Canada's team at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara at the Pan American Games, Oct. 18, 2011.Reuters/Reuters
Canada won gold in the women's team pursuit at the UCI Pan-American Championships on Monday.
Vancouver's Laura Brown and Stephanie Roorda, along with Allison Beveridge of Calgary defeated Venezuela in the final with a time of three minutes 33.540 seconds in the outdoor concrete track.
"We qualified second this morning next to Venezuela but we had so much to improve on that it was a motivating position to be in," said Brown. "We reassessed our race plan and came up with something new and executed it perfectly. Anytime you nail a team pursuit, it feels pretty amazing."
The performance in Argentina will help Canada secure a spot for the 2012 Olympic Games. Canada was seventh in the UCI Olympic standings, thanks to a silver medal performance posted during the Olympic Test event in London.
The points earned in Argentina will allow Canada to head into the UCI World Championships without worrying about times and results, but to focus instead on improving on the technical aspects The 2012 UCI World Championships will be the last time the Canadian women's team pursuit will race prior to the Olympic Games.