Women’s cycling team picks up two medals at Track Nations Cup

Team Canada’s cycling team is back in a big way.

On Friday night, the women’s team sprint squad and team pursuit squad both reached the podium in front of home fans in Milton, Ont. at the UCI Track Nations World Cup.

In the team sprint Olympic medallists Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest partnered with Sarah Orban to capture silver. The star-studded team got off to an underwhelming start, finishing with just the fourth-fastest time in the qualifying round.

However, it was enough to qualify for the first round where they beat out China in a head-to-head race. They sprinted to a 47.477 to qualify for the final.

In a nail-biter, Team Canada lost out on gold to Mexico, finishing just 0.4 seconds behind the gold medal winners.

“This is very close to our best time. Going for the gold medal, we had nothing to lose and we really gave it our all,” Genest said to Cycling Canada.

In the team pursuit, Sarah Van Dam, Maggie Coles-Lyster, Ariane Bonhomme and Erin Attwell raced to a bronze, after beating the United States in a bronze metal race.

The team qualified for medal contention after a strong qualifying round, finishing 2.3 seconds behind the eventual-gold medallist Britain squad.

Day two of the UCI Track Nations Cup was the first full day of competition for races. The finals for women’s madison, women’s sprint, men’s keirin, and men’s omnium will take place on Saturday.