Tara Wins Two More Bronze Medals at World Cup Finale!

UCI Track World Cup #4 Beijing Day 3 Report, Results, Photos - Canada Wins Team Pursuit Bronze

Article courtesy of Pedal Magazine
original article/article originel

report by the CCA

January 24, 2010 (Beijing, China) - The Canadian women's Team Pursuit squad, Laura Brown, Steph Roorda and Tara Whitten, claimed the bronze in the women's Team Pursuit competition on the final Day 3 of UCI Track World Cup in Beijing bringing Canada's medal haul to four. Monique Sullivan (Can) finished 10th in the women's Keirin while Joseph Veloce (ON) and Stephane Cossette (QUE) 24th and 27th respectively in the flying 200 meter as the Canadian team wrapped up a fabulous weekend of racing.


CCA Report
The Canadian team competing at the fourth and final World Cup in Beijing, China finished on the podium in their final event of the competition, but it was the sprinters who got things started. Joseph Veloce (ON) and Stephane Cossette (QUE) began the day with the flying 200 meter race in a bid to qualify for the sprint competition.

Both riders are new to the World Cup scene and were excited to be racing on the smooth Olympic track; however, they felt they could have ridden better, improved their approach, and gone faster. They finished in 24th and 27th position with times of 10.674 and 10.698 respectively. The fastest time posted was a 10.183. Both riders will be returning to Los Angeles in February to prepare for Worlds with teammate Travis Smith for the Team Sprint.

Monique Sullivan (AB) started strong in the first round of the Kierin, sitting in third place behind the bike. She was aggressive and moved to the front with two laps to go with a strong acceleration and held on until 1/2 a lap to go when the group came around and she finished 6th in the heat moving on to the repechage. She made winning the repechage look easy and moved on to the semifinal where she was overpowered and finished 10th. “I didn't always have the legs to pull off my moves, I was racing smart and always putting myself in a good position. There was a strong field at this World Cup and it was great practice for the World Championships.”

The final event for the Canadians was the women’s team pursuit, the same team who won gold at the last World Cup. Tara Whitten, Laura Brown, and Steph Roorda, all from Alberta, had high expectations and felt strong and ready going in to the qualifier. They posted the third fastest time with some mistakes along the way, and then in the bronze medal final they rode like a smooth unit to take off more than three seconds from their first ride and won the bronze medal while setting a new Canadian Record of 3:26.723.

The Canadian team finished the fourth World Cup with two gold medals and two bronze medals and ranked 7th at this competition. The team focus will now be on preparing for the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark from March 24-28. Videos of all the medal winning races, with commentary, can be watched here.

Results

Women's Team Pursuit

1. Australia (Ankudinoff, Kent, Tomic) 3:22.9
2. New Zealand (Ellis, Nielsen, Shanks) 3:23.7
3. Canada (Brown, Roorda, Whitten) 3:26.7
4. Lithuania (Pikauskaite, Sereikaite, Trebaite) 3:28.3
5. Russia
6. Ukraine
7. France
8. Netherlands
9. Italy
10. Giant Pro Cycling
11. China
12. Mexico