Canada's team members Laura Katherine Brown, Jasmin Glaesser and Stephanie Roorda compete in the cycling women's team pursuit qualifying event at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011. Canada's team set a new Pan American Games' record. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)Jorge Saenz/The Associated Press
The adage of working years to become an overnight sensation rings true for Canadian track cyclists.
Canada's women's team of Laura Brown of Vancouver – who won the bronze medal in the road time trials Sunday – Stephanie Roorda of Vancouver, and junior rider Jasmin Glaesser of Coquitlam, B.C., making her international debut for Canada, took a Pan American Games gold medal and shattered a Canadian record last night at Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Canadian women won in 3 minutes 21.448 seconds, carving almost six seconds off the national mark of 3:27.255 that stood at the start of the day. They'd broken it once at the high-altitude track, qualifying for the gold-medal final in 3:25.093. Cuba took the silver medal in 3:25.335, while Colombia edged Venezuela for the bronze medal.
The Canadian trio are track cyclists, amateur athletes who don't have a place to call home in Canada. While Canada has been host to a summer Olympics, the Montreal velodrome has been turned into a Biodome crawling with insects. Pan Am Games and Commonwealth Games in Canada haven't left a legacy of a four-season banked oval for athletes to trail upon.
That could change with the Toronto-based 2015 Pan American Games, as a velodrome could be built in the Hamilton area. But it will cost $15-million to $50-million to create a world class venue.
"To train our own athletes, any high performance sport needs many services," says Tanya Dubnicoff, track cycling coach of the Canadian team in Mexico and a former international star herself. "We need, equipment, coaches, physiotherapists, psychologists, club members. all these things to get an athlete from the grass roots level to the top."
If they were together in one spot, it would be easy. But as it is, Canadian track cyclists go to train in Los Angeles and – because Pan Am Games gold isn't an Olympic qualifier – must qualify for the Olympics at World Cups in far flung places like Kazakhstan, Colombia and China.
"Canada has the potential to produce top athletes – we do it in hockey and swimming and speed skating. This issue is that our facility is unique to the sport. ... We need a business plan in place," Dubnicoff said.
Until then, Canadian cyclists come over from others sports. "I coached Laura Brown when she was 14 and had just left gymnastics to cycle on the rollers in winter at the Oval in Calgary ... [women's world champion in Omnium cycling]Tara Whitten had spent 10 years in skiing," Dubnicoff said.
On Tuesday, a Canadian men's team pursuit squad, competing together for the first time, broke the Canadian men's record and ended up fifth. The team members were Jean-Michel Lachance of Quebec City, Rob Britton of Victoria – as alternate whose forte is the road race time trial – Rémi Pelletier-Roy of Quebec City and Jacob Schwingboth of Cloverdale, B.C. They rode to a time of 4:14.389, highly respectable considering they first trained together on Saturday.
"It's fantastic. It was a great effort by all guys," said Dubnicoff. It helped that they were together in a fast track and were at high altitude, she said.
"We spend a lot of money to train in Los Angeles. With a velodrome in Canada, we could provide a lot more services to the team, to the athletes. Right now, we have a wealth of talent in Canada, but no world class infrastructures," Dubnicoff said.
"Getting the record is the icing on the cake. With 11 months away from the Olympics, the priority is on the teams that are on the cusp of qualifying. We have the talent, certainly."