Local Cyclists Break Record at World Cup

They officially represent Canada, but Seal Beach residents can take a measure of pride in the Canadian athletes who broke a world record Friday in London at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in London, one of the last remaining Olympic qualifying events.

They are part of the Canadian national team, and they live and train for much of the year in Seal Beach.

Apparently, the training is working because on Friday, the Canadian Women - Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton, and Jasmine Glaesser - broke the world record for the Team Pursuit with a time of three minutes and 18.982 seconds. The record breaking time won them a silver medal as the Great Britain Team also broke the world record, coming in less than a second faster than the Canadian women.

“Any time you ride under the world record, you can be pretty happy,’’ 22-year old Carleton told Canada.com. “Setting a new Canadian record on top of what we did yesterday was absolutely fantastic. The British girls ran a great race, setting the new world record, so I think we were in great company.”

Canada's Women Team Pursuit program is coached by Seal Beach resident and three-time Olympian Tanya Dubnicoff. Along with the weather Dubnicoff, is a major part of the reason the Canadian athletes head south for their training. They live and workout in Seal Beach and ride at the Honda Center in Carson. In recent years, they have been Seal Beach fixtures at local haunts such as Taco Surf, but if things go right this weekend and in the coming months, they’ll head back to England for the 2012 Olympic summer Games.

The men’s sprint team came in 13^th, and cyclist Zach Bell finished with the best time in the men’s Omnium/Flying Lap on Friday. The World Cup will continue through Sunday.