January 01, 2015 (Ottawa, ON) – Top Canadian roadie, Karol-Ann Canuel, who is riding for Velocio-SRAM in 2015, was named “athlete of the year” for 2014 by the Ottawa-area daily newspaper, Le Droit.

The newspaper points notably to Canuel’s winning a world championship title in road cycling as part of the (then) Specialized-lululemon team that won the Elite Women’s team time trial (TTT) at the 2014 UCI Road Worlds in Ponferrada, Spain on September 21 – read more here.

The Amos, QC rider, went on to finish sixth in the individual time trial (ITT) at Worlds. Not mentioned in Le Droit is that Canuel is the first Canadian to ever win a world championship title in road cycling.

Le Droit also mentions Canuel’s injuries in 2014 including a C6 vertebral fracture sustained at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic women’s race on June 1 and a pelvic fracture sustained during the Elite Women’s RR at the UCI Road Worlds in Spain in September.

Despite these injuries, Canuel bounced back quickly each time. On Dec. 27, three months after breaking her hip in Spain, Canuel broke the world record on the 3,055m Haleakala hill climb in Hawaii  (see link to Pedal report below).

The honour bestowed by Le Droit is purely an honorary title; and denotes the most prominent francophone athlete in the Ottawa area, including Gatineau. The 26-year-old originally from Amos, Quebec now lives in Gatineau. This is also apparently the first time the French daily has chosen a cyclist as its athlete of the year.

Canuel was previously declared the “female athlete of the year” (road and track categories) by the FQSC (Quebec cycling federation) in November – we interviewed Canuel on site here.

The coming 2015 season is an important year for Canuel (and many other cyclists) as they prepare to secure a berth on the national team headed for the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Le Droit (French) article here.

Canuel’s new record on Haleakala here.