Simon Trivett, 16, of Stratford has been selected to the Canadian junior road cycling team to compete in international races in Germany, Holland and Belgium in May.
The team he will be joining is comprised of 17-18-year-old riders from across Canada.
The other members of the team are Alex Cataford, 17, of Ottawa Ont, Olivier Delaney, 17, of Montreal, Que., Jeff Doyle, 18, of Victoria, B.C., Ty Andrews, 18, of Calgary, Alta., and Nigel Ellsay, 17, of Comox, B.C.
Trivett will be the youngest to participate, and the first Islander to be chosen for team Canada in road racing in more than a decade.
The Canadian junior team will be in Europe from May 3-30. The major races the team has entered are the three-day stage race at Etappen Germany (www.int3etappen.de) and the Three days of Axel in the Netherlands (www.juniorendriedaagse.nl/welcome).
Each of these races will bring together almost 200 elite junior cyclists representing 13 countries. Each day, the riders undertake nearly 140 kilometre rides at average speeds in excess of 40 km/h.
The junior racers will be training in Belgium with the national cycling team coaches and U-23 elite athletes for the month of May.
Trivett has been bicycle racing for four years on P.E.I. In 2010, he joined the Atlantic Cycling Centre (Dieppe) team and competed in cadet level races in Quebec. In his first major off-island competition, the 2010 Tour de Rimouski, he finished fifth overall out of 89 Canadian and American racers and second in the King Of the Mountain points class.
Trivett started riding with the Rigid Riders mountain bike club of Brookvale in 2008. He has twice been awarded the junior Male Athlete of the year by Cycling P.E.I., and has set the overall course record for the King of Kinkora race on P.E.I., and has won every other road and mountain bike race in the P.E.I. cycling calender at least once in the past two seasons.
He has twice completed the one-day 278 km Biking for Breakfast Challenge ride from North Cape to East Point, finishing with the lead group of adult cyclists.
He has been supported in his racing by the Atlantic Cycling Centre coach Luc Arseneau, Cycling P.E.I. and Sport P.E.I., as well as Smooth Cycle and Outer Limit Sports.
P.E.I. cyclists are a close-knit and supportive group. Many individuals in the P.E.I. cycling community have helped Trivett to develop as a rider, in particular Jared Stretch, Luke MacDonald, Andrew Scott, Ryan Taylor, Duncan Sturz, Corey Jay, Harvey Chandler, Bruce MacPherson, Mark Bowlan and Mike Connolly.
Trivett currently is in Grade 11 at Charlottetown Rural and works part-time at Outer Limit Sports building and repairing bicycles.
