February 9, 2005 – The Canadian team celebrated Canada’s best-ever cyclocross worlds result Jan. 30 in St. Wendel, Germany, after Wendy Simms finished 12th in the women’s event.

The events were run in extremely difficult conditions on an icy, rutted course covered with a fine layer of fresh snow, and while organizers did a good job to make the worst sections rideable there were still many flats and crashes. Simms was not immune, suffering from a puncture that led to a crash on her second lap while riding in 8th position.

Five other Canadians competed in St. Wendel. Joël Dion-Poitras was 55th in the junior men’s event; Samantha Nicholson and Tara Ross were 37th and 38th respectively in the women’s event; and Greg Reain was 51st in the elite men’s event, while Peter Morse was lapped before half distance and not classified.

While cyclocross is not an Olympic discipline and as a result is not funded by Sport Canada, I feel that it has an important role to play in developing Canadian athletes. Besides the obvious benefit to bike handling skills, the biggest advantage of taking part in cross worlds is to give our up-and-coming athletes a taste of world championship competition in a relatively pressure-free environment.

Joël Dion-Poitras, for example, has a lot of potential and he is likely to participate in future road worlds. After his experience in St. Wendel, he now knows how to deal with tens of thousands of fans, constant media attention and the need to focus on his own racing in a stressful environment.

A side benefit is that some of the older athletes, who may not have similar opportunities in the future, will be able to either pass that experience on to other riders, or use it as support staff.

This year’s team was one of the best supported efforts for many years, with six volunteer support staff. I would like to personally thank Jake Frame, Josh Cread, Caroline Haill, Norm Thibault, Corey Piket and Dave Coughlin for their time and effort and I hope to see them on future cyclocross projects.