Local cyclists chosen to represent Canada

Having one athlete represent Canada is already an honour, but a local indoor cycling academy in Hamilton is sending three athletes to the Junior World Championships in Switzerland.

In a month’s time, Victoria Slater, Ainsley Black and Kaitlyn Rauwerda will be swap their neon green suits for Canada red.

The girls were recruited in elementary school by the National Cycling Centre Hamilton through a program with their gym class. Their sports background varied but all shared one quality, even if it took a while to figure it out, and now, they’ll be racing against the best young cyclists from Germany, Russia and Australia.

These girls have already met the challenge of representing Canada at the world championships in Switzerland, now their next challenge is paying for it.

It’ll cost about $5,000 for each girl to compete.

Some riders have even started their own GoFundMe campaigns in order to compete.

Most of the girls are returning to high school next year but all plan on taking a gap year to literally ride out their junior seasons and then will figure out how far they really want to take this sport, none have ruled out the Olympics.