Road cycling: United States and Canada won the places for Paris 2024

In Panama, the Pan-American Road Cycling Championship was held and the competition awarded places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: they were held by the United States and Canada thanks to the victories of Skyler Schneider and Pier-Andre Cote.

The American Schneider won the ticket to Paris among women by winning with a time of two hours, 48 minutes and eight seconds, after 102.4 kilometers of running.

“I am very happy. The competition brought together good runners, but we knew that the cyclist to win was Alison, because of what she had done in Paris-Roubaix,” said Schneider after the demanding test.

Canadian Alison Jackson started as the favorite after being the surprise at the traditional Paris-Roubaix but had to settle for the silver medal, while the Pan-American podium was completed by Chilean Catalina Soto.

For its part, the competition between men had a distance of 204.8 kilometers and the direct place for the Olympic Games was held by Canadian Pier-Andre Cote.

“It was a crazy race, it was very hot, I stayed well hydrated, with ice on my neck and focused on doing a great race,” explained the Pan-American champion, who needed four hours, 47 minutes and 53 seconds to cross the finish line.

Argentinian cyclist Germán Nicola Tivani finished in second place at the same time as Cote and another Canadian, Charles-Eti Chretien, finished the race in third place.

In addition to these two elite events with the space at stake for Paris 2024, the Pan-American Road Cycling Championship in Panama City had tests for the junior category and Colombia was the great dominator in that category.

The Colombian delegation led the medal table with 10 medals (four gold, five silver and one bronze), Chile won a total of seven (two gold, two silver and three bronze) and the podium was completed by the United States with two gold medals.

It should be noted that the places achieved are not nominal and each country will define the athlete who will represent them in the Olympic Games, where road cycling will have two specialties: individual time trial and running, both in men and women.

The time trial is scheduled for July 27, while the men’s road race will be held on August 3 and the next day it will be the women’s turn. In total there will be 180 competitors in Paris.

There are three ways to qualify for road races: the UCI World Road Ranking by Nations, the 2023 Elite Road World Championship and the 2023 Continental Championships (except for Europe and Oceania).