Kirchmann, Canuel lead Canadian women's team at Doha World Championships

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Cycling Canada on Tuesday announced the team of 17 athletes that will represent Canada at the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in the women, men and under-23 men categories. The event is held in Doha, Qatar, between October 9-16.

The women's road race squad includes national champion Annie Foreman-Mackey, Rio Olympians Leah Kirchmann (Liv-Plantur), a prominent sprinter who was second overall in the Women’s WorldTour final standings, and Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels Dolmans), along with European-based professional Joelle Numainville (Cervelo Bigla), Alison Jackson (Twenty16) and Sara Bergen. Canuel will also compete in the time trial.

The elite men's road race team of six riders is one of the largest ever sent to the road world championships by Canada. One WorldTour rider will participate in the project: Rio Olympian Hugo Houle (AG2R), along with Direct Energie duo Antoine Duchesne, who was also at the Olympics, and Ryan Anderson. They will be joined by Canadian time trial champion Ryan Roth, Guillaume Boivin and Adam de Vos. Roth and Houle will also compete in the time trial.

The under-23 men's squad of five riders is the largest contingent that Canada has qualified for this category. Led by three-time under-23 national champion Benjamin Perry, the team also includes Alec Cowan, David Drouin, Sean MacKinnon and Nicolas Masbourian. Cowan and MacKinnon will also raced in the time trial.

The team will meet in Israel on September 25 for a training camp ahead of the championships event, made possible by the financial contributions of the Bridge the Gap fund and Sylvan Adams, a former Montreal businessman now living in Tel Aviv, who also backs the Cycling Academy Team, an Israeli-based Professional Continental team.

"The training camp in Israel has been designed to simulate the terrain, wind conditions, and hot temperatures the riders will face at the World championships in Doha, Qatar," said Sylvan Adams.

"The Canadian men's Elite, U23 and women's national teams will train with their Israeli counterparts, building new bonds of friendship and collaboration between the athletes, their National cycling bodies, the coaches and support staff, and ultimately on a higher level, the countries of my two nationalities, Canada and Israel. I look forward to further collaborations between the two programs in the future, including more training camps in Israel, which has fantastic terrain, weather, and people."