For real bike-y news, look elsewhere. For news worthy of the gossip rags, keep reading...
Lance has done it again! What? He's done what? Amazingly, Lance Armstrong is going to be a dad again. According to various media reports, Lance and his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, are pregnant and expecting in June. And the miracle, for those of you who didn't read "It's Not About the Bike" is that Lance and Anna have reproduced without needing artificial, ummm, help. Lance and his first wife Kirsten needed to use frozen sperm due to Lance's testicular cancer and subsequent recovery. So we can now assume that at age 37 he is 100% recovered! Kid #4 is reportedly coming in June, just in time for the comeback at the Tour de France...
Okay, Lance is back. You already know that. But in October, there was lots of speculation that he might not ride in the Tour de France. Last week, at Team Astana's training camp, he ended a little bit of speculation by announcing last week that he WILL be doing the 2009 Tour de France. Remember, he has already committed to the Giro d'Italia in May. And the Tour's organizer seems to have a problem with him doing the race. But, Lance is coming back to France, so the big question is now who Team Astana will have try to win the race. Lance did say that he would ride for Alberto Contador, but Lance doesn't seem like the "let someone else win in Paris: type. So we will see. Speaking of Lance and Team Astana, this team should go down as one of the strongest teams in recent history. They still have Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden, and Yaroslav Popovych , plus Alexander Vinokourov coming on board in 2009 as well. So they should be really strong in all 3 Grand Tours. I'm already looking forward to the Giro. Actually, the team is keeping Lance and Alberto separate until July, with Lance starting with the Tour Down Under in Australia in January. Contador is going to use the same schedule he used in 2007, when he won the Tour. The two guys appeared friendly and cordial at last week's press conference, but it remains to be seen how nice they'll play when the time comes.
A few media reports are saying that Lance was way stronger than Contador on a big hill climb during the training camp. But since Contador has been off since a September crash and had septum surgery last week, I don't think that really means anything. Plus Lance is not coming off a taxing season, he is coming off three years off and a big fall getting into shape. Interesting, Lance has already spent time in the wind tunnel AND in the velodrome. And hasn't had any celebrity girlfriends.
So that's the latest on Lance. Hopefully he can stay out of the headlines until he starts racing in January...
Okay, moving on to some big news in the ITU World. Last week they finally announced their World Championship Series for 2009. A quick recap, instead of just having a typical World Cup schedule with a World Championship somewhere along the way, the ITU has decided to create a new format where 7 World Championship Series Events and one Grand Finale. Starting in May next year, the ITU is holding these marquee events in Singapore, Washington, Madrid, Kitzbuhel, Hamburg, Yokohama, and London. They will then hold a grand finale in Australia in September. I'm still not sure if the winner in Australia will become the World Champion or if there is some point system to determine an overall Champion. But the bottom line is the ITU and their sponsors have $2 million in prize money for these 7 events, guaranteeing them top-flight fields for these 8 events.
The ITU also named it's 2008 World Cup Champions, which merits just a brief mention. WIth Beijing being the focus, hardly anyone raced a lot in 2008. Regardless, Sam Warriner (New Zealand) and Javier Gomez (Spain) were the World Cup winners. Warriner won by default, since Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes only raced three times each (Warriner raced six times). She did win two races, but Snowsill won all three of her World Cup starts. Hmmm. Regardless, $40,000 bonus for Warriner.
The men's ratings were less controversial, since Gomez didn't lose one of his 5 World Cup races. (Unfortunately, his one loss came in the Olympics.) Again, the ratings are skewed since Simon Whitfield only raced 3 times and placed 10th, while Daniel Unger only raced twice (and won them both) and finished 18th. I sure hope the 2009 World Championship Series can address these problems and hopefully the top guys and girls race against each other a bit more often.
For the record, Simon Whitfield finished 10th overall and Paul Tichelaar was 16th. Canada's top woman in 2008 was Kathy Tremblay in 29th (where are you Ms. Sweetland?).
Yes, I have been off the grid for a couple of weeks, but just like elite athletes, even bloggers need a vacation here and there. So I'm back, fully refreshed, and have been busy catching up on...ummm, nothing. There has been very little happening in the world of pro endurance sports in the last couple of weeks (and probably very little in the next few weeks either), so I will be able to concentrate on a bunch of updates in the Doping World.
First off, the American Pro Cycling teams (at least Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle) really turned the corner in 2008 by using an independant lab to help with out-of-competition doping tests. Both of them used ACE (Agency of Cycling Ethics), which sampled riders blood and urine every two weeks throughout the season. This extra-testing might have worked as a deterrent, since neither Columbia or Garmin had a positive test in 2008. So where is the news here? Well, ACE has gone out of business. Whoops. So now Columbia and Garmin are scrambling to find an alternative. The good news is that there are other programs out there, including one that runs the anti-doping for CSC and another that Lance Armstrong has hooked up with to run his own testing in 2009. Keep in mind that the UCI and other cycling governing bodies do their own testing, and this "extra" independant is just on top of the normal testing. But I do think that teams should be commended for finally taking charge of making sure their riders are clean...
Speaking of drug testing, UK Sport wants to improve its drug testing in advance of the 2012 Olympics and has planned a new state-of-the-art antidoping agency. But they too are running into funding problems, which is annoying the IOC. It seems the UK government is upset at how much money it costs to transition to the new system. No offense, but the government will find out how "expensive" it is if some of their athletes manage to slip through the cracks and then get caught at the London Olympics.
The Olympics ended over 3 months ago, but the doping tests live on. It is estimated that over 1000 tests are still pending, and this week the IOC announced they are testing the blood samples for insulin and for various EPO forms. This articles claims that each test for CERA costs $250 and each test for insulin costs $200. But for now, there have been only 6 positive tests at the Beijing Olympics. Out of 10500 athletes. The Tour de France caught 4 cyclists. Out of 189. So either the cyclists cheat way more, or the Olympics can't catch the cheaters. You decide.
