Annual Review - Olympic Oval - University of Calgary

Cycling
Coaches Message
2005 was a great year for the Olympic
Oval High Performance Cycling
Program. We have seen a changing of
the guard with three of Canada’s top
track athletes going on to compete on
the World stage - at the 2006
Commonwealth Games and the 2006
Track World Championships in Bordeaux,
France. Zach Bell, Cam
McKinnon and Travis Smith started as
development athletes in our cycling
program and are now knocking on the
door of the world’s best.
The athletes replacing them are the new
youth of the sport. Athletes aged 14 -17
make up the second larges group of
athletes in our National Cycling Centre
program. This Learn to Train group
focuses on all cycling abilities, having
fun and doing well in competition, with
races in every cycling discipline, road,
track, mountain biking and BMX.
A major success for the National
Cycling Centre at the Olympic Oval was
in June 2005 when we hosted the 2005
Tim Horton’s Canadian Track Nationals
at the Glenmore Velodrome. A record
number of participants turned out, with
110 athletes registered from all over
Canada. The event was a great
success with almost three-quarters of
the medals going to Olympic Oval
cyclists and the Olympic Oval was
named the CCA Track Event Organizer
of the Year.
We are now looking towards 2008 when
our athletes, veteran and developing,
will head to the Summer Olympics
in Beijing, China. In BMX, which will
debut at the Games, the Olympic Oval
Cycling Program is well positioned to
do well with the first-ever National BMX
Coach based here at the Olympic Oval
and Samantha Cools poised to do well.
Tanya Dubnicoff
Head Coach, Olympic Oval High
Performance Cycling Program
and National Cycling Centre, Calgary
Philip Abbot competes in the 2005 Track Nationals at the Glenmore Velodrome, hosted by the Olympic Oval. Photo by Arno Hoogveld.
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