The Canadian team sprint formation, composed of Lauriane Genest, Kelsey Mitchell and Sarah Orban, found itself on the second step of the podium, Thursday, at the Track Cycling Nations Cup presented in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Posted at 6:13 p.m.
This is the first Nations Cup on the calendar and, at the same time, it was the first event for the three Canadians.
The Maple Leaf riders faced Dutch Laurine van Riessen, Kyra Lamberink and Hetty van der Wouw in the final, after dominating the first two rounds of the competition.
With a time of 47.714s, the Canadian trio was first the fastest in qualifying, then also posted the fastest time in the next round to beat the representatives of Colombia by 0.718 seconds.
The final promised to be tougher, as only 36 thousandths of a second separated the two finalist teams in the semi-finals.
As they did earlier in the day, the three riders from the Netherlands got off to a great start in the Grand Final, so they held a lead of almost a second after 250 metres. The Canadians managed to close the gap afterwards, without however catching their opponents.
The Dutch finally stopped the clock at 47.461s, 0.359 seconds less than the silver medalists. In the previous round, Genest and her teammates clocked 47.406s.
Athletes from Wales narrowly edged out the Brits to clinch the bronze medal.
On the men’s side, the Canadians were eliminated in the first round by the French, eventual silver medalists.
Lauriane Genest will be back on Friday for the sprint event, while Mathias Guillemette will take part in the direct elimination. The Glasgow Nations Cup will end on Sunday.