch of kilo prep and we didn't practice many starts because of my shoulder, honestly, I'm pretty happy with 16th. I did feel on the standing starts; it's painful but I can push through it. Honestly, I'm pretty lucky that I can still ride and race."
The final women's title was awarded in the Keirin, and brought Belgium their first world title of the Championships, when Nicky Degrendele outkicked Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong, China, and Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania.
"I still can't believe it," admitted Degrendele. "This is my first Elite title and I'm very happy. I was speechless, I didn't know I actually did it, I still can't believe it. I think in the next few days it will sink in, but at the moment it is so hard to believe. It's nice to get the medal but also the jersey. Last year the girls, in the Madison, were world champions and they couldn't defend it this year, so I'm happy I could get a jersey."
The world championships concluded with the men's Madison, and the German team of Roger Kluge and Their Reinhardt won their country's fourth world title. They were one of four teams to take a lap on the field, but the also won five intermediate sprints for a total of 53 points. Spain finished second with 45 points and Australia third at 37 points.
"[I had] good legs today and a good partner as well," said Kluge. "Maybe I was the strongest, but without him I couldn't win. There's always two in the game. I had all week good legs, after I came from Abu Dhabi. It was hard watching all week the other races and now I'm really happy to bring it home. Finally the jersey I've been looking for since 2008. Now I've got it I'm really happy. Thanks to Theo. It's a good start to the way to Tokyo."
Jacques Landry, Chief Technical Officer - Head Coach at Cycling Canada, said "it's not the best Track Worlds we've had, but certainly better than last year, when the men's Team Pursuit squad crashed. Looking at the world championships as a whole, we have a lot of things to take home and work on. The men's Team Pursuit rode really well and are a lot more technically sound; we just have to do some fine tuning. In the women's Team Pursuit we didn't have some of our 'A' riders here, as we gave younger riders exposure, and still finished fourth, so next year in the Olympic qualification window we will be stronger as we’ll have more riders to choose from and that will feed on each other to get better."
"The women's Madison was disappointing and a wakeup call for us; we didn't have the technical and tactical prowess to execute. So we have to go back to the drawing board and look at whether we can be competitive there."
"On the sprint side, Amelia [Walsh] is continuing to progress and with Lauriane Genest progressing we may be still in the running for the Team Sprint in the future. For the men, Hugo [Barrette] needs to be able to deliver more than one or two good rides, so he needs to build his capacity. Stefan [Ritter] continues to learn and progress, and just needs more racing practice to avoid making mistakes."
"All in all, there are a lot of take aways; we know what we have to do and we just have to execute. I think we are in a good situation; we may not have some of the rankings we are used to, but that is just a temporary situation and we'll be able to get back on track for when it really counts."
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