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...