Tristen Chernove is heading back to the Para cycling road world championships at the end of the month.
The Cranbrook para-athlete, who won three medals in cycling events at the Paralympics last year, will lead a 13-member team to South Africa from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 that was unveiled by Cycling Canada on Wednesday.
Chernove is no stranger to the cycling world championships, having participated in and won events on the road and on the track over the last few years.
Chernove captured a gold, silver and bronze medals at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro while leading Team Canada to nine podium appearances.
Team Canada head coach Sebastien Travers said his group is looking forward to getting back into competition.
“We are impatient to compete against the top international elite athletes,” Travers said. “This will be the first major event since the Rio Paralympic Games in September last year. The Canadian team is composed of very strong athletes and we are really looking forward to seeing them perform and step onto the podium in Pietermaritzburg.”
Other members of Team Canada include Ross Wilson (C1) of Sherwood Park, B.C., Charles Moreau (H3) of Victoriaville, Que., and Michael Sametz (C3), of Calgary, all of whom nabbed medals at the Rio Paralympics.
The men’s team also includes Alexander Hyndman of Morpeth, Ont., and Joey Desjardins of Hawkesbury, Ont., both H3, and the tandem team of Matthieu Croteau Daigle of Sherbrooke and his pilot Benoit Lussier of Montreal.
The women’s squad is led by Rio bronze medalist and multiple world champion Shelley Gautier of Toronto in the T1 category. Other women on the team include Marie-Claude Molnar (C4) of St-Hubert, Que., Nicole Clermont (C5) St Denis de Brompton, Que., and the tandem team of Shawna Ryan of Saskatoon and Joanie Caron of Rimouski, Que.
Missing from the squad are former world and Paralympic champion Robbi Weldon of Thunder Bay, Ont., and her tandem pilot Audrey Lemieux of Alma, Que., who had to decline their selection as they recover from a crash at a World Cup earlier in the season.