I was actually wondering if I could find a website or a blog that outlined all the 2008 cycling doping violations. I couldn't find one, but old Wikipedia came through with a nice list. According to them, there were 13 ProTour cyclists to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. This doesn't include Tom Boonen (cocaine) or other riders who might've been suspended for suspicious blood values. But interestingly, 10 of the 13 were either EPO or CERA (new version of EPO). So that appears to be the drug of choice. But hopefully the peloton is getting cleaner.
As of right now, no cyclists or no Olympians have tested positive for HGH, which this article claims "many experts believe is widespread in sport". So why no positives? Well, the current HGH test is only able to detect use within the last 30 hours. So that is a problem. Actually, all the talk about Marion Jones, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, etc getting caught using HGH is actually based on people admitting they took the drug or finding records of them taking it or ordering it. No one gets caught using it. Very interesting. I still find it unbelievable that no one can come up with a better test. But then again, maybe no one would be able to afford the new test...
However, by 2012 we might not be talking about HGH or EPO or whatever the newest drug might be. According to some, gene doping (or genetic manipulation) is just over the horizon. According to researchers, athletes are constantly badgering them with questions about this new technique, which currently gets used in mice and dogs. This is the future, and of course, it would not be a surprise if some enterprising scientists are already providing this service to athletes. Something to watch for as time goes on...
Two quick updates...the Ironman 70.3 Worlds were kind of a snoozer, with both races being won on the bike. Joanna Zeiger, who has been around forever (she was 4th at the Olympics way back in 2000) had a great race and won her first world title. The Clearwater course was uber-fast (or uber-short) this year as Zeiger did the course in a world best time of 4h02m. Not bad for a 38-year old! She won easily over two other American women (Mary Beth Ellis and Becky Lavelle). Top Canadian was Angela Naeth in 8th. The men's race was won by Terrenzo Bozzone, who redeemed himself from getting cut from the New Zealand Olympic Team by cruising to a win in 3h40m. Yep, 3 hours and 40 minutes. Ridiculous. Actually the top 4 men finished within 2 minutes, but there was not too much drama in the race. Too bad. Second place went to Andreas Raelert from Germany, while pre-race fave Andy Potts struggled to 6th. Top Canadian was Brent McMahon, who capped a busy three month stretch by finishing 8th. Quite a year for McMahon, whose 2008 has included just missing the Canadian Olympic Team, collapsing at the finish line at the NYC Triathlon (but still finished in top 5), won the Canadian Triathlon Championships, finished third at Xterra Worlds, and then was top 10 at 70.3 Worlds. Solid Year for Brent!!
Actually both Joanna Zeiger and Andreas Raelert decided to recover from their solid 70.3 races by doing Ironman Arizona last weekend. Zeiger actually lead until Mile 8 on the run, when her stomach problems made her drop out. Leanda Cave took the lead, but couldn't hold on to the win. That went to Heleen Van de Vaat, who ran a 3h07m marathon to win her first Ironman. The men's race was similarly a race of attrition, with Kieren Doe and Chris Lieto in front at various points on the run. But Doe got blisters, took off his shoes and ran barefoot for multiple miles before dropping out, while Lieto couldn't hold off the hard-charging Raelart. Raelart's 2h46m marathon was easily the fastest of the day and concludes a nice couple of weeks for him. Second at 70.3 worlds, a first career Ironman Win, and a guaranteed Kona spot make for an impressive November! Canadians placed 10th in both races (Christine Fletcher and Chris Brown). Last thing this week...the IAAF gave their 2008 Athlete of the Year awards this week. Not surprisingly, Usain Bolt won the Top Male award, and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva won the Female Award. Bolt was unbelievable, losing only once all year (by 0.01 in Stockholm in July) and had a 3-gold-medals, 3-world-records performance in Beijing. Isinbayeva also only lost once this year, and also set a plethora of world records including one on her last vault in Beijing. Isinbayeva also made headlines this week for saying that "every female on the track has a duty to be nice-looking and womanly". I'm not sure if she's talking about her rivals or just trying to attract more male fans, but she can at least back up her talk...
Late Wednesday I was making a list of everything that would be included in this week's update, and was pleasantly surprised (or shocked) that I hadn't heard any news this week about doping...and then woke up Thursday to news that 8 Russians had tested positive (mostly for EPO). It turns out that 6 of the 8 are race-walkers...so maybe they don't really belong in a BIKEY blog, but the fact that more Russians got caught are spreading a pretty big shadow over all that country's athletes. The other part that worries me is that you had 7 Russian female runners that got caught, and now a huge group of race-walkers getting caught, which suggests widespread team doping is alive and well in Russia. It will be interesting to watch what happens next...
I guess before I get carried away, I should update last week's big events. The biggest event was the NYC Marathon on Sunday, where Paula Radcliffe proved once again that she is the best female marathoner ever (except when she runs in the Olympics)! Racing from the front of the lead pack from the opening gun, she literally just pushed the pace until no one was left behind her. She dropped Olympic silver medalist Catherine Ndereba fairly early, then Rita Jeptoo, then Gete Wami, then Dire Tune, leaving only American Kara Goucher and 40-year-old Russian Ludmila Petrova. Radcliffe get pouring it on, finally dropping her last challenger Petrova with 5 miles to go. Radcliffe negative split the race by almost three minutes to win easily by over 2 minutes. This makes it 8 for 10 in marathons for Radcliffe (with only her 2 Olympic marathons as blemishes). And now she is talking about going for a new world record in London in April and perhaps having a second child in 2010! Wow. And despite New York being known as a fairly difficult course, Petrova set a world record for a masters marathon and Goucher set an American record for fastest debut marathon. Good things happen when you run on Paula's shoulder for 20+ miles! The mens race was good as well. I was getting pretty excited when Abderrahim Goumri broke apart the lead group with a well-timed break in the last 5 miles. But Goumri ran out of gas in the last 2 miles, letting Marilson Gomes dos Santos back into the race. The Brazilian went by Goumri so fast that the television cameras missed it, and dos Santos went out to repeat his 2006 victory in NYC. Kenya's Daniel Rono and Paul Tergat finished 3rd and 4th. The NYC marathon is easily the best marathon to watch on television, with great fields, great crowds, and lots of great video of the city as well.
