This week's update will be short only because i promise a rocking preview for next week's ITU Worlds in Vancouver. Plus Sunday is the last day of the Giro d'Italia, so expect a bunch on Monday-Tuesday.
Ok, let's get with the updates. It's getting to be crunch time for Paula Radcliffe, who according to this update, is still on crutches. That is not a good sign with 69 days to go until the Olympics start....
Two noteworthy stories about doping. Some silly pharmaceutical company has created a HGH releaser, which so far is impossible to detect using current anti-doping tests. Whoops. So now we the folks at WADA dont just have to worry about BALCO-type industrial labs, they also have to follow the legit companies too. Hmmm. Well, i guess synthetic EPO was created by Amgen, who just happen to be the sponsor of the Tour of California. Ahhh, the circle of life...
But some better news...the anti-doping cops might be close to using hair analysis as a way to test whether athletes have taken drugs in the past year. Some drugs (opiates, steroids) can be seen in hair for up to a year. So either people will stop taking drugs or we will see a lot of shaved athletes...
One more story for the weekend. It appears that doping and drugs are NOT the only way to get high. It appears the much-discussed runner's high does in fact have a scientific basis, even if for years it has been difficult to prove. Hard workouts do provide a euphoric sensation due to elevated endorphin levels, plus it alters our pain perception. Pretty cool. I'm always happy when workouts are over and i can rest...
Anyhow, see you Monday...funny video to end with...
Friday, May 30, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Marathons and track dominate this week...
This weekend is the last chance for Canadians to qualify for the Olympics games in the marathon. And despite some very fast times, I'm not overly optimistic that any of our 2:15 or so men will manage to run the needed "A" standard of 2:12:38. Let's hope for a solid tail wind. And sad to say, it appears Jon Brown is out (injury) so the 2000 and 2004 Olympic 4th place finisher will not get to represent Canada since gaining citizenship last year. Too bad.
On the womens side, we do have some chances. Lioudmila Kortchaguina has run 2:29 in the past, and needs to run 2:29:08 to get the Olympic spot. Lots of other fast Canadian women will be running in Ottawa as well, but it would take a huge leap for one of them to run fast enough to qualify. For a list of all the big Canadian names, take a look here.
Speaking of the Olympics, I think we can all agree that there is a big difference between Canada and Kenya. In Kenya, they invited 120 top contenders to a 4 week training camp in advance of their upcoming Olympic trials. Yep, 120 Olympics contenders. In Canada, they just announced our list of potential athletes for the 2012 Olympics. And we have a total of 11 potential medallists. 120 vs 11. Ok, that might not be totally fair, since the Kenyans did spend a whopping $23,000 to fund this training camp. Yikes.
Some good Canadian news this past weekend as Edmonton-trained Tyler Christopher finished 2nd in the 400m at the Adidas Track Classic. Although Jeremy Wariner did win the race comfortably (he never loses), Christopher defeated some high quality US and foreign runners to cement his place as a serious contender in Beijing.
And yep, the Olympics can't be far enough way for two huge Bike-y faves. Paula Radcliffe now has a stress fracture in her left femur while Perdita Felicien is dealing with a stress fracture in her foot. Yikes again.
I was going to make a big deal about the showdown in Madrid for this week's ITU race, since it was to be the last big ITU race before worlds in Vancouver in two weeks. But alas, all the Canadians have dropped out, and a lot of other big names won't be racing either. So it appears to be a slam dunk for Vanessa Fernandes and Javier Gomez. If they dont win, I'll let you know next week. I'll also be keeping watch on the battle between the US and Russia for the Top 8 team (and third Olympic spot). Stay tuned...
And yes, two weeks til ITU worlds, and Simon and Kirsten Sweetland did the promotional thing and hammed it up for the media in Vancouver this week.
It also presented you Cervelo lovers a chance to see Simon posing with a Cervelo bike. Not sure what his Litespeed sponsors would think of this.
