'This is definitely a big deal'
Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria describes the scene in Brest, a town on the Brittany coast where the 95th Tour de France
begins today, as being "like the Stanley Cup final crossed with the Super Bowl."
And thrown right into the swirling centre of this surreal sporting cauldron is Hesjedal, who will become the first Canadian to race the Tour since Gord Fraser of Ottawa in 1997.
"The whole town is crazy with people coming in and it's exciting to be a part of," said Hesjedal, who will race for the Colorado-based Garmin-Chipotle pro team.
And it's not like Hesjedal is some gee-whiz neophyte. He is a rider who went into the 2004 Athens Summer Games as a mountain-biking favourite after winning silver at the 2003 world championships. After the three-week Tour, he will represent Canada again by riding the road race and time trial at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"I've been to a lot of events, but there's only one Tour de France when it comes to pro stage races. It remains special."
It certainly does, despite the drug stain of recent years. The Garmin-Chipotle team goes out of its way, in all its media releases, to make it known that it has taken a strong stance against drugs.
The allure of the most famous bike race in the world has been fractured in recent years, yet is showing amazing resilience. Hesjedal's team was known as Slipstream-Chipotle as recently as last month in the Giro D'Italia, the second-greatest stage race in the world. But once the squad qualified for the Tour de France, the offers poured in and the team was rebranded when Garmin, a GPS navigation company, became title sponsor.
"They quickly changed the colours and signage on everything -- jerseys, bikes, clothes and vehicles," said Hesjedal, of an event that is both a whirlwind of marketing as well as racing.
"This is how fast things move that this level. This is definitely a big deal. I'm proud of myself that I've gotten to this point. This is only my fourth season on the road after switching from mountain biking. Hopefully, this is the first of many Tours for me."
Hesjedal was one of only four Chipotle riders to finish the Giro, so it was a foregone conclusion he would be named to the pro team's nine-member unit that will contest the Tour de France. The team has 23 riders overall.
Being named to the team for the Tour is only part of the battle. In pro cycling, some team members are invariably asked to sacrifice their individual aspirations to pull along a leading team member.
"We've had team meetings, and coaches are watching all nine riders and we'll come up with a plan and an idea of how we're going to approach the Tour," said Hesjedal.
"We'll look, and see, and then decide who has the best opportunity to go for it (individual glory)."
(c) The Edmonton Journal 2008
Bracks to head cycle championship body
Former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks will chair the steering committee for the 2010 road cycling world championships in Melbourne and Geelong.
Premier John Brumby announced the steering committee and also confirmed that Melbourne will replace Sydney as host of the Australian round of the World Cup track series for the next three years.
The world road titles will be held in October 2010 and will be the biggest cycling event ever held in Australia.
In world cycling, the road world titles are even bigger than the Olympics and second only to the Tour de France in importance.
Sydney has hosted the Australian round of the track World Cup for the last seven years, but Melbourne's Vodafone Arena will be the venue from November 20-22.
Cycling Australia has known for some time that this country will host the road world championships and the appointment of the steering committee is the next major step in planning for the event.
"This is going to be a revelation for people in Australia... it will be the biggest cycling event ever held in Australia," Bracks said.
The Formula One grand prix start line at the inner Melbourne suburb of Albert Park will be the start and finish line for the road time trials.
The time trial will go along Beach Road, a popular Melbourne cycling route.
The road races will be staged on a 16km circuit at Geelong and organisers are boasting that it will be the toughest course yet seen for a world championship road race.
As well as senior men and women, the road championships will also have under 23 events.
Australian cycling star Cadel Evans, who finished second last year at the Tour de France, also was fifth in the road race at the 2007 world championships.
"It's an honour and great opportunity for Melbourne and Geelong to be the focus of the cycling world for what is the pinnacle of my sport - the battle for the coveted rainbow jersey," Evans said in a statement.
In cycling, world champions are awarded a white jersey with a rainbow coloured strip across it.
Copyright (c) 2008. The Sydney Morning Herald.
Contador: I wanted to win
Alberto Contador (Astana) said he was forced to approach yesterday's wet time trial with caution, but had really been aiming to win the important stage. The Spaniard laid down an impressive effort which claimed his second place on the stage, just eight seconds behind winner Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre).
"I tried to win the stage, that was my first objective," said Contador. "Believe me, without the rain, I would have been the winner. I didn't dare to take risks in the end. The last 500 meters on the cobblestones were very slippery as well. Anyway, afterwards I am happy with the time I gained today."
While Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) has admitted to being impressed with his general classification rival's performance, others foresaw the rider's strong ride. Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval - Scott) said at a press conference on Monday's rest day that he had the Spaniard figured out.
Contador claimed his impressive second place with a fractured elbow, which was uncovered during x-rays on Monday's rest day. Following the discovery of Contador's injury, the team was casting doubt over his ability to even obtain the correct time trial, which threatened to affect his ability to remain in general classification contention.
"My elbow? In the beginning it bothered me a bit, but the further we went in the stage, the better I felt," he said. "My second part of the time trial was indeed much better: the elbow, the legs and the performance.
"I do not want to make provisions for the future," he added. "I feel better and better but I have no idea what I can do in the big mountain stages. I have to repeat: we will see day after day."
While Contador is talking a cautious game, his Astana squad holds an impressive position in the general classification. Contdaor's German team-mate Andreas Kloden claimed third place on yesterday's time trial, putting him in a strong position on general classification which leaves the squad with two cards to play as the Grand Tour's big mountain stages near.
"[Today's] is a very hard, very hard," said Contador. "So my tactic is simple: wait for developments and see how I go in the first mountain stage compared to riders who are in better shape than I."
Contdaor sits 6.59 minutes behind race leader Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) in fourth position, while Klöden is just two positions and 55 seconds behind him. Both riders are ahead of Di Luca and Ricco, while American team-mate Levi Leipheimer isn't too far down the order in 14th spot, 9.10 minutes behind Visconti ahead of the mountain stages.
The team's strong presence on general classification comes despite having virtually no prepartion time for the Italian Grand Tour. Astana had just one week to prepare a squad for the Italian race and arrive at the event's start in Palermo. The squad had been left out of the event as Giro organiser RCS Sport stood with Tour de France organiser ASO in boycotting the team following a tumultuous 2007.
RCS Sport changed its stance against the team following a string of early season successes that has seen the squad take the ProTour teams ranking lead. Astana took the place of NGC Medical-OTC Industria Porte, which had originally been named to compete in the event.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Carney happy with KBS/Medifast improvement
Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast team director Jonas Carney says he's delighted with the outfit's progress, after claiming four podiums in American races last week. The past week has been action-packed in the American racing scene, with team participating in the Tour of Gila, USA Crits Speedweek, USAF Cycling Classic and the Sunny King and Roswell Criteriums.
"Our guys are riding aggressively and we're only going to get stronger as the season continues," said Carney. "Crystal City was an interesting race. We made some last minute strategy shifts from Martin to Alex for the sprint. It almost gave us the win, but we're happy to be on the podium four times in the last week."
Alex Candelario took his third podium of the week at the Crystal City Classic in Arlington, Virginia. The result followed on from a win at the USA Crits Speedweek event in Greenwood and a third place at the Downtown Waterboro Criterium.
"It is important that our team can react quickly and change up the plan at such critical points of the race," added Carney. "In competitive racing the field can change in a second so it's crucial to be able to respond rapidly. It's also a real mark of our team that our guys can start with a game plan, switch strategies and still end up on the podium."
Keven Lacombe's third place finish in the Beaufort Criterium was the team's fourth podium for the week. The team's next races will be Bank of America Wilmington, Delaware and the Mt. Hood Stage Race in Oregon the same week.
Several other American NRC teams enjoyed a successful, albeit busy, week. Colavita/Sutter Home's Tina Pic was one example, winning the Beaufort Memorial Cycling Classic on Tuesday, Uptown Greenwood Pro Cycling Challenge on Thursday, Steadman Hawkins Cycling Classic on Friday, Sunny King Criterium on Saturday and the Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge on Sunday.
Copyrigth Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Canadian Murray wins Richards Bay event to capture first triathlon World Cup event
1 day ago
RICHARDS BAY, South Africa - Edmonton's Carolyn Murray won the Richards Bay BG Triathlon on Sunday for her first career World Cup victory.
Murray's previous best World Cup result was eighth in Corner Brook, N.L., in 2005. Murray can guarantee herself a spot on the Canadian Olympic squad with a top-eight finish at the world championship in Vancouver on June 8.
"This is something I've been dreaming of forever," said Murray.
Murray became the second straight Canadian to win this event. Victoria's Kirsten Sweetland won it last year but chose not to defend her title.
Montreal's Kathy Tremblay was fourth. Both Murray and Tremblay moved into the top-10 of the world rankings: Tremblay to No. 8, two spots ahead of Murray.