Ironman Florida was Saturday, and Canadian Tom Evans turned it into a blowout win. Evans took the lead early in the bike, actually biked away from Torbjorn Sindballe (who once owned Kona bike split record but was a bit tired from racing Kona three weeks previous), and held on to win the race by 10 minutes in a course record 8:07. Evans actually had a chance to break 8 hours but faded a bit in the last 10 miles. Still, an unbelievable day for Evans, who at age 40, is still producing world class performances. Sindballe finished second, and Petr Vabrousek third.
The womens race at Ironman Florida was not really any closer, as Bella Comerford cruised to a 7 minute victory over Ukrainian Tamara Kozulina. This is Comerford's fifth title in Florida, but normally she skips Kona and concentrates on Ironman Florida with its less-competitive field. This year, Comerford finished in 7th place in Kona, and still went back to Florida to compete only three weeks later. She won handily on her 31st birthday, and i'm betting that Comerford will be a strong contender in Kona for years to come.
Speaking of future Kona contenders, we will see a bunch of them this weekend as Ironman 70.3 has their World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. This is the third year for 70.3 Worlds, and previous winners include Craig Alexander and Sam McGlone in 2006 and Andy Potts and Mirinda Carfrae in 2007. Carfrae is the only one who hasn't stepped up to the Ironman distance, and she will be the womens favorite for sure this weekend. She has won 4 of the 5 70.3 races she has competed in this year, and finished second in the other one. Other contenders on the female side include Joanna Zeiger, Erika Csomor, and the Brits Leanda Cave and Julie Dibens. It should be a great race. The mens race will feature last years winner Andy Potts, who should repeat as champion. Oscar Galindez, Chris Legh, Luke McKenzie, Terrenzo Bozzone, and Richie Cunningham are a few other male contenders. I like Chris Legh to finish on the podium. Clearwater 70.3 will also feature the Hoyt's, who are back after competing last year. They are nearing 1000 completed races!! That is unbelievable. I've got lots more, including a few updates on everyone's favorite Texan, but those will have to wait til next week...see you soon!
A last-minute vacation made me push back last weekend's update. Which might have a good thing, since last week included pretty much NOTHING newsworthy in the BIKEY world. But this week has a few updates, a few results, and a couple of previews. So let's get going...
Ok, what's new in cycling? Let's recap quickly. Ivan Basso is back - and although he didn't win his first race (beaten by Damiano Cunego in a sprint), it appears he hasn't lost too much. And he's only 30! And will be back competing in the big races next year - the Giro and the Tour. It should be a great year in 2009 as the "old names" like Armstrong, Hamilton, Basso, Sastre, Vinokourov, etc compete against the "new" names like the Schlecks, Valverde, Cunego and the rest.
Speaking of the Schlecks, the doping case against Andy Schleck is still proceeding, but is not proceeding quickly. To recap, Schleck wrote a cheque to Dr Fuentes (the head of Operatin Puerto) but says the money was for training plans. Since this was 2+ years ago, it is difficult to find evidence. So we'll see. But the Luxembourg anti-doping agency hopes to wrap this up by the end of the year. So expect to hear more soon.
Interesting story on ESPN.com where Alberto Contador appears to be more happy with the Alexander Vinokourov joining him on Team Astana than Lance Armstrong doing so. This story refuses to go away, and it will be interesting to watch how the Team divides its resources between Armstrong and Contador. Contador has already decided to NOT defend his Giro title, so he will not be competing with Lance in Italy. It remains to be seen what will happen if we have a fit Lance vs a fit Contador in France in July...
Moving on to marathon and running news...an interesting story from last week's Nike Woman's Marathon in San Francisco. With 20,000 women in the field, Nike decided to hold an "elite" start - kind of a self-seeding 20 minute lead for "fast" runners. No big deal. But what happens when a female runner starts in the main field and ends up with a faster time than any of the "elites". Arien O'Connell ran 2:55 (a 12 minute PB) and beat the best "elite" by 11 minutes!! Race organizers originally held to their original belief than only "elites" could win prizes, thus O'Connell went home empty-handed. It took a huge media campaign and a lot of public pressure, but 3 days later, Nike finally awarded O'Connell the trophy for being "a" winner of the race. What a disaster. Next year there will be no "elite" start...
This weekend a way faster marathon will be run, as New York hosts the ING NYC Marathon. And because this race is 2-and-a-half months after Beijing, is attracting a super fast field. The men's race features Paul Tergat (2005 winner, WR holder before Geb broke it), Hendrik Ramaala (2004 winner), Marilson Gomes dos Santos (2006 winner) and a truckload of fast Kenyans. But I like Abderrahim Goumri from Morocco, who has finished 2nd at NYC (2007) and in London (2008) to break through. Of course, my predictions are never right...
The women's race is even better, with Paula Radcliffe back to defend her title from 2007, where she and Geta Wami ran together for 25 miles before pulling away. Other names include Catherine Ndereba and Rita Jeptoo from Kenya and the Ethiopian Dire Tune who won Boston this year. What a great race this could be on Sunday! I guess I will stick with Radcliffe as she has something to prove...race highlights are on NBC Sunday afternoon too.
Actually I'm not the only one picking winners for this race. For the first time, you (assuming you live in the US...darn it) can play Fantasy Marathon!! Yep, NYRR and Toyota have a contest running where if you can pick the Top 3 male or female finishers in this race. And the prizes? 2 Toyota Prius's (One for each race)!! Yep, that's unbelievable. And the contest is free...wow. Since I'm ineligible being a Canadian, I'll go with Radcliffe-Wami-Tune for the women's race and Goumri-Kirui-Tergat for the men.