One quick update on the Giro d'Italia. Ummm, not much newsworthy this week. Alberto Contador did crash and fracture his elbow on Saturday, but rode the third fastest TT on Tuesday to become the favorite going into the mountains this weekend. Not bad. This weekend's stages should determine the winner, with Danilo Diluca, Gilberto Simoni, and three Astana riders (Kloden, Leipheimer, and Contador) still among the faves. Ryder Hesjedal, the lone Canadian, continues to ride a solid race and is in 58th place (and a surprising 2nd on Team Slipstream). Good job Ryder!
Cool product of the week...found this jersey online.
This company (elevengear.us) also has a great cycling windbreaker made from race numbers. Pretty nice...
Cheers for this week...
On the womens side, we do have some chances. Lioudmila Kortchaguina has run 2:29 in the past, and needs to run 2:29:08 to get the Olympic spot. Lots of other fast Canadian women will be running in Ottawa as well, but it would take a huge leap for one of them to run fast enough to qualify. For a list of all the big Canadian names, take a look here.
Speaking of the Olympics, I think we can all agree that there is a big difference between Canada and Kenya. In Kenya, they invited 120 top contenders to a 4 week training camp in advance of their upcoming Olympic trials. Yep, 120 Olympics contenders. In Canada, they just announced our list of potential athletes for the 2012 Olympics. And we have a total of 11 potential medallists. 120 vs 11. Ok, that might not be totally fair, since the Kenyans did spend a whopping $23,000 to fund this training camp. Yikes.
Some good Canadian news this past weekend as Edmonton-trained Tyler Christopher finished 2nd in the 400m at the Adidas Track Classic. Although Jeremy Wariner did win the race comfortably (he never loses), Christopher defeated some high quality US and foreign runners to cement his place as a serious contender in Beijing.
And yep, the Olympics can't be far enough way for two huge Bike-y faves. Paula Radcliffe now has a stress fracture in her left femur while Perdita Felicien is dealing with a stress fracture in her foot. Yikes again.
I was going to make a big deal about the showdown in Madrid for this week's ITU race, since it was to be the last big ITU race before worlds in Vancouver in two weeks. But alas, all the Canadians have dropped out, and a lot of other big names won't be racing either. So it appears to be a slam dunk for Vanessa Fernandes and Javier Gomez. If they dont win, I'll let you know next week. I'll also be keeping watch on the battle between the US and Russia for the Top 8 team (and third Olympic spot). Stay tuned...
And yes, two weeks til ITU worlds, and Simon and Kirsten Sweetland did the promotional thing and hammed it up for the media in Vancouver this week.
It also presented you Cervelo lovers a chance to see Simon posing with a Cervelo bike. Not sure what his Litespeed sponsors would think of this.
One quick update on the Giro d'Italia. Ummm, not much newsworthy this week. Alberto Contador did crash and fracture his elbow on Saturday, but rode the third fastest TT on Tuesday to become the favorite going into the mountains this weekend. Not bad. This weekend's stages should determine the winner, with Danilo Diluca, Gilberto Simoni, and three Astana riders (Kloden, Leipheimer, and Contador) still among the faves. Ryder Hesjedal, the lone Canadian, continues to ride a solid race and is in 58th place (and a surprising 2nd on Team Slipstream). Good job Ryder!
Cool product of the week...found this jersey online.
This company (elevengear.us) also has a great cycling windbreaker made from race numbers. Pretty nice...
Cheers for this week...
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Giro Continues...and we take a breather...
Leading off this week with the Giro, which from a Canadian point-of-view has peaked (so far) on Day 1. Ryder Hesjedal and his Slipstream teammates won the Team Time Trial (which was Stage 1 of the Giro), resulting in him being third overall after Day 1. Alas, he has slipped to 86th overall after today's Day 6, but he continues to be one of the higher placed riders on his squad. If he can keep it up, his chances are riding in the Tour are good. Stay tuned. By the way, Ryder is the one in red (he wears his Canadian Time Trial Champion jersey when they ride time trials).
