Team pursuit cyclists return to scene of Olympic bronze-medal debut at worlds in London
Four years after a bronze medal debut at an Olympics in women’s team pursuit in track cycling, Canada will be eyeing the higher steps on the podium in Brazil later this year.
After two gold medals and a silver in the three-stop World Cup this past season, Canada is a strong gold medal contender alongside reigning world champions Australia and Great Britain. They’ll be looking to continue that momentum heading into Rio at this week’s world track cycling championships in London.
“It’s been a great season,” team veteran Laura Brown told Yahoo Canada Sports. “Probably the most successful one I can remember, mostly with results but also progress we’ve made as a team and how we’ve grown as a team and as a program in general. Across the board it’s been a pretty amazing year.”
Brown was in London in 2012 as the alternate in the event that had three riders per team on the track working together over a three-kilometre distance. This year, however, a fourth rider will be added, as well as an extra kilometre, to make it exactly the same format as the men’s event.
The strength of the Canadian team in this event is its depth, as seven riders will be competing for the five spots (including one alternate) on the Brazil-bound group. The talent pool includes London veterans Brown and German-born Jasmin Glaesser, Steph Roorda (fifth on the depth chart in 2012), former speed skater Kirsty Lay and two-time winter Olympian Georgia Simmerling, an alpine skier in 2010 and in skicross in 2014.
The women’s pursuit at the worlds in London goes Thursday and Friday and is the likeliest event for a medal on the track for Canada not only this week, but also at the Olympics. Canada will have 15 riders competing in the championships that go from March 2-6.
“We’re all focused to make the team go the fastest and there’s the sort of internal competition that we have,” said Roorda. “But I think we all get along really well and we want to be the fastest team out there so everyone is working towards that.”
A team event in its purest form, the team pursuit rewards those that not only go fast but do it together as racers ride single-file as closely as possible to take advantage of drafting. Riders take turns at the front before peeling off and tuck in at the back as quickly as possible.
Brown and Roorda have an advantage in that regard. They’re both from Calgary and developed together in the robust road-cycling scene in Victoria, after moving to Vancouver Island in 2006 to take advantage of the year-round cycling benefits of living on the west coast as well as pursue post-secondary studies.
“With the speeds we go and how close we ride, the more familiar you are with the wheel behind you, the cleaner the ride and the faster we can go,” said Brown. “With Steph, she’s my favourite wheel to ride and I think it’s because I’ve ridden it so many times over these past, I don’t know, seven or eight years, I feel like I can close my eyes sometimes, I know it so well.”
The team’s one loss this season came in New Zealand to Australia so a possible showdown this week, at the Olympic site from 2012, could very well be a preview of a race for a bronze or a gold medal in August.
“The team is doing great. I think the progression we’ve had is we’re on track for some really great success,” said Roorda. “That’s what everyone wants and I think we’re taking the appropriate steps in working hard and we’re doing it systematically instead of wishing and hoping.”