Ok, on to triathlon news. And there is plenty. At the top of the list, a big shakeup among the elite Ironman women. Chrissie Wellington, Belinda Granger, and Hilary Biscay all decided to leave their coach Brett Sutton and switch to Cliff English. Very interesting for a bunch of reasons...first off, Sutton's Team TBB obviously was pretty strong, since Wellington/Granger/Biscay all won Ironman races this year. So Sutton's techniques were obviously pretty successful. Team TBB still has Rebecca Preston, Erika Csomor, and Bella Comerford, so they will be okay. But now Cliff English adds 3 winners to his group that includes his fiancee Sam McGlone. So I guess McGlone has decided to use the "keep your friends close, your enemies closer" strategy to deal with Chrissie Wellington. It is obviously most dangerous for Wellington, since she has never lost an Ironman with Sutton as her coach. As usual, stay tuned...
More interesting coaching news, as Kirsten Sweetland has also switched coaches. She is leaving Joel Filliol (coach of Simon Whitfield) to start training in Australia with Emma Moffatt's coach. Hmmm. This one is surprising, since Sweetland was very successful in 2007 under Filliol. She was injured throughout 2008, but regardless of her coach, here's hoping Sweetland bounces back in 2009.
Speaking of Canadians, Canada had a great day at Xterra Worlds last week in Maui. Danelle Kabush from Canmore finished second in the women's pro race, while Brent McMahon finished in third on the men's side (Canadian Mike Vine finished 4th too). I guess the only huge surprise was that Melanie McQuaid (a 2-time world champion and pre-race favorite) got sick and DNFed. Too bad for her. But Canada continues to do well in Xterra racing, despite zero Xterra events in Canada. And Brent McMahon turned out to have a pretty good 2008, despite not making our Olympic team. He won the National Championships, won some decent money in the Lifetime Fitness events, and now finished 3rd at Xterra Worlds. Solid year.
The race to Kona 2009 starts today with Ironman Florida tomorrow in Panama City Beach. As usual, Bella Comerford is there, trying to win that race for the 5th time. She will be challenged by 2007 winner Nina Kraft. The rest of the women's field is pretty weak, so it would be a surprise if Kraft or Comerford doesn't win. The men's race is very competitive though, with Canadian Tom Evans a serious front-runner. He will be opposed by Petr Vabrousek, Victor Zyemtsev, Andriy Yastrebov, and potential starter Torbjorn Sindballe. It should be an interesting race as pros start to get their Kona spots for 2009...
I was planning to write a nice Monday column about Kona 08, but something about the race just let me down. I'm not sure if it was the lack of drama at the top, the fact that a few big names didn't even start the race, or the fact that the carnage on the marathon course eliminated many of the pre-race faves.
Anyhow, 2008 will be remembered for Craig Alexander using the recent strategy of finishing second one year, then winning the following year (just like Michellie Jones in 2006 and Chris McCormack in 2007). He dominated the run, with a 2:45:01 marathon to win by 3 minutes. Eneko Llanos, who finished 5th last year, actually lead until Mile 14 of the run, managed to hold on for second, 30 seconds ahead of Rutger Beke. The men's race also had a number of surpising Top 10 finishes, as "less-known" pros like Ronnie Schildknecht (4th), Mathias Hecht (8th), and Eduardo Sturla (10th) all finished in the Top 10, ahead of many of the sport's big names. Normann Stadler, who lead for about 5 miles on the run, finished 12th after struggling with a 3:15 run. Faris Al-Sultan finished 11th. Marino Vanhoenacker never was a factor and finished 22nd. Bike leader Torbjorn Sindballe ran (or walked) to a 3:50 marathon to finish 45th. Chris Lieto could only run a 3:30 marathon and finished well back. Chris McCormack, the defending champion, broke a front derailleur cable and dropped out. The two Lukes (Luke Bell and Luc Van Lierde) never finished the marathon. You could make a nice Top 10 list of pro triathletes who didn't finish in the Top 10. Top 10 Men Finishers 1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 8:17:45 2. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 8:20:50 3. Rutger Beke (BEL) 8:21:23 4. Ronnie Schildknecht (SWI) 8:24:46 5. Cameron Brown (NZL) 8:26:17 6. Patrick Vernay (NCL) 8:30:23 7. Andy Potts (USA) 8:33:50 8. Mathias Hecht (SWI) 8:34:02 9. Michael Lovato (USA) 8:34:47 10. Eduardo Sturla (ARG) 8:36:53
Before moving to the women's race, I did want to highlight the American successes. Andy Potts, in his first Ironman race, finished 7th overall. He was in Kona to gain experience for future races. He will be a favorite next year. Plus Michael Lovato finished 9th for the second year in a row. Much better results for the Americans than for the Canadians. With Tom Evans and Jonathan Caron both not starting this year, there were only 3 Canadian males in the pro field. Mike Neill finished 26th, Kyle Marcotte was 54th, and Nigel Gray was 55th. Ouch. Three Canadian age group males actually beat Marcotte and Gray, lead by Nat Faulkner's 9:16 finish (6th in 30-34 AG). If Faulkner can improve his run to match his ridiculous 4:47 bike, look out...
Ok, onto the women. Chrissie Wellington showed why she was the overwhelming pre-race favorite, by easily winning by 15 minutes. This, despite a 10 minute flat tire change where she ran out of CO2 cartridges and had to wait for another athlete (Bec Keat) to give her another one. She was leading the bike when she flatted, and ended up in 4th place before re-starting after waiting at the side of the road. But by the end of the bike, Wellington was back in first, and her Kona-record 2:57 marathon sealed the deal. Her run was faster than two of the Top 10 Men's run splits. Ridiculous. She finished 36th overall in 9:06, and if she didn't have a flat, she might have been in the Top 20 overall. Careful guys, you better get moving. And if she wins by 15 minutes without a flat, what will she do without one? Wow. The rest of the women's race was similar to the men's race. Chaotic. Without Michellie Jones and Sam McGlone (both injured) and Natascha Badmann (raced, but is coming back from serious injury), only Yvonne Van Vlerken and Erika Csomor performed up to expectations. Kate Major (25th), Joanna Lawn(14th), Desiree Ficker(39th) and Belinda Granger (17th) all suffered on the run while Nina Kraft, Rebecca Preston, Leanda Cave, and Heather Wurtele all DNFed. Again, a Top 10 list outside the Top 10 probably has more stars than the actual Top 10!