The only other race update will be brief. Last weekend the ITU had their European Championships. Vanessa Fernandes from Portugal (more on her next week) won the womens race (her fifth Euro championship...she's only 23!) while, in a huge surprise, Sergio Gomez somehow didnt win. Despite the best run time of the day, he got dropped on the bike and managed to only finish 7th. To highlight how crazy that is, he had made the podium at 16 races in row! Maybe some hope for Simon...
Speaking of Mr Whitfield, he actually posted a pretty funny comment on his Olympic blog on the Globe and Mail's website. "Last year I wasn't able to teach Javier any lessons. He gave me six Spanish lessons in a row..." Pretty funny I thought.
Cool product of the week. I found these online, and it's a company that just makes stickers/decals for carbon wheels. If you're tired of having the same Zipps as everyone else, get a set of these wheel "tags" from wheeltags.com and then your wheels will be distinct, even if you have the same Cervelo as the bike next to yours.
Lance Armstrong, who seems like he'll become quite an entrepreneur, has opened a bike shop in his home town of Austin, Texas. It's called Mellow Johnny's (his nickname in the peloton...slang for Yellow Jersey) and is one of those industrial-looking bike stores combined with a Lance Armstrong museum. Not surprisingly, the stores sells Trek, Nike, Giro, and Oakley products. What a shock!! It does have a cool espresso bar called, get this, Juan Pelota - which is a play on words for "one ball". I hope everyone got that joke. Here's a couple of pics...
Ok, that's about it for this week. This weekend, the Giro continues, and there's a big 70.3 race in Florida, but it's still a pretty slow weekend. Come back next week for lots more stories...cheers!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Whew...more bike-Y!!
Hey All,
Again, another hugely busy week...here goes nothing.
First off, I felt bad that I didnt A) make a bigger splash about Carolyn Murray's huge breakthrough last weekend, and B) Sam McGlone's big win that day too! Ok, first Carolyn. Her and I were classmates at Paul Kane High (Class of '94) and I remember how excited I was when she started racing with the elites. I think she finished in about 25th in her first time in Edmonton ITU race way back in 2002, and even though she might have been in the 6th bike pack, it was pretty cool to see her racing. Now she wins a race against Olympic medalists! That's pretty cool indeed. Good luck to her moving forward, even though I'm not sure she's "the fave" to make the Olympic Team. I would love her and Sweetland to both make the team though!
Oh yeah, I absolutely didn't make a huge deal about Sam McGlone winning Wildflower (half Ironman) last weekend. Sam McGlone keeps improving (her run at Wildflower was 1h24m, unreal) to win by 5 minutes, but there are too many long-distance triathlons to really have all the faves compete all the time. So Sam beat a few elite females, but not the super-elite field she'll be facing at Kona. Still, she'll toe the line in Kona as a potential winner every year for the foreseeable future. Macca won the mens race if you care.
Here is an rather risque ad (some would say controversial) featuring Ms McGlone for fizik saddles. Pretty funny since she's rather shy in person. But I guess if it gets people talking...
Before I move on, I should add that there was another big race last weekend, the St Croix Ironman 70.3. It was won by probably the two best 70.3 athletes in the world (who are both Australian I should add), Craig Alexander and Miranda Carfrae. This known is known for two reasons, one being the fact that it's on a Caribbean island, and the other is simply known as The Beast. This hill has an average grade of 14% and touches 21% in sections. Awesome. Even the pros suffer on The Beast!
Before moving on two some real bike-Y stories this week, two more quick tri-related things. The first is an article from NBC on Javier Gomez where it says that he can swim 1500m in under 16 minutes. Hmmm. That is rather fast. So assuming he can swim up front and doesn't flat on the bike, there is really no reason why he shouldn't win in Beijing. Unbelievable talent that can swim as fast as he can and still be a world-class 10K runner too!
However, Simon Whitfield's blog had a great picture of him as he trained to beat Gomez. It's him right after he finished a treadmill workout in a heated room. Looks like fun...
