Aidan Caves won the overall title in the men鈥檚 omnium at the Pan Am Track Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico on Oct. 9.听
The 21-year-old 麻豆传媒映画athlete triumphed in the six-race omnium after winning all three disciplines on the first day of the event to earn a a perfect record in the points tally.
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Caves continued his winning streak in the next two races, the 1000 metre time trial and flying lap. He entered the final points race with a commanding lead and took a conservative approach on the way to a third-place finish.听
He won the overall title with 246 points. Guatemala rider Julio Padilla finish second overall with 228 points, and the USA's Zak Kovalcik was third with 208 points.
The Pan Am competition is the continental championships and provides valuable points for obtaining starting positions at the world championships.
Caves was also on a record-setting pursuit squad, consisting of Adam Jamieson, Jay Lamoureux and Ed Veal. The team competed in the 4,000-metre final against Colombia and finished second with a time of three minutes, 59.931 seconds to set a Canadian record. Colombia's time of 3:55.362 was fast enough for a Pan Am Championship record.
"It feels good to finally get [the time] we've been trying to get all year, which is a sub-four minute ride," said Caves in a news announcement. "Now that we have broken that barrier, we'll have to see how far we can go. Our next step will be to repeat it."
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Aidan Caves finishes first in the Omnium at the after 6 races, collecting a total of 246 points
鈥� Cycling Canada (@CyclingCanada)
Cycling Canada sent a team of primarily development riders to expose them to international competition. Caves had represented Canada at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.听
"Because it is the end of the [Olympic] quad, we are refocusing on building our talent pool," said Jacques Landry, the organization's director of high performance. "We will be using the Pan Am Championships as a runway to get our programs ramping up again."