The American women placed 3 girls in the Top 10. The Canadian women didn't have any until Sara Gross in 20th place. Actually, the top Canadian woman was an age grouper, Rosemarie Gerspacher from Calgary, who finished 2nd in 30-34 category. Catherine Brown (also from Calgary) was the 6th fastest Canadian woman and finished 2nd in the 25-29 category. I'm more happy with their results than any of the Canadian pro women. But with McGlone on the sideline, Wurtele not finishing, and Tara Norton crashing into a volunteer at an aid station on the bike, I guess the pro women can get a pass this year.
For those of you who like looking at fast bikes, Slowtwitch did a nice article showing the Top 15 Men and Women and pictures of them on their bikes. You can see the women's list here, and the men's list here. I did notice that 5 of the top 15 women were riding Cervelo bikes, but Chrissie made do with a P2C. And clinchers! Also 3 top women wore compression socks on THE BIKE! Wow. The men's list had 2 Cervelo bikes, 2 Kuota's, and 2 Scott's. Much nicer variety. And I noticed that both Llanos (2nd overall) and Ain Alar Juhanson (who had the best men's bike split and finished 13th overall) both rode clinchers as well. Hmmm....
Okay, moving on. In April I covered the tragic death of Dave Martin, killed by a shark while swimming near San Diego. ESPN, which normally treats triathlon as an afterthought, did an amazing article on the tragedy, and how the other 8 swimmers who were in the water that morning are coping with the aftermath. It is well-worth the read, or to watch the 10 minute segment, just click below.
I promised some Good, some Bad, and some Ugly, so here goes. A Canadian made news a couple of weeks ago by setting a world record for fastest self-propelled human ever. He and his "bike" managed to go 132.5 kmh in the Nevada Desert. So congratulations go to Sam Whittingham, who has also set world records by cycling over 86.5 km in a one hour time trial! Ridiculous.
Good news for Lance Armstrong. He and his Team Astana have been invited to next year's Giro d'Italia. Lance has never raced the world's second biggest stage race, and this week confirmed he will race in Italy next May. So that's great news.
However, Lance is having trouble with the French. Again. Or still. Or whatever. Lance's news about the Giro might mean that he might not race the Tour de France. It appears the back-and-forth between Lance and the organization that puts on the Tour continues. So we have to wait and see.
More bad news. Actually make this ugly news. Bernhard Kohl, the Austrian chimney-sweep who won the Polka-dot jersey and finished 3rd overall at this year's Tour de France, did fail a drug test for CERA at the Tour. The news broke this week that his blood test showed the 3rd-generation EPO agent, and of course Kohl appeared shocked and asked for the 'B' sample to be tested. But then he called a press conference and admitted his guilt. He blames his drug use on the fact that he crashed in the Dauphine Libere, and could not maintain his training going into the Tour. Since his team (Gerolsteiner) was folding after this season, he was under intense pressure to perform well to get a contract with another team. So he cheated. And got a 3-year contract with Silence-Lotto to ride with Cadel Evans. Until he got caught. So now he's suspended for 2 years. Whoops. Kohl is the 7th rider to test positive during the 08 Tour, and according to L'Equipe, the rest of the riders can breathe easy since the testing is now complete. More ugly news. Could Jan Ullrich be coming back? Perhaps...there was a story in a German newspaper that suggests that possibility. Although I can't read German, Google does have an amazing translation service. So it appears that Jan is thinking about it...
But if he does come back, the big German might not have too many Germans watching him. The German television networks have decided to not cover the Tour de France due to the large number of doping positives. This decision came on the same day that the German Cycling Association cancelled the Tour of Germany, and the Tour of Stuttgart also was cancelled for 2009. Both races blamed the recent rash of positive doping tests.
Anyhow, here's hoping that next week brings lots of good news and ZERO doping news...see you Friday!
The biggest triathlon of the year (ummm, except for the Olympic Triathlon which happened this year) is the 30th Ironman World Championship, this Saturday in Kona, Hawaii. It is the Big Kahuna, and is the race where legends are made. Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Paula Newby-Fraser, Natascha Badmann, and Peter Reid all became legends (those 5 are the only ones who have won Kona 3 or more times).
Canadians have won the race 8 times, with Peter Reid a 3-time winner, Lori Bowden and Sylvia Puntous won twice each, and Heather Fuhr won once. Not bad - 8 wins in the first 30 years! Is there a Canadian heading to the top of the podium this year? Read on...
Actually before I get to the actual predictions, I did want to recap a couple of the good stories in Kona. Despite my post about sharks in the oceans around Kona (don't worry, never been an attack remotely close to the swimming bay), the best part about swimming practice during race week is the floating espresso bar. True! Coffees of Hawaii sets up a floating bar out in the bay every year, and all the athletes tend to congregate out there for the best swim aid station ever! Check out the pics. In addition to providing a java fix, the bar also appears to be a place where dolphins congregate. Seriously! This week swimmers were able to swim with dolphins just a few feet from the coffee bar. Now that is amazing! Even I might go for an extra swim or two with dolphins around... The other highlight of Ironman week is the Annual Underpants Run. For those of you who don't understand it, I can't even begin to explain it. Anyhow, here are some pictures, including an intriguing place to stash a gel, and a very promotional bikini! Womens Race - a good blogger would try and build a case for multiple competitors. However, to save time, just bet the house on Chrissie Wellington. The defending champion, who came out of nowhere last year, has never been defeated in a Ironman (she is now 4 for 4 in her career) and looks unbeatable. With last year's second place finisher Sam McGlone out with an Achilles injury, 2006 winner Michellie Jones out with a calf injury and 2005 winner (and 2004, and 2002, and 2001, and 2000, and 1998) Natascha Badmann questionable with an injury as well, Wellington might be the only current Kona winner to toe the line. Actually, I'm lying, since 1995 winner Karen Smyers will start, but since she's 47 years old I don't like her chances.