Ok, now on to 100% bike-y stuff. Before we move on to the race stuff, the much-vaunted Biological Passport in Pro Cycling (basically a blood sample that gives a baseline value for each rider) appears to have caught it's first cheater. Surprisingly, it appears that there have been no leaks and they haven't announced who it is. Stay tuned...it might be a big name!
Speaking of big names, this weekend (tomorrow) the Giro d'Italia starts! This is the second biggest race on the cycling calendar (except for the Spaniards) and it goes for the next three weeks from Palermo to Milano. The three early faves are Gilberto Simoni, Danilo Diluca, and Alberto Contador. Oh yeah, Astana got a last minute invite, so Contador, Leipheimer, and Kloden are all in! Should be an epic race. But among all the world champions, olympic champions, and grand tour winners, i'll be watching a Canuck! Yep, Canada has a rep in the Giro. Ryder Hesjedal is riding for Team Slipstream, and the 27-year old is hoping to have a great Giro and become the first Canadian in 10 years to ride in the Tour in July. He's an ex-pro mountain biker, and now he's one of 198 starters in the biggest race of the year. He actually has ridden the Giro in '05 for Discovery and the Vuelta in '06 for Phonak, but he was there for experience. He's now ready to be a key team member. This article has lots more on him. I'll be sure to be keeping you up-to-date on his results.
Scary story out of Australia. A group of 50 amateur and pro cyclists were out riding at 630 am in Sydney when a driver, apparently upset at them blocking the road, accelerated around the pack and then stopped quickly, resulting in about 20 injuries and numerous broken bikes. Be careful out there.
But I do have a solution for those before-dawn or post-dusk rides. Yeah, a light on the helmet is great, but what about a bike that glows? Check out this bike from Puma, part of their Urban Mobility line. Cool. Very cool.
Okay, that's it for now...i need to go ride my bike-y!
Again, another hugely busy week...here goes nothing.
First off, I felt bad that I didnt A) make a bigger splash about Carolyn Murray's huge breakthrough last weekend, and B) Sam McGlone's big win that day too! Ok, first Carolyn. Her and I were classmates at Paul Kane High (Class of '94) and I remember how excited I was when she started racing with the elites. I think she finished in about 25th in her first time in Edmonton ITU race way back in 2002, and even though she might have been in the 6th bike pack, it was pretty cool to see her racing. Now she wins a race against Olympic medalists! That's pretty cool indeed. Good luck to her moving forward, even though I'm not sure she's "the fave" to make the Olympic Team. I would love her and Sweetland to both make the team though!
Oh yeah, I absolutely didn't make a huge deal about Sam McGlone winning Wildflower (half Ironman) last weekend. Sam McGlone keeps improving (her run at Wildflower was 1h24m, unreal) to win by 5 minutes, but there are too many long-distance triathlons to really have all the faves compete all the time. So Sam beat a few elite females, but not the super-elite field she'll be facing at Kona. Still, she'll toe the line in Kona as a potential winner every year for the foreseeable future. Macca won the mens race if you care.
Here is an rather risque ad (some would say controversial) featuring Ms McGlone for fizik saddles. Pretty funny since she's rather shy in person. But I guess if it gets people talking...
Before I move on, I should add that there was another big race last weekend, the St Croix Ironman 70.3. It was won by probably the two best 70.3 athletes in the world (who are both Australian I should add), Craig Alexander and Miranda Carfrae. This known is known for two reasons, one being the fact that it's on a Caribbean island, and the other is simply known as The Beast. This hill has an average grade of 14% and touches 21% in sections. Awesome. Even the pros suffer on The Beast!
Before moving on two some real bike-Y stories this week, two more quick tri-related things. The first is an article from NBC on Javier Gomez where it says that he can swim 1500m in under 16 minutes. Hmmm. That is rather fast. So assuming he can swim up front and doesn't flat on the bike, there is really no reason why he shouldn't win in Beijing. Unbelievable talent that can swim as fast as he can and still be a world-class 10K runner too!
However, Simon Whitfield's blog had a great picture of him as he trained to beat Gomez. It's him right after he finished a treadmill workout in a heated room. Looks like fun...
