February 18, 2015 (Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, France) – Day 1 of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships kicked off at the new “fast” National Velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, southwest of Paris. The session began with the Canadian Women’s Pursuit squad of Steph Roorda, Jasmin Glaesser, Allison Beveridge and Kirsti Lay qualifying a strong third in 4:20.699 as Australia topped the field (4:18.135) with Great Britain in second (4:18.207). The top eight teams advance to the heats and finals taking place tomorrow.

In the men’s Team Pursuit New Zealand led the charge followed by GBR, Germany with Switzerland in 4th as the top four teams advance to the finals. The Canadian men’s team did not qualify to compete.

In the Team Sprint competitions  did not advance but according to Kris Westwood, High Performance Manager at Cycling Canada, both teams set the “…fastest-ever Canadian times at sea level.” In the Women’s event Monique Sullivan and Kate O’Brien placed 12th as Russia qualified fastest over China with Germany 3rd and Australia fourth. The tables turned in the finals as China’s Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong set a world record on their way to overturning Russia for the gold, while Australia took the bronze over defending champs Germany.

In the men’s race Canada’s Evan Carey, Joseph Veloce and Hugo Barrette placed 13th as New Zealand was the fastest over France with Germany third and Russia fourth. Controversy in the final saw the Kiwi’s Ethan Micthell, Sam Webster and Edward Dawkins best the French team’s Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Michael d’Almeida at home, only to see the gold handed over to France as NZL was relegated for an illegal lane change. Germany took Russia for the bronze.

Germany’s Stephanie Pohl claimed the rainbow jersey in the women’s Points Race over Minami Uwano of Japan and Kimberly Geist of the US topping the field with 38 points. Pohl, Uwano, Geist all lapped the field as did France’s Elise Delzenne in fourth.

Canada’s Glaesser who won Points race silver in 2011 and bronze in 2014 is racing the Individual Pursuit instead as her focus is the Team Pursuit according to Jacques Landry, Cycling Canada’s High Performance Director – Head Coach.

“The Points race would have compromised the Team Pursuit performance as it was right after the qualifier. Some other countries did not have riders in the Points race as well – like the Australia – as they are focussed on the TP. Our priority of course is the Olympic events, and the Points is not one. Jasmin will ride the IP,” Landry told Pedal.

Results here.