December 12, 2017 (Santiago, Chile) – Canada sent a small squad of three riders to compete at the fourth round of the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Santiago, Chile, on December 9-10. Hugo Barrette qualified 5th in the Men’s Sprint and advanced directly to the 1/8th finals, making it as far as the quarter-final round where he was knocked out of the competition and finished sixth overall. In the Keirin, Barrette was tenth.

Aidan Caves finished ninth in the men’s four-event Omnium, one place higher than a week earlier at Round 3 in Milton, Ontario. Caves was fifth in the Scratch Race, tenth in the Tempo Race, tenth in the Elimination and eighth in the final Points Race, to finish with 87 points.

In the women’s Sprint, Amelia Walsh qualified 15th and won her 1/16th race to move on to the 1/8th finals, where she was defeated and did not advance.

Kris Westwood, High Performance Director at Cycling Canada, explained, “We went into the Santiago round of the World Cup aiming to pick up some points in individual events for world championships qualification. Hugo Barrette got the job done with a solid sixth-place finish in the sprint tournament, and tenth in the Keirin.

“Aidan Caves also picked up some good points with ninth in the men’s Omnium – it will be tight, but hopefully that will be enough to get him into the Worlds. Considering it’s only his fourth race back from a serious concussion the result is encouraging. Amelia Walsh is still building on her international race experience. Just 18 months ago she was a BMX racer, so it’s great to see her in the mix at this level.”