Pier-André Coté (Canada) won the gold medal in the men’s road race at the Pan American Championships in Panama on Sunday.
Coté won in a small group sprint and crossed the finish line ahead of Argentina’s Nicolás Tivani, who won the silver medal, while Charles-Étienne Chrétien, also from Canada, took the bronze medal.
Victory for Coté came just 24 hours after his 26th birthday. He was part of the decisive break of nine drivers with two laps to go on the 12.8-kilometre track. The men completed 15 laps of a circuit in Panama City with a total length of 204.8 km.
“I never thought we could beat the Colombians, but when the last leak occurred, my teammate and I just set out to be successful,” he said after the finish. Both Canadian riders are part of the Human Powered Health trading team.
The men’s road race closed the 37th edition of the Pan American Road Cycling Championships, held for the first time in Central America.
On Saturday, Skylar Schneider took the gold medal for the United States in the women’s 102 km road race, held at the same circuit. She passed Canada’s Alison Jackson and Chile’s Catalina Anais Soto.
In the time trial, Neben clinched a gold medal for the United States in Tuesday’s women’s event when she defeated Chilean rider Aranza Villalón while Jackson finished third.
Colombia won the men’s time trial 2-1, with Walter Vargas taking gold and Miguel Ángel López taking silver, while Bermuda’s Kaden Hopkins took bronze.
The Continental Championships are a key qualifying tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
There are only 88 spots for the men’s and women’s road races and allocation is based on the UCI World Road Rankings by Nations for the year leading up to the Olympics.
CANADÁ 🇨🇦 CELEBRA TRIUNFO Y CLASIFICACIÓN A PARIS 2024Pier-Andre Cote se quedó with el Primer Lugar 🥇 with 4 hours 47 minutes. Segundo Germán Tivani 🇦🇷 🥈 y tercero🥉 Charles-Etienne Chretien 🇨🇦 en el Panamericano de Ciclismo Ruta.Pier André Coté clasifica a @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/eW0cwGPVthApril 24, 2023
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