July 6, 2010 (Los Angeles, CA) – The CCA is currently holding a selection camp in LA for the Commonwealth Games, with a handful of riders attempting to make the minimum time standards. The athletes will have two days, July 6 and 7, to prove that they are fast enough to potentially win a medal at the Games being held in Delhi, India in October. Head Coach Richard Wooles is timing the riders through the events and we caught up with him after the first day at the Home Depot Centre.

How are the trials going so far?
Richard Wooles: We’ve had a great first day with the majority of the riders meeting the time standards for the Commonwealth Games. Monique Sullivan Joseph Veloce, Tara Whitten, Travis Smith and Jean Michel Lachance all smashed their times.

That’s great news, what does this mean?
RW: The way it stands at the moment is that cycling has 13 places allocated for the Games. This is to be divided up between road and track as mountain biking is not part of the Games – don’t ask me why.

What’s the next step from here?
RW: The riders are entered into a pool – including Zach Bell, Laura Brown and Steph Roorda who pre-qualified – and we submit our recommendations to the High Performance Committee with the reasons why we think the riders should be selected.

What criteria will they use to select the available places?
RW: It comes down to winning medals. The team will be selected based on each rider’s potential to either medal or to contribute to winning medals. On the road it is obvious that a team helps to win medals but it’s also very beneficial to have team mates on the track. Not only for training but within a race it can make a big difference in the potential to medal if you have a team mate. Another benefit is that because there are so many events on the track, each rider has more than one chance at winning a medal. We understand some of them are not Olympic events but I think it’s great for the momentum and development of the team.

Will any other riders be selected to the pool?
RW: We still have another day of the trials to go and it’s looking promising for one more rider coming off a big block of road endurance to make the selection. So fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Thanks for the update and keep up the good work.
RW: Cheers and thanks for supporting the track.