July 2/08 2:23 am - Canada gets Madison Spot for Beijing

Posted by Editoress on 07/2/08
 

Although the official announcement will be made tomorrow regarding who the Madison team (CC Daily News: June 24/08 10:30 am EDT - Canada Likely to Get Madison Spot at Olympics) will be comprised of Beijing, the "cat is out of the bag" according to an article in the Vancouver Province. In a story about last night's Yaletown Grand Prix, won by Svein Tuft there is the following: ""I get motivated for this because it's a local race," he said. "My family is here and I look at it as a chance to put in a really hard effort and get some training. You gain a lot from stuff like this. If you ride all day on the front and hit it hard you get a lot of fitness from that," added Tuft, who got a measure of satisfaction Tuesday after finding out a few days ago that he won't get to race the Madison in Beijing.

Tuft and Symmetrics teammate Zack Bell earned Canada an Olympic Madison spot by winning the race -- a two-man track event -- at the Pan American championships earlier this year in Montevideo, Uruguay. But a Canadian Cycling Association committee voted 4-1 to select Montreal's Martin Gilbert instead of Tuft to ride with Bell in Beijing.

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