Ok, now on to 100% bike-y stuff. Before we move on to the race stuff, the much-vaunted Biological Passport in Pro Cycling (basically a blood sample that gives a baseline value for each rider) appears to have caught it's first cheater. Surprisingly, it appears that there have been no leaks and they haven't announced who it is. Stay tuned...it might be a big name!
Speaking of big names, this weekend (tomorrow) the Giro d'Italia starts! This is the second biggest race on the cycling calendar (except for the Spaniards) and it goes for the next three weeks from Palermo to Milano. The three early faves are Gilberto Simoni, Danilo Diluca, and Alberto Contador. Oh yeah, Astana got a last minute invite, so Contador, Leipheimer, and Kloden are all in! Should be an epic race. But among all the world champions, olympic champions, and grand tour winners, i'll be watching a Canuck! Yep, Canada has a rep in the Giro. Ryder Hesjedal is riding for Team Slipstream, and the 27-year old is hoping to have a great Giro and become the first Canadian in 10 years to ride in the Tour in July. He's an ex-pro mountain biker, and now he's one of 198 starters in the biggest race of the year. He actually has ridden the Giro in '05 for Discovery and the Vuelta in '06 for Phonak, but he was there for experience. He's now ready to be a key team member. This article has lots more on him. I'll be sure to be keeping you up-to-date on his results.
Scary story out of Australia. A group of 50 amateur and pro cyclists were out riding at 630 am in Sydney when a driver, apparently upset at them blocking the road, accelerated around the pack and then stopped quickly, resulting in about 20 injuries and numerous broken bikes. Be careful out there.
But I do have a solution for those before-dawn or post-dusk rides. Yeah, a light on the helmet is great, but what about a bike that glows? Check out this bike from Puma, part of their Urban Mobility line. Cool. Very cool.
Okay, that's it for now...i need to go ride my bike-y!
Monday, May 5, 2008
O Canada indeed!
For the second time this season, a Canadian wins an ITU race! Carolyn Murray won Sunday's ITU race in Richards Bay, South Africa, with a great run off the bike. This is Carolyn Murray's best ever finish (her previous was an 8th place finish in 2005) and puts her squarely in the running for a spot at the Olympics. Kathy Tremblay (4th) and Kyle Jones (4th - mens race) also had great results.
So we now have three Canadian women with Top-8 finishes this year, and 2 guys who have done the same. Plus, Colin Jenkins still lurks as an at-large selection option. It will be a big day in Vancouver on June 8th.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Phew...race season flying along
Hey All,
Writing a blog about swimming, biking, and running (and triathlon i suppose i should add to that list) is much easier in January than in May. There is just so much to talk about, to report on, to preview, and to vent on! So on to the news o' the week...
Last week there were two very different world-class Olympic distance triathlons. The ITU race in South Korea was won by Tim Don over Bevan Docherty, with Bike-Y fave Paul Tichelaar rolling in in 6th place (that guy is kicking ass in 2008). The womens race was won by Samantha Warriner over Hollie Avil (more on her below) with Canadian Beijing-hopeful Kirsten Sweetland in 5th place in her first race in 7 months! If you've been following Bike-Y, you know that gives her the Part 1 of the Canadian Qualifying protocol and now she needs a Top 8 at ITU Worlds in Vancouver to get her ticket punched. If you want to more know about Ms Sweetland, here's a Q&A with her.
On the same day that the ITU guys/gals raced in South Korea, there was another race in St Petersburg, Florida. The St Anthony's Triathlon has been going for 25 years, and is a big money Olympic-distance event. This year's men's race finished with Matt Reed, Andy Potts, Greg Bennett, and Craig Alexander going 1-2-3-4. Sarah Haskins won the ladies race, with other notables including Mirinda Carfrae (3rd), Sam McGlone (4th), Becky Lavelle (5th), Nina Kraft (7th), and my new fave name for a women pro, Bree Wee (9th).
