March 01, 2019 (Pruszkow, Poland) – Team Canada had a bittersweet day at the 2019 Track World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland yesterday when both the women’s and men’s squads made the bronze medal final in the Team Pursuit, only to finish fourth, just out of the medals.

For the men’s squad of Michael Foley, Derek Gee, Adam Jamieson and Jay Lamoureux, just making the medal round was a new accomplishment, one that they savoured. However, the squad was beaten by an experienced Danish team in the end.

“It’s a huge step for the program,” said Gee. “Obviously, it’s always disappointing to lose a ride but looking at it, I don’t think we expected to make a medal round; top-5 was the goal. So, to make the medal round was exceeding that and we can come away with big positives.”

The women’s team of Allison Beveridge, Ariane Bonhomme, Annie Foreman-Mackey and Georgia Simmerling had a strong ride early in the day to put themselves into the medal final against New Zealand, however, they struggled in the bronze medal race, finishing nearly four seconds behind New Zealand, and almost three seconds slower than their earlier ride.

“It was a tough race and we gave it our all,” said Simmerling. “You need four riders to do their job, and sometimes you don’t get four riders for every race.”

In other competition, Lauriane Genest qualified 12th in the women’s sprint, but was knocked out in the first round of head-to-head racing. In the men’s Keirin, neither Hugo Barrette or Joel Archambault made it past the first round.