So Wellington should win. Bigger question for her is whether she can break Paula's course record of 8:55. It's doable for Chrissie if the conditions stay good (appears not too windy for Saturday). She is only 31 years of age and can quite honestly dominate this race for the next decade. She's that good.
That being said, anyone who has done an Ironman knows that plans do not always work out. Bike problems, nutrition problems, swim contact, a tweaked leg muscle or two can wreck the event for even the best athletes. But this year is going to be Chrissie's.
Second thru tenth is pretty wide open. Kate Major has been third three times i think, but this year she'll miss the podium. I think she'll finish fourth. Erika Csomor, who was unreal this spring but faded from the spotlight this summer, is my pick for silver. This year's breakthrough newcomer will be Leanda Cave, who has never been to Kona but won the 70.3 Worlds last year. She's got the speed to run through the field and will finish third.
Yvonne Van Vlerken, who set a Iron-distance record by going 8:47 at Roth this year, has already peaked this year and will finish 5th. I'm picking Jo Lawn to hold off Belinda Granger for 6th, with fellow Australian Rebekah Keat finishing 8th. I'll pick Gina Ferguson from New Zealand to finish 9th, with Desiree Ficker gritting her way to 10th. As much as I wanted to pick a Canadian female to finish Top 10, the fast girls (Heather Wurtele, Tara Norton, and Sara Gross) have all raced too much this year. So I'm thinking Top 10 might be too much. For the record, I think Wurtele will be top Canadian (in 11th place hopefully).
The Mens Race will be much different. The last 3 champions are all eager to win again, with Norman and Macca still holding some grudges against each other. Add Craig Alexander into the mix and we could see an epic race down Alli'i drive. But that rarely happens. Faris Al-Sultan, the 2005 Champion, appeared to catch lightning in a bottle that year, and he has rarely shown that form since. So let's eliminate him. Chris McCormack (aka Macca, the 2007 Champ) puts all his eggs in the Kona basket, and over the past couple of years has put up great results. So he's got to be in the championship picture. Norman Stadler (the 2004 and 2006 champ), has alternated by winning with virtuouso performances and then falling apart on an epic scale. His 2005 breakdown (after numerous bike problems) is one of the best in modern history.
Will this be Craig Alexander's year? Crowie (his nickname) finished 2nd in his Ironman debut last year, but he has spent all year padding his bank account by winning 70.3 races. I'm not sold that he has full Iron fitness. So I'll drop him back as well.
Ok, let's give Stadler the benefit of the doubt. He wants to prove that the 2 victories were not a fluke. He will win this year, as he out-bikes the rest of the contenders and holds on for his third title, which will put him into very select company. Macca will try to run him down but just fall short and finish second (not unlike what happened in 2006).
Okay, who will finish third? Last year it was Torbjorn Sindballe. Cam Brown has a 2nd and two 3rds in the past 6 years. Chris Lieto and Marino Vanhoenacker were both in the Top 6 last year. Luke Bell has been in the Top 5 before. Steve Larsen, who used to be a pro cyclist, is in great shape this year. Plus Timo Bracht and Luc Van Lierde and Patrick Vernay and Jan Raphael and Michael Lovato and Michael Goehner and Luke McKenzie and Stephen Bayliss...so many talented guys!
Before I make my predictions, I did want to mention Andy Potts. He is the short-course guy making the jump to Ironman this year. Potts failed to make the US Olympic team, and thus spent his year doing non-drafting races and the occasional 70.3 race. He won the star-studded Ironman 70.3 California in March and won a late season 70.3 as well. He has the swim speed (should be first out of the water) and run speed but can he cycle with the big guys?
Ok, enough suspense. I'm picking Eneko Llanos in third. Although known more for his success in Xterra racing, he stuck with Macca at Ironman Germany this year, and might be able to stick around the top in Kona as well. Vanhoenacker will finish 4th, with Patrick Vernay in 5th. Steve Larsen will fade on the run for 6th, with Luke McKenzie giving Australia three places in the Top 7. Andy Potts will finish 8th, with Stephen Bayliss 9th and Torbjorn Sindballe 10th. Phew.
That being said, anything can happen. There are 17 male German pros!! So I'm just guessing...
Oh yeah, top Canadian male? Let's go with Kyle Marcotte, who will finish around 20th overall.
Okay, so there are my lists. Check back Monday for the recap!
Kona is on Saturday, and I will have a very special look at the Top 20 contenders first thing on Friday morning (i know, Bikey FRIDAY rarely gets posted on Fridays). Anyhow, the athletes are all in Kona, doing the morning swims, the frequent trips to coffee shops, and the spins up and down the Queen K getting ready for Saturday morning.
But for all of us who aren't fortunate enough to be racing on Saturday, let's be thankful for a couple of reasons. First of all, it seems that there are dangerous snapping turtles in the Bay this year. Just check out this picture with Chrissie Wellington. Also, despite the lack of any recent attacks, I did find out that a Kona fishing charter occasionally catches 500 pound sharks, including this great white. Good thing I'm safely at home! Just after my post on Monday, it was revealed that the Tour's best time trialer, Stefan Schumacher, tested positive for CERA (which is the less-detectable version of EPO). This is the same drug that Ricco got caught using at the Tour. However, Ricco's positive test came from a urine test, whereas Schumacher's urine test was inconclusive, so they had to test his blood sample, which explains why it took 3 months to come back positive. Anyhow, it appears Schumacher is headed for a 2-year suspension. Surprisingly, it appears that Schumacher might not be the last shoe to drop from the Tour. 15 riders apparently had these "inconclusive" urine results and will have their blood samples re-tested. So we anxiously await more data...
