Looks like the Canadian Cycling Association is once again clueless, this time in regard to the Pan Am Games.
This cluelessness now seems to extended even to High Performance Director Kris Westwood. I challenge anyone to read his explanation of things and translate what he means. Of course this stuff is WAY over the head of CCA Director General Lorraine Lafreniere. Lorraine what did Kris just explain??????
Oh, and by the way, the athletes going to the Games are also listed. The Canadian Cycling Association itself has not listed their own athletes going on their own web site….
Typical ! :
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html
June 20/07 10:00 am EDT - USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB
USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB
We had published last week a preliminary and unofficial list of Canadian athletes who will be attending the Pan Am Games (repeated below). The list did not contain any top mountain bikers because the event did not carry any UCI points ... or so we thought. USA Cycling then released its list of athletes for the Games, and stated that the mountain bike competition was a UCI event (C1), carrying ranking points. When we brought it to the attention of the CCA that there were UCI points available for mountain bike at the Games, we received an explanation from Kris Westwood, Director High Performance Programs. Below is the CCA response and the unofficial Canadian Games team.
CCA Response (Kris Westwood)
This came as a surprise as COPACI (Pan Am Games Association) had stated at last year's Pan Am congress that no UCI points would be awarded at the Games.
I checked with Peter van den Abeele at the UCI, and they used a completely different rationale to award points to Pan Am Games in mountain bike versus NOT awarding points to road and track.
The intent here is to give another points scoring opportunity to South American nations, as they have very few mountain bike events on the international calendar.
The argument for not giving points to road and track is that the Games have very limited participation through a restrictive qualification process, and there is also a Pan Am championship on the calendar so points couldn't be given to both events.
In the end, the former arguments won over the latter in mountain bike, and the opposite was the case in road and track. (Kris, WTF are you saying????? Sounds like you had no clue before and still have no clue now. Apparently spending too much time at the CCA makes you into an idiot)
This will not affect Canada in any way. Pan Am Games are on the calendar as a C1 event, an athlete can count a maximum of five C1 events to his or her points total, and our athletes have access to a ton of C1 events. Bromont, Tremblant, Hardwood and Canmore are all C1s, as are Sea Otter, Fontana, Park City and Banner Elk on the US calendar. Sending our top athletes to Pan Ams - even if it fit in their calendar - would be unlikely to increase our points total.
I would point out that Catharine Pendrel is now the third Canadian on the UCI rankings, so she will potentially contribute to our points total, though we don't have much to worry about on the women's side with all the points Marie-Hélène is earning.
Unofficial Canadian Games Team
Men's Road Race
Dominique Rollin
Charles Dionne
Ryan McKenzie
Keven Lacombe
Men's ITT
Dominique Rollin
Eric Smith
Men's Track
Madison: Ryan McKenzie & Keven Lacombe
Individual Pursuit: Ryan McKenzie
Points: Eric Smith
Sprint: Cam Evans
No Canadian women on the track as none qualified
Women's Road Race
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville
Women's ITT
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville
Men's MTB
Mathieu Toulouse
Ricky Federau
Women's MTB
Catherine Pendrel
This cluelessness now seems to extended even to High Performance Director Kris Westwood. I challenge anyone to read his explanation of things and translate what he means. Of course this stuff is WAY over the head of CCA Director General Lorraine Lafreniere. Lorraine what did Kris just explain??????
Oh, and by the way, the athletes going to the Games are also listed. The Canadian Cycling Association itself has not listed their own athletes going on their own web site….
Typical ! :
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html
June 20/07 10:00 am EDT - USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB
Posted by Editor on 6/20/07.
USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB
We had published last week a preliminary and unofficial list of Canadian athletes who will be attending the Pan Am Games (repeated below). The list did not contain any top mountain bikers because the event did not carry any UCI points ... or so we thought. USA Cycling then released its list of athletes for the Games, and stated that the mountain bike competition was a UCI event (C1), carrying ranking points. When we brought it to the attention of the CCA that there were UCI points available for mountain bike at the Games, we received an explanation from Kris Westwood, Director High Performance Programs. Below is the CCA response and the unofficial Canadian Games team.
CCA Response (Kris Westwood)
This came as a surprise as COPACI (Pan Am Games Association) had stated at last year's Pan Am congress that no UCI points would be awarded at the Games.
I checked with Peter van den Abeele at the UCI, and they used a completely different rationale to award points to Pan Am Games in mountain bike versus NOT awarding points to road and track.
The intent here is to give another points scoring opportunity to South American nations, as they have very few mountain bike events on the international calendar.
The argument for not giving points to road and track is that the Games have very limited participation through a restrictive qualification process, and there is also a Pan Am championship on the calendar so points couldn't be given to both events.
In the end, the former arguments won over the latter in mountain bike, and the opposite was the case in road and track. (Kris, WTF are you saying????? Sounds like you had no clue before and still have no clue now. Apparently spending too much time at the CCA makes you into an idiot)
This will not affect Canada in any way. Pan Am Games are on the calendar as a C1 event, an athlete can count a maximum of five C1 events to his or her points total, and our athletes have access to a ton of C1 events. Bromont, Tremblant, Hardwood and Canmore are all C1s, as are Sea Otter, Fontana, Park City and Banner Elk on the US calendar. Sending our top athletes to Pan Ams - even if it fit in their calendar - would be unlikely to increase our points total.
I would point out that Catharine Pendrel is now the third Canadian on the UCI rankings, so she will potentially contribute to our points total, though we don't have much to worry about on the women's side with all the points Marie-Hélène is earning.
Unofficial Canadian Games Team
Men's Road Race
Dominique Rollin
Charles Dionne
Ryan McKenzie
Keven Lacombe
Men's ITT
Dominique Rollin
Eric Smith
Men's Track
Madison: Ryan McKenzie & Keven Lacombe
Individual Pursuit: Ryan McKenzie
Points: Eric Smith
Sprint: Cam Evans
No Canadian women on the track as none qualified
Women's Road Race
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville
Women's ITT
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville
Men's MTB
Mathieu Toulouse
Ricky Federau
Women's MTB
Catherine Pendrel