March 26, 2005 — Canadians felt a “˜mixed bag’ of emotions after their performances yesterday at the UCI 2005 Track World Championships in Carson, California.

Lori-Anne Muenzer of Alberta finished seventh in the sprints, her second seventh place finishing of the competition. Travis Smith of Alberta finished 13th in the kilo event with a time of 1:05.263 minutes. His personal goal had been to start faster then usual and be among the top five fastest times at the half way point. He was 8th at the 250 meter mark and then 10th at the 500 meter mark and did succeed in riding 5/10ths faster in his first 500 meters but in the second half he paid the price. Despite the decrease in speed near the end of his ride Smith finished just shy of his personal best time. A great performance for his first World Championships.

In the Points Race Mandy Poitras of British Columbia had a tremendous race finishing seventh, her best result in the Points Race at the Worlds. However, according to the CCA’s Sean O’Donnell Poitras feels this placing doesn’t reflect how strong she felt. “She waited a little too late, she was a little too conservative at the beginning.” Poitras was patient at the beginning of the race conserving her energy. Half-way through she started to become more active and then with twenty laps to go she attacked and had a considerable gap of almost 3/4 of a lap! That’s when Olga Slyusareva of Russia put on the gas and lead a massive attack to reel Poitras in. They caught her with only five laps to go. “It was a very exciting race and it was clear that Mandy was a strong threat,” commented O’Donnell. This will give her confidence going into tomorrow’s Scratch Race. Poitras finished second last year in this event and hopes to better her performance this year!

Today no Canadians were racing and the only athlete for Canada competing tomorrow is Poitras. Stay tuned for more coverage.

March 26, 2005 – Day three of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships got underway this morning with the qualifying rounds for the women’s individual pursuit and the men’s sprint in which U.S. riders Erin Mirabella (La Habra, Calif.)) and Giddeon Massie (Colorado Springs, Colo.) were both unsuccessful in moving on in their respective events.

Mirabella placed ninth in the individual pursuit qualifying round. She posted a time of 3:49.157, but it wasn’t fast enough to take her into tonight’s medal rounds. “I could definitely feel last night in my legs a little bit,” she explained referring to her points race competition. “Since I was a little disappointed in yesterday’s race, sleep was a little difficult last night.”

Aussies Katie Mactier and Katherine Bates posted the fastest times over the three kilometers in 3:38.325 and 3:41.676. Karin Thürig (SUI) and Elena Tchalykh (RUS) will contest the bronze medal race this evening.

Massie also failed to advance to the finals in today’s sprint qualifying round. Clocking a time of 10.919 seconds only put the 2004 Pan American Champion in 21st place and only the fastest 16 riders will ride in the evening session’s first round. “I just wasn’t able to put it together during the ride,” Massie commented afterwards. “I knew what I had coming in. I had a little bit of trouble with my back a few weeks before which may or may not have affected me.”

With a 10.192, Theo Bos (NED) posted the fastest time over the 200 meters and will come into the next round of the sprint hoping to build upon the gold medal success he had in last night’s kilometer time trial.

The evening session will see American Jame Carney contest the scratch race final. The Durango, Colo. resident opened the world cup season in Moscow with a scratch race win. He will face strong challengers this evening in defending World Champion Greg Henderson (NZL) as well as Alex Rasmussen (NED), Wim Stroetinga (NED), and Jerome Neuville (FRA).