December 06, 2017 (Milton, ON) – Cycling Canada is pleased to announce the team of athletes who have been selected to the Olympic Performance Pool and NextGen Men’s Track Endurance (MTE) programs for 2018.

Athletes within the program will benefit from a Daily Training Environment, including personalized and periodized coaching and integrated support services, with a focus on performances on the international competition schedule. The Program is designed to offer athletes an optimized preparation with the goal of increasing opportunities for selection onto national program projects and international performances within the national program.

The NextGen MTE program has just finished its third year, and is now an established system to feed athletes to the Olympic Performance Pool.  In 2018, for the first time, the Men’s Track Endurance has evolved enough to see a distinction between NextGen and OPP riders.  However, the two groups will be working together with the same vision; a world class team pursuit program.

Five riders will make up the 2018 Olympic Performance Pool – Aidan  Caves of Vancouver, BC; Derek Gee of Osgood, ON; Adam Jamieson of Barrie, ON; Jay Lamoureux of Victoria, BC; and Bayley Simpson of Lindsay, ON.  Caves, Gee and Simpson will be racing under the colours of Cycling Canada’s Trade Team level Team RaceClean for the next season, while Jamieson and Lamoureux will race for respective squads.

Unfortunately, the program will say good bye to Willem Boersma, who has joined his family’s agricultural business, as well as to Will Elliott and Edward Walsh, who will graduate to the Continental Team level on the Europe Tour circuit. “We wish them all the best,” said Luc Arseneau, NextGen MTE Coach at Cycling Canada.  “These guys enabled us to develop this program to where it is today.”

The NextGen program will be bolstered by the arrival of six riders from the Junior ranks, for a total of nine athletes, all of whom will be racing under the colours of Team RaceClean for the next season.

“I feel very motivated about the progression of the program,” said Arseneau.  “The development of the top guys, along with the transfer of no less than six Junior riders – four of whom were part of the Canadian team at the Junior track world championships – shows the commitment to the goal of becoming a world class program.”

The 2018 NextGen squad consists of:

– Adam Attwell – Victoria, BC
– Evan Burtnik – Edmonton, AB
– Gabriel Drapeau-Zgoralski – Verdun, QC
– Chris Ernst – Kitchener, ON
– Michael Foley – Milton, ON
– Tristan Guillemette – Trois-Rivières, QC
– Thierry Kirouac-Marcassa – Boucherville, QC
– Lucas Taylor – London, ON
– John Willcox – North Vancouver, BC

The OPP part of the MTE program will be busy in 2018, with the main goals being Track World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and the start of the Olympic qualification process. The NextGen squad will have two road racing blocks in Europe in the Spring and Summer, enabling them to develop their capabilities for future track projects such as T-Town (USA), Fiorenzuola (Italy) and Copa Cuba.