Team pursuit silver for Canada at track cycling World Cup opener
Team Canada has opened the UCI Track Cycling World Cup season with a silver medal in the women’s team pursuit in Pruszkow, Poland.
The second-place foursome included Allison Beveridge, who was on the squad that won team pursuit bronze at Rio 2016, national team member Annie Foreman-Mackey, and two new arrivals from the NextGen program, Kinley Gibson and Ariane Bonhomme.
Matched against Italy in the gold medal final, the Canadians led for the first half before the Italians came back to take the victory in 4:21.965, winning by just over two seconds. The Italians had also been fastest in the qualifying round, with the Canadians finishing just behind. That set up a first round showdown with Great Britain, which Canada won in 4:23.002 to advance to the race for gold.
Next week the circuit heads to Manchester, England before coming to Canada for the first weekend of December as the velodrome in Milton, Ontario, built for the 2015 Pan Am Games and now home to the national team, hosts its first World Cup competition. It will be the first time a track cycling World Cup has taken place in Canada since 1989.
