(Milton) Kelsey Mitchell qualified for the keirin semi-finals by winning her qualifying heat at the UCI Cycling Nations Cup in Milton, but Lauriane Genest will have to go through the repechage.
Mitchell avoided this extra step in brilliant fashion on Sunday at the Mattamy National Cycling Center. While she seemed stuck in fourth place in her qualifying heat, the sprinter instead surged outwards to overtake the three cyclists in front of her and win the race by two bike lengths.
Genest, bronze medalist in the discipline at the Tokyo Olympics, launched her attack a little too early with a little more than two laps to go and was beaten a few meters from the finish line by the Dutchwoman. Hetty van de Wouw, thereby increasing her workload for the day.
Third Canadian in the running, Jackie Boyle will also have to pass the repechage. Stuck behind the peloton, Boyle fell after hooking the rear wheel of the cyclist in front of her while trying to go to the outside of the track. After a long slide on the floor, she left the competition area under her own power. It was not yet known at the time of writing whether she would be able to participate in the next round.
Short day for sprinters
Three of the four Canadians competing in the individual sprint were quickly eliminated.
Tyler Rorke, Ryan Dodyk and 17-year-old sprinter Cole Dempster all saw their day end in the first elimination round.
Only Nick Wammes continued to the round of 16, where he was eliminated by Sébastien Vigier. Patient, the Frenchman let Wammes commit and launch the attack. Vigier finally got ahead of him from the outside, winning the race by a wheel.
Wammes had achieved his best result in the keirin the day before, finishing in fifth place.
In the women’s omnium, Maggie Coles-Lyster easily qualified for all four races of the evening, the scratch, the tempo race, the elimination race and the points race. She was the only Canadian entered in the competition.
The Trois-Rivières native Mathias Guillemette and Michael Foley will later team up in the American race, the last event of this third edition of the Milton Nations Cup, which will end in 2025 after three consecutive years.
The organizing committee is trying to bring the competition back from 2026 for a new three-year cycle.