Vancouver's Lauren Groves finished 13th.
Kyle Jones of Oakville, Ont., had a career-best fourth-place finish in the men's event, which was won by German world champion Daniel Unger.
Murray's race didn't start well. She finished the swim portion one minute 15 seconds behind the leader, American Sarah Groff. But Murray was able to catch the leaders in the cycling event and move back into contention.
"I had to work my butt off on the bike and it paid off," she said. "I really had a terrible swim and I didn't realize how far back I was until I got to the bikes and there weren't any left.
"I knew if I didn't do anything to get up to the race was over. I had to go for it. On the run I thought, 'This is game on. Today is my day and I'm going for it.' "
Just before the halfway mark of the 10-kilometre run, Murray took a lead of four seconds on Tremblay and Magali Di Marco of Switzerland, the 2000 Olympic bronze medallist. Australian Felicity Abram came on strong late in the race, but Murray was able to hold on to register the three-second win over Abram. Di Marco was third.
Copyright (c) 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
O'Dea diary: Testing the new bikes
The new bikes are finished and ready to race! We decided to build them up and do a "test race" on them immediately (as in the next day). We would say that they passed!
The race was Cohutta 100, the first race of the NUE series, but with the 24 hours of Vail Lake following one week later, we decided to race the shorter versions the 65 mile race (Eddie) and the 35 mile race (Namrita) to shorten the recovery time. While it isn't ideal to race with brand new equipment, we didn't have a choice. We did get in a pre-ride of a small piece of the race course on Friday.
The weather was 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) and sunny, and the trails were in perfect shape. However, I felt horrible! I was really nervous because my legs couldn't climb, and I just generally didn't feel prepared to race. I had never raced any length of time under six hours, so the 35 mile race was definitely an unknown for me. Eddie said to not worry, though, because the "worse you feel the day before the race, the better you feel during the race". I'm not sure if that is true or not, but I decided to go with those words of wisdom anyway. Fast forward to race day...
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Flater's cycling horizons inflating
By Don Bodger - Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial - April 26, 2008
Duncan's Evan Flater is pushing his pedals to the medal to become the very best cyclist possible.
The commitment of Flater, 17, a Grade 12 Frances Kelsey School student, is commendable but he's in a sport that's severely underfunded and underappreciated in Canada.
That's not stopping him from the experience of a lifetime when he heads to Europe May 4 with the Junior national team for staging in Normandy, France.
"We're staying there as a team, getting to know each other," said Flater. "We'll be training from there and maybe doing some regional races.
"The goal of the Junior national team project is to do this Nations Cup. It's like a World Cup, a year-long series of the biggest races and we're competing as Team Canada."
That will include an appearance in the Trofeo Karlsberg event in Germany May 22 to 25.
Since he'll be in Europe already, Flater has decided to do an extension of the tour with another Team Canada and Team B.C. member to include the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland.
Provincial head coach Richard Wooles formerly worked at the centre and knows how important it will be for Flater's development. He'll be there from May 26 until June 4 before returning home.
It's a good thing Flater has his schooling requirements under control before graduating or the trip wouldn't be happening.
"I'm really glad I went to Kelsey," Flater said of the self-paced system. "I couldn't have done it."
He also missed 20 days in February to attend a two-and-a-half week training camp in Palm Springs.
The Junior national team trip is self-funded. The cost for Flater is $1,564 plus airfare and he's still hopeful of attracting sponsorship that will allow him to pedal a company or business name during all his endeavours.
"We're like riding billboards which is good for companies," said Flater.
"Our Team B.C. has funded us a little bit - Cycling B.C. and mostly my family. Cycling's an expensive sport - travelling and equipment."
It's also still given relatively little attention in Canada despite the incredible sacrifices athletes like Flater are making to represent their country.
"Not many people know about cycling," said Flater. "It's not a big sport in Canada. In Europe, it's huge."
Flater has a busy summer of racing coming up that includes two trips to Quebec and qualifying for the Junior World Championships in South Africa.
Flater got pre-selected for the national team project based on last year's third-place finish at nationals. Road racing is his specialty and short-term goals include winning the Junior road nationals.
Long-term, Flater is setting his sights on winning the Canada Games road race as a U23 next year, the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics.
It'll take a lot of hard work to get there and Flater isn't under any illusions if things go awry.
"You have to continue progressing," he said. "But I'll know when to quit. I don't want to be a washed-up athlete."
(c) Copyright Black Press. All rights reserved.
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