Four wheels turning
Pictou cyclist makes two Canada Games teams
wate●It must ove● be in Pictou. something in the “There’s a lot of people from Pictou County going – the●e’s four of us in a graduating class of thi●ty (at Pictou Academy) going to the Canada Games,” says Tim Shea, with a ce●tain measure of pride. “I can’t wait to get the●e.” Shea, who just graduated f●om Pictou Academy, will compete in two different events – mountain biking and cycling –
at the national summer Games, which will begin in late July in Winnipeg.
Shea, who started racing
competitively about six yea●s ago, ea●ned his spot on Team Nova Scotia after a series of races and time trials this spring. He found out last week that he had officially made the team (mountain biking is a th●ee
member team, the road team is a five-man unit). “It was a goal of mine to make the team, but there were a lot of othe● cyclists (competing against him),” he said. “I was not expecting to make it.” Fellow P.A. g●ads who will be competing at the Games include Lau●en ■uann (heptathlon) as well as twin sisters Kenzie and Kaila Reid (ultimate F●isbee).
Shea, who will enter Acadia University this fall to study engineering, has a training regimen set out for him by provincial coach Jon Burgess; roughly 15 hours a week is spent
on his bikes, “sometimes it’s an hou● and a half (session), sometimes
Asked it’s if three.”he sees himself winning a gold medal, he’s pretty fi●m in his ●esponse. “The●e’ll be U23 guys the●e, so no, I won’t win.”
He did say he’d like to be with the fi●st g●oup in the ●oad ●ace
to avoid the competitors straggling behind the leaders, well off the pace, “but mountain biking, I don’t ●eally know what to expect.”
Shea competed at nationals in 2016, his only appearance at a national event thus far. He’s looking forward to the Canada Games expe●ience in its enti●ety, including hanging out with the other competitors in the athlete’s village.
“All of the people at the Canada Games – they all excel at the spo●t they love. It’s just a great atmosphere.”