CANADA’S MEN TEAM SPRINT WINS SILVER MEDAL AT PAN-AM CHAMPIONSHIPS, BREAKS CANADIAN RECORD

Joseph Veloce, Hugo Barrette and Stéphane Cossette break the ice for Canada at UCI Pan-American Championships

(Mexico City, MEX – February 07, 2013) Hugo Barrette of Cap-Aux-Meules, QC, Stéphane Cossette of Chicoutimi, QC and Olympian Joseph Veloce of Fonthill, ON won Canada’s first medal of the 2013 UCI Pan American Track Championships in Mexico City on Wednesday, taking the silver medal in the team sprint.

The team sprint squad raced to second place on the opening day of competition at the CNAR Velodrome, falling just short of grabbing the gold medal against Venezuela.

In the qualifying session, the team set a new Canadian record of 43.682 seconds to finish second behind Venezuela.

Canada has a team of eight athletes at the Championships in Mexico City, which run until Sunday.

Three women will compete in the endurance events in Mexico.  Kirsti Lay and Alison Beveridge of Calgary will team up with Candice Vermeulen of Toronto for the team pursuit. Lay will also compete in the individual pursuit and the points race. Vermeulen will participate in the scratch race while Beveridge is entered in the omnium race.

On the men’s endurance side, Rémi Pelletier-Roy of Quebec City will race the omnium as well as the individual pursuit, scratch race and points race.

Veloce and Barrette will also compete in the keirin later this week, while Cossette and Scott Mulder of North Vancouver will contest the individual sprint.

The track at the CNAR Velodrome was designed by Canadian velodrome designer Peter Junek.

The 2013 Track Cycling season ends later this month with the elite world championships in Minsk, Belarus, from Feb. 20-24.

The complete schedule of the 2013 UCI Pan-American Championships can be found here: http://www.federacionmexicanadeciclismo.com.mx/archivos/prograpana13.pdf