So why I am talking about this? The ITU race (as you may know) is draft-legal. St Anthony's (like Chicago Triathlon, LifeTime Fitness, New York Triathlon, etc) is not. This is very evident when you watch the race. Both ITU races had upwards of 20 competitors coming off the bike at the same time, while the St Anthony's race had both winners being the first runner out of T2 since they actually swam/biked faster than the rest of the field. Every ITU race seems to be a frenzied swim to join a bike pack, then either one bike pack beats the other to T2 which results in someone from Pack 1 winning, or it turns into one huge pack where the best runner wins the race. ITU racing is draft-legal for one reason: television. But from a great racing point of view, draft-legal sucks. And it sure that lots of "veteran" triathletes or long-distance triathletes enjoy doing the Olympic-distance non-drafting events. I'm just scared that too many ITU races are won by the best runners rather than the best triathletes. Or maybe it's just me...
Ok, even if I did vent against ITU, they are a great global tour (plus Canadians are doing great). Here's a great video recap of the 2007 season in case I appear too anti-ITU.
I just found out one more thing about the Beijing Olympic Qualifying. Only the Top 8 countries get 3 spots for each of the Men's and Women's Olympic Triathlons. Now Canada appears to be in great shape, but the USA is in 8th place (and under pressure from Russia who is in 9th) on the Men's side. This could lead to a shocking result in which the US only gets 2 spots, which means that both Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper would stay home (since neither of them have spots yet). Crazy. Math majors can read the details here.
One last Canadian Olympic note: HBC (who took over outfitting the Canadian team from Roots in 2006...i think) announced the Beijing outfits this week. Not bad, lots of loud colours, lots of huge Canada logos, and some very nice Chinese influences. You can see (and order) men's products here, and women's stuff here.
Whoops, almost forget about Hollie Avil. From Great Britain, she raced her first ITU race in April, one freakin' DAY after she turned 18. Oh that's only the begining. She finished that race in 3rd place (behind Emma Snowsill and Erin Densham) then finished her second ITU race in 2nd place! This girl is amazing. A lot like Sweetland last year, who turned pro early, Avil is quickly becoming a favorite in every race she starts. She hasn't qualified for the Olympics, but early indications are that she might be one of the faves if she makes it...here's her profile if you want to know more.
Two quickies before I wrap up...an editorial about triathletes, open-water swimming, and sharks! This is obviously a follow-up on last week's tragic death (see last week's Bike-y if you missed it), but it makes being a triathlete in Alberta seem not as bad as I thought...
Oh yeah: new product alert! Although we might not see it north of the border for a bit, the good folks at Gu have a new gel called Roctane. I guess it's something they have been making for pros like Michellie Jones for a while, but it's now ready for the public. It has extra citrate, amino acids, and something called histidine in it, and is supposed to be an improvement over current gels in it's ability to slow muscle fatigue. Does it work? Who knows? But the initial flavour: Blueberry Pomegranate? Yummy....
Another huge weekend this weekend, but Inside Tri did the work for me and previewed the Wildflower Triathlon (go Sam McGlone and Jasper Blake!) , the St Croix 70.3 Race (Lessing vs Alexander vs Al-Sultan!) and the ITU Race in South Africa (5 Canadians competing in a pretty watered down field). Darn it, guess next week will be busy as well.
Next week: the Giro d'Italia! See you Friday...
This weekend...
Writing a blog about swimming, biking, and running (and triathlon i suppose i should add to that list) is much easier in January than in May. There is just so much to talk about, to report on, to preview, and to vent on! So on to the news o' the week...
Last week there were two very different world-class Olympic distance triathlons. The ITU race in South Korea was won by Tim Don over Bevan Docherty, with Bike-Y fave Paul Tichelaar rolling in in 6th place (that guy is kicking ass in 2008). The womens race was won by Samantha Warriner over Hollie Avil (more on her below) with Canadian Beijing-hopeful Kirsten Sweetland in 5th place in her first race in 7 months! If you've been following Bike-Y, you know that gives her the Part 1 of the Canadian Qualifying protocol and now she needs a Top 8 at ITU Worlds in Vancouver to get her ticket punched. If you want to more know about Ms Sweetland, here's a Q&A with her.
