Victoria cyclists Erin Attwell and Riley Pickrell continue churning through the junior ranks, with the 2024 Paris and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics on the far horizon.
Five-time national champion Pickrell was top Canadian with fourth place in the men鈥檚 scratch race at the 2018 UCI world junior track cycling championships in Aigle, Switzerland.
鈥淩iley鈥檚 fourth place in the scratch race, on his 17th birthday, was a standout performance,鈥� Canadian NextGen coach Jenny Trew said in a statement.
鈥淏ut each of the [Canadian] riders left their all out on the velodrome in Aigle and should be proud of their performances.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to be a part of this group鈥檚 introduction and progression through the high-performance stream of cycling in sa国际传媒. This is just the beginning for this cohort.鈥�
Pickrell, heading into Grade 12 at Claremont Secondary and Canadian Sports School-Victoria, is proving himself an all-rounder on two wheels. Last month, the Victoria Tripleshot Club product won three of seven stages to win the Points jersey in the Tour de l鈥橝bitibi road race in Quebec.
Attwell, meanwhile, has been named to the Canadian pursuit team for the Pan American track cycling championships beginning Wednesday in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
It is the start of the qualification process for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, but Attwell is being groomed for the post-Tokyo quadrennial. Cycling sa国际传媒 has selected a team of senior riders for events it has targeted for Tokyo qualification, and NextGen development athletes such as Attwell for the other events.
鈥淭he Pan Am championships mark a shift in our track programming as we enter the Olympic qualification phase,鈥� said Kris Westwood, high performance director for Cycling sa国际传媒.
鈥淔rom now until 2020, every Pan Ams, world championships and World Cup count towards our quota in Tokyo. Having taken a hard look at our chances in each of the Olympic events, we鈥檙e taking a strategic approach to make sure we maximize our qualification chances.
鈥淲e鈥檝e entered Olympic pool athletes in the critical individual events 鈥� omnium, sprint and keirin. We will be running development athletes in the team pursuits, which allows most of the Olympic pool athletes to skip this trip and focus on the upcoming World Cups and world championships.鈥�
Attwell preceded Pickrell at the Canadian Sports School-Victoria, which is operated by Canadian Sports Institute-Pacific at its PISE campus on Interurban Road. It is where top student-athletes spend their afternoons in both academics and athletic training, after attending their regular high schools in the morning. It is operated by School District 62.
鈥淢y goal is the Olympics in track cycling,鈥� said Attwell, upon graduating from Canadian Sports School-Victoria in 2017.
Joining Attwell on the developmental side of the Canadian squad to the Pan Ams is Maggie Coles-Lyster of Maple Ridge, well known here as a regular racer and winner in Island events. Coles-Lyster will contest the women鈥檚 points race in Mexico.
