Tristen Chernove defended his men’s C2 world championship road race title at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships this past weekend in Europe, beating out 12 other riders to collect gold.
The Cranbrook-based cycling athlete reached the top of the podium after a field sprint at the end of a 68 kilometre race in Maniago, Italy, on Sunday.
“I had a ton of confidence coming in here,” said Chernove, according to a Cycling Canada press release. “Although I spent a lot of time on the front, I felt like I was in control. I just wanted to stay safe, pick my line and stay out of hazard’s way. I was surging and keeping control of the pace and making the others hurt. Then it got tactical when I needed to recover for my sprint.”
Chernove solidified his spot at the top of the podium with a sprint at the end of the race course.
“I knew I’d be sprinting from a slower speed, so I wanted to be first wheel on the final corner on the cobbles,” said Chernove. “I pretty much rode to my plan and it came out great. I came to the Worlds really wanting to win the road race. I was willing to do anything to win and was super happy the way it turned out.”
READ: Cranbrook’s Tristen Chernove kicks off World Cup season with medal performances
Two days earlier, Chernove kicked off his world championship with a silver medal performance in the time trial portion of the world championship. He finished the race at 18:38.36 seconds — just five seconds behind gold medallist Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia.
Chernove’s two medals added to a total of four golds, two silvers, and one bronze for Canadian athletes.
Sebastien Travers, the Head Para Coach at Cycling Canada, said the team performed well in a field of ever-increasing international competition.
“I’m glad to see we can keep up,” Travers said. “Our athletes have achieved key performances which have led to high results both in terms of medals and qualification points. It’s above expectations for the level we are currently at.
“We come out of this world championships very satisfied with where we are two years from the [Tokyo 2020] Games. Besides the medals, we’re having top-5 and top-8 performances from our newcomers, which shows that our NextGen coaches are doing a great job.”