On the same day that the ITU guys/gals raced in South Korea, there was another race in St Petersburg, Florida. The St Anthony's Triathlon has been going for 25 years, and is a big money Olympic-distance event. This year's men's race finished with Matt Reed, Andy Potts, Greg Bennett, and Craig Alexander going 1-2-3-4. Sarah Haskins won the ladies race, with other notables including Mirinda Carfrae (3rd), Sam McGlone (4th), Becky Lavelle (5th), Nina Kraft (7th), and my new fave name for a women pro, Bree Wee (9th).
So why I am talking about this? The ITU race (as you may know) is draft-legal. St Anthony's (like Chicago Triathlon, LifeTime Fitness, New York Triathlon, etc) is not. This is very evident when you watch the race. Both ITU races had upwards of 20 competitors coming off the bike at the same time, while the St Anthony's race had both winners being the first runner out of T2 since they actually swam/biked faster than the rest of the field. Every ITU race seems to be a frenzied swim to join a bike pack, then either one bike pack beats the other to T2 which results in someone from Pack 1 winning, or it turns into one huge pack where the best runner wins the race. ITU racing is draft-legal for one reason: television. But from a great racing point of view, draft-legal sucks. And it sure that lots of "veteran" triathletes or long-distance triathletes enjoy doing the Olympic-distance non-drafting events. I'm just scared that too many ITU races are won by the best runners rather than the best triathletes. Or maybe it's just me...
Ok, even if I did vent against ITU, they are a great global tour (plus Canadians are doing great). Here's a great video recap of the 2007 season in case I appear too anti-ITU.
I just found out one more thing about the Beijing Olympic Qualifying. Only the Top 8 countries get 3 spots for each of the Men's and Women's Olympic Triathlons. Now Canada appears to be in great shape, but the USA is in 8th place (and under pressure from Russia who is in 9th) on the Men's side. This could lead to a shocking result in which the US only gets 2 spots, which means that both Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper would stay home (since neither of them have spots yet). Crazy. Math majors can read the details here.
One last Canadian Olympic note: HBC (who took over outfitting the Canadian team from Roots in 2006...i think) announced the Beijing outfits this week. Not bad, lots of loud colours, lots of huge Canada logos, and some very nice Chinese influences. You can see (and order) men's products here, and women's stuff here.
Whoops, almost forget about Hollie Avil. From Great Britain, she raced her first ITU race in April, one freakin' DAY after she turned 18. Oh that's only the begining. She finished that race in 3rd place (behind Emma Snowsill and Erin Densham) then finished her second ITU race in 2nd place! This girl is amazing. A lot like Sweetland last year, who turned pro early, Avil is quickly becoming a favorite in every race she starts. She hasn't qualified for the Olympics, but early indications are that she might be one of the faves if she makes it...here's her profile if you want to know more.
Two quickies before I wrap up...an editorial about triathletes, open-water swimming, and sharks! This is obviously a follow-up on last week's tragic death (see last week's Bike-y if you missed it), but it makes being a triathlete in Alberta seem not as bad as I thought...
Oh yeah: new product alert! Although we might not see it north of the border for a bit, the good folks at Gu have a new gel called Roctane. I guess it's something they have been making for pros like Michellie Jones for a while, but it's now ready for the public. It has extra citrate, amino acids, and something called histidine in it, and is supposed to be an improvement over current gels in it's ability to slow muscle fatigue. Does it work? Who knows? But the initial flavour: Blueberry Pomegranate? Yummy....
Another huge weekend this weekend, but Inside Tri did the work for me and previewed the Wildflower Triathlon (go Sam McGlone and Jasper Blake!) , the St Croix 70.3 Race (Lessing vs Alexander vs Al-Sultan!) and the ITU Race in South Africa (5 Canadians competing in a pretty watered down field). Darn it, guess next week will be busy as well.
Next week: the Giro d'Italia! See you Friday...
This weekend...
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