September 03, 2017 (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) – Team Canada set a new record performance on Sunday at the 2017 UCI Para-cycling road world championships when Tristen Chernove of Cranbrook, BC, won the C2 men’s road race for his second gold and Canada’s fifth world title. It was the team’s seventh medal of the championships.

Chernove, who had earlier in the week won the C2 time trial title, took the road race title in a three up sprint after 60.7 kilometres of racing. He finished ahead of Darren Hicks (Australia) and Francois Lacroix (France). Tristen initiated the winning move and led the winning break for most of the race. This is his sixth title in six world championship events (4 Track, 2 Road) since he started racing two years ago.

“It’s been a dream come true kind of a season,” admitted Chernove. “Even leading up to the Rio Paralympics [where Chernove won gold, silver and bronze], and repeating [as champion] both years at Track Worlds … This was my first Road Worlds and I had high expectations. I’ve worked really hard since Rio without taking a break, training and racing, and came here more relaxed and prepared, and it paid off. Today was a great race; I did a lot of extra work trying to keep the pace high and it seemed to work. It’s my sixth rainbow jersey and I can’t get the smile off my face.”

Ross Wilson of Sherwood Park, Alberta, missed out on a chance for a second medal in the men’s C1 road race after he got caught behind a crash, with three riders who managed to avoid the incident winning the medals. Wilson, who won silver in the time trial, chased for the rest of the race to finish fourth.

In other Canadian road race results, Marie-Claude Molnar of St Hubert, Quebec, took sixth in the women’s C4 category, Nicole Clermont of St Denis de Brompton, Quebec, was seventh in women’s C5, the women’s tandem team of Shawna Ryan (Saskatoon, SK) and Joanie Caron (Rimouski, QC) was sixth, and the men’s tandem team of Matthieu Croteau Daigle (Sherbrooke, QC) and Benoit Lussier (Montreal, QC) were tenth.

Sebastien Travers, Para Head Coach at Cycling Canada, summarized the project: “It’s been a very successful world championships – obviously on results, but also on all performances. Our main goal was to evaluate where we stood against our competitors, and this was very positive. We have athletes who are stepping up their games, and we have athletes coming out of a post-Paralympic season and getting their groove back together. So I cannot be more happy than with what we achieved here. The most positive aspect is that our team is very cohesive, which is what we have been aiming for.”

Results (brief)

Men’s C2 Road Race – 60.7 km

1. Tristen Chernove (Canada) 1:33:47
2. Darren Hicks (Australia)
3. Francois Lacroix (France)
4. Aaron Keith (USA) 0:03
5. Arslan Gilmitdinov (Russia) 0:05

Men’s C1 Road Race – 60.7 km
1. Pierre Seska (Germany) 1:34:37
2. Ricardo Ten Argiles (Spain)
3. Michael Teuber (Germany) 0:03
4. Ross Wilson (Canada) 5:02