September 29, 2003 – Roland Green has pulled out of the Time Trial event at the Road World Championships. The 29 year old from Victoria, BC will be unable to compete after his doctor's have told him to stay off a bike for the next month as he continues to recover from injuries and illnesses that have plagued him throughout the season.

Green, a two time MTB XC World Champion and the defending Commonwealth Games XC Champion, considered the Hamilton Worlds as one of his key objectives for the season. “I'm obviously very disappointed, but my health is my number one priority. I thought I would be ready to go. I was really looking forward to Worlds, especially with them being in Canada and all. That makes it even harder to miss them.” said Green.

National Team Head Coach, Yury Kashirin, echoed the comments from Roland. “The health of our athletes comes before any race or any event that we participate in. Roland needs to take this time and recover and ensure that he can come back strong down the road. With the World Championships being in Canada this year, its unfortunate Roland will have to miss out on them. I know this was very important for him.”

Jean-Francois Laroche, 23, of Magog, QC, will take the place vacated by Green. Laroche was third at the National Time Trial Championships in June. He followed that up with a 3rd place finish at the B World Championships in Switzerland in July. He represented Canada at the Pan Am Games last month in the Dominican Republic in the Time Trial event, finishing 15th. Most recently at the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan, Laroche finished 2nd in the Prologue and had three other top-five results in the five stages.

“This is a great opportunity for one of our top young riders to go against the best in the World. It will be a tremendous learning experience for him” said Kashirin on Laroche filling in for Green.

Laroche and 2003 National Time Trial Champion, Eric Wohlberg will race the time trial on October 9, 2003.