Speaking of re-testing data, the IOC has decided their drug testing in Beijing was not up-to-par and thus they are re-testing all their samples. It appears they are going to be looking for evidence of CERA, and so all the athletes who thought they dodged positive tests must again wait to hear what happens. Over 5000 urine tests and 1000 blood tests will be re-tested. The authorities are anticipating more positive tests, but Bike-Y will keep you posted...
I promise to get to Lance real soon, but I wanted to lead off with a bit of a tribute. Simon Lessing announced last week that he retiring from full-time competition. He raced this past weekend in Austin at the Steelhead 70.3 (finished 4th) but at age 37, he decided that fighting off nagging injuries and racing against guys 15 years younger just wasn't enough to keep him going. But Lessing will always be remembered for what he did before short-course triathlon became an Olympic sport. He won the short course (Olympic) World Championships in 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1998, plus the Long Course World Championships in 1996. After a disappointment 9th place finish in the Sydney Olympics, he started doing more and more long distance triathlons, moving up to the Ironman in 2004 when he set a course record in Lake Placid (8:23). However, Lessing struggled with his nutrition at future Ironman races, and after two DNFs in Kona, he stopped doing Ironman races and has mainly raced 70.3 races the last few years. He did finish second at Ironman 70.3 Worlds in 2006, and the last few years he has still showed the ability to compete with numerous wins. However, the grind of 23 years of competition have taken a toll, and he is retiring on his terms. Slowtwitch did a nice interview with him this week. Congrats Simon, and good luck with retirement!! Back to cycling, where an old fave appears to be coming back. Yep, Alexander Vinokourov might be coming back from cycling. Ok, this is fairly confusing. When he tested positive for blood doping at the 07 TDF, he retired from the sport but still received a 1-year ban from the Kazakh Cycling Federation. Normally, the UCI requires a 2-year suspension but for whatever reason decided to not pursue a longer ban. This lead to Team Astana basically folding before being resurrected by Johan Bruyneel this year. Anyhow, Vino is still well-connected with the owners of Team Astana, and it is expected that the team owners could force Bruyneel to accept Vinokourov. This could create a team that includes Lance, Leipheimer, Kloden, and Contador. However, Vino did confirm last night that his goals were now the Giro d'Italia and the World Championships. Wow. This saga is just beginning, but stay tuned as cycling continues to make more legal headlines... Speaking of Lance, he too made non-bike headlines when he got into a war of words with the president of ASO (race organizer of Tour de France) last week. After the ASO president stated that "We cannot say that he (Lance) has not embarrassed the Tour de France", Lance came back by claiming that he "never was found guilty of doping despite seven years of intense scrutiny". Regardless, Lance does have to tread carefully since his new team (Astana) was banned from this year's Tour. But keeping the biggest name out of the sport's biggest event would probably not be a great idea for anyone. So let's hope this back-and-forth ends sooner than later.
Also last week, one of the French doping labs volunteered last week to re-test some of Lance's 1999 urine samples. Predictably, Lance denied this request, since he claims that the storage problems and procedural errors mean that his 1999 samples could not provide any new evidence. Ummm, okay. Anyhow, the French appear to want nothing more than to catch Lance, while the Lance side must continue to show ample evidence that he's clean. It's guilty-until-proven-innocent. Crazy.
What was i just saying about dopers vs anti-dopers? As expected, the fallout on the Frank Schleck Affair (which i talked about last week) was quick. He was suspended by Team CSC as the Luxembourg Anti-Doping Agency figures out what to do. They are not having a good week, as it was discovered that Luxembourg's Beijing flag-bearer also tested positive for a banned substance at the Junior World Championships. Whoops. Anyhow, Schleck has maintained his innocence, and since the only "proof" is the money transfer to Dr Fuentes, it remains to be seen what will happen.
Oh yeah...we are now 5 days and counting from a big triathlon in Hawaii. I will do some investigating and maybe come back tomorrow with an update...
Hi All - sorry for the wait but it will be worth it!
(grab a coffee...this one is going to take a while...) Although the Olympics and summer 08 is over, the fall season does include a ton of sporting events in the Bikey World. The title of World's Fastest Man is always given to the 100m World Record holder (currently Usain Bolt, who will run sub 9.5 if he ever tries to run the whole 100m). However, I would suggest that the World's Fastest Man might just be Haile Gebrselassie, who had broke the mythical Marathon World Record by running 2:03:59 in Berlin today. He broke his current world record by 27 seconds! This adds to his legacy as perhaps the greatest distance runner ever (for example, he set the 5000m world record SEVEN times, the 10,000m world record 3 times, and has set records in other distances from two miles to 25,000m). He decided not to run the Beijing Marathon in August, instead did the 10,000m where he finished 6th. He did admit afterwards that he made a mistake and should have run the marathon, but was over-concerned about the potential air pollution and how it might aggravate his asthma. However, he did make up for it today! The women's winner, Irina Mikitenko, who ran 2:19:19 (only 3 women have ever ran faster!), should get some attention too! Congrats to both of them!
