A local cycling athlete is back on the podium with another gold medal as Tristen Chernove took another championship title at a UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup event in Quebec this past weekend.
Chernove won first place in the men’s C2 road race in Baie-Comeau, finishing by just over two minutes ahead of the peloton, the pack of cyclists that trailed his lead.
The Cranbrook-based athlete finished his World Cup season in second overall place in the men’s C2 rankings, despite only competing in three of the six World Cup events.
Chernove said he was grateful for his performance on home soil and praised his teammates and fellow competitors.
“Super nice to win solo off the front and witness such great results from my teammates too,” Chernove wrote on a Facebook post. “Thank you to all the other athletes, Cycling Canada staff, supporters, organizers, and community of Baie-Comeau for making it happen! Congratulations Arslan Gilmutinov on taking the overall World Cup points leader jersey.”
Sebastien Travers, the head coach for the Para Cycling Canada team, raved about his athletes’ performance.
“It was a really, really good World Cup for us,” said Travers. “Twelve medals is a new record for the Para group, and it is comprised of medals from the High Performance and the NextGen groups, which is exactly what we hoped for. The athletes that came on board for this event showed a lot of potential, and we can be assured we will see more of them in the coming years.
“Points-wise, we are in a good position; we have already earned a spot for the Paralympics, so things are looking good. Of course, 2019 and 2020 are still part of the qualification process, so we have to make sure we are qualifying as many spots as we can for the Games. I’m happy and proud of everyone, and it was a good event for us.”
Combining road race and time trial events, Chernove finished the World Cup season with two gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze.
Next up will be some racing on the national stage, before heading to the velodrome and track season in September.