Today was also the Toronto Waterfront marathon, which has been getting increasingly good fields over the past years. It is now rated as an IAAF Silver Label race (which only Ottawa can match in Canada), which means it consistently attracts an elite field and international acclaim. Today's race, although not nearly as fast as Berlin, did prduce a close finish as Kenya's Kenneth Mungara (surprise, a Kenyan won!) beat Peter Kiprotich (shockingly, another fast Kenyan) by 2 seconds. Their times were right around 2:11, but that 2 seconds were worth $4000 per second for Mungara! $20K for the winner, $12K for the second place. Kenyans also finished 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 10th! Unreal. I was also interested in seeing how the Canadians did - most notably how Dylan Wykes would do in his second career marathon. He finished 11th, with a 2:16:21 (about one minute slower than his debut marathon in Rotterdam. But that is still fast enough to be the top Canadian. (Stephen Drew also broke 2:20, running 2:19:59!). The women's winner was Ethiopian Mulu Seboka who ran 2:29:06 while the top Canadian female was Suzanne Evans in 2:44:23. Other Canadians were not so fortunate, with Matt McInnes and Lisa Harvey not finishing). Before we move on to cycling and triathlon news, let's take a minute to reflect. Twenty years have now passed since Canada's "JFK" moment (this is what the London Telegraph called it) but the events following the positive test still resonate through the Track & Field community. Ben Johnson will forever be known as the first big-name sprinter caught in the anti-doping movement (even if he acknowledges that he started doping in 1981 and didn't get caught until 1988). His positive test was followed by positive tests from such elite sprinters like Linford Christie, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin (all world or Olympic champions). It's sad for Canada that Ben Johnson will always be the scapegoat, since it has been revealed that 7 of the 8 sprinters in the 1988 100m final subsequently tested positive. This includes Carl Lewis, who allegedly tested positive for stimulants in the 1988 US Olympic Trials, but his never-announced 12-week suspension was then reduced by the US Olympic Committee. This was to allow "Mr US Track & Field" to compete in Seoul, where he won two gold medals (including the 100m when Ben Johnson was disqualified). Interesting story. And for posterity, here is another look at the 100m final.
In a normal week, I could've filled an entire column on Canadian Cycling. Yep, there has been a lot of news on this front. First, the bad news...Canada's best Pro Cycling Team (Symmetrics Pro Cycling) had to close up shop for 2009 due to no major sponsor stepping forward. This is the developmental team that Svein Tuft and Zach Bell both compete on (they both had 7th place finishes in Beijing). However, the team is leaving on a great run, despite their budget being about 1/5th what Team CSC would spend on ONE rider like Cancellera or Sastre! First, Svein Tuft followed up his 7th place in the Olympic time trial by finishing 3rd in the Tour of Missouri. Although the Tour of Missouri does occur at the same time as the Vuelta De Espana, there is a number of top cyclists in the race. For example, Michael Rogers finished second in Missouri and he is 3-time World Time Trial Champion. George Hincapie finished 4th! And Canada's Tuft was third. So that is a super result for the 31 year old Tuft. To further the Canada cause, Bikey fave Dominique Rollin finished 9th (and won the King of the Mountain jersey) and Olympian Michael Barry was 10th overall. So a successful Tour of Missouri for the Canucks.
The good news continued for Tuft and Rollin. Tuft found a new ride for 2009, signing with Garmin-Chipotle (where fellow Canadian Ryder Hesjedal will be a teammate). Dominique Rollin also made a huge leap, going from the Toyota-United team all the way to the Cervelo TestTeam, where his teammates will include Thor Hushovd and Carlos Sastre.
For Tuft, good things DID happen in three's! He finished 2nd at the World Cycling Time Trial Championships this week in Varesa, Italy. The last Canadian male to medal at a World Cycling Championship was a looonnnngggg time ago(it was Steve Bauer in 1984). He finished the 43.7km course in 52:44 (almost 50 km/h!) and was only 42 seconds behind Bert Grabsch of Germany. And he did it despite flatting with 5k to go in the time trial and was forced to switch bikes! Wow. Here's a quick interview with Svein if you're interested...
The marquee event of the World Cycling Championship was today's Men's Road Race, where the 260 km event came down to a group of 12 riders, which didn't really include any of the pre-race favorites (Bettini, Valverde, Sanchez, Boonen, Contador, and McEwen to name a few). With about 2 km to go, Alessandro Ballan took off in a counter-attack and had enough to hold on for gold! He now gets to wear the rainbow jersey in 2009. Italy took second, with Damiano Cunego finishing second and Matti Breschel getting bronze. Canada's Michael Barry was the only Canadian finisher in 33rd.
In the women's road race, Nicole Cooke from Great Britain defended her Olympic Gold by winning the race in a sprint over co-favorites Marianne Vos and Judith Arndt. Canada's Alex Wrubleski was 9th.
One last cycling item for the doping fans. On Friday it was announced that Frank Schleck was perhaps a customer of cycling's Dr Evil, Eufemiano Fuentes. Dr Fuentes was known as the centrepiece of Operation Puerto, the doping investigation that has ensnared cyclists like Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Oscar Sevilla, Francisco Mancebo, and Tyler Hamilton. Once this announcement was made, the Italian police raided the hotel that the Luxembourg team was staying at during the World Championships. The doping soap opera continues...
Triathlon news...and unlike the news about Svein Tuft, this is not good news for Canada. Sam McGlone, who is Canada's best Ironman triathlete, is injured and will not compete in Kona in October. She has had problems with her Achilles for about a year or so, and admits now that it's not healthy enough for her to run the Ironman marathon on. Too bad, since she is one of the true rivals for the so-far unbeatable Chrissie Wellington.
Ok, I know you've been reading this far because this week was the Holy Grail of the bikey world, Interbike. And while industry professionals go there to check out the competition, us Bikey fanatics just love looking at bike porn. And there was plenty to see. While I found about 5 or so bikes that grabbed my attention, for those of you who just can't get enough should check out Tom Demerly's post here. He has another 50 or so pictures that are definitely worth checking out. Without further ado...enjoy the bikes and my personal Top 10!
10. New bike from CEEPO with some crazy frame shapes
9. Pinarello's sexy Italian triathlon bike
8. The new Scott Plasma 2
7. QR's new Caliente
6. Ridley Dean
5. Felt's aero Road Bike, the AR2
4. Fuji's new high-end bike 3. The QR Cd0.1 - which has offset bottom bracket to deflect airflow away from the drivetrain. Cool idea.
2. Michellie Jones' new Felt DA
1. The yummy Litespeed Blade returns!
Can you believe it - I didn't even get to Lance...come back Friday. Lots more to get to then!
