Less Bike-Y This Week...

Hi All,

Lots of Canadian content to follow up on below, but let's start with some updates...

After last week's huge Tour Down Under and Lance Armstrong focus, this week has way less cycling headlines. Yes, Lance did continue to attack in the last two stages, even launching off the front with 2k in the last stage (he got caught within seconds) and ended up in 29th place overall. I think Lance would consider this first stage race a success as it wasn't really an Armstrong type race (no time trials, no real mountain stages). Lance is now back in the USA training in advance of the Tour of California which starts in mid-February. The two Canadians in the field in Australia finished in 11th place (Hesjedal) and 25th place (Meier) so that was pretty good week for them as well.

Ok, Canadian stuff. First off, some bad news for Triathlon Canada. Their Head High Performance Coach for the last 4 years, Joel Filliol, is leaving Canada to become the head coach for Great Britain in advance of the 2012 Olympics. Filliol has also been Simon Whitfield's personal coach for the last few years. So now Canada must search for a new head coach to develop our next generation of Olympic triathletes. Not good. Of course, with the Olympics coming to London in 2012, Great Britain wants to put on a great showing in all sports, so hiring the best coaches is part of it. So for them to come to Canada to take our best coaches obviously speaks well to our sport development program. But their gain is our loss. And this makes two high profile Canadian coaches in the last month or so (Tyler Christopher's coach Kevin Tyler also got a new job with UK Athletics) that are leaving Canada.

Ok, lots of marathoning news this week, and even some more Canadian news. Last week I reported on Andrew Smith's impressive 2:16 marathon in Houston. However, I missed reporting that in the same race, fellow Canadian Lioudmila Kortchaguina ran 2:30:43 and finished third on the female side. Nice result, and the $7000 in prize money is not too shabby either. It is the fastest marathon by a Canadian marathoner since Kortchaguina ran 2:29 in 2006. We now have 6 Canadian women who have run 2:41 or better in the past year and a bit, so that speaks well for our chances of taking a whole team to Berlin in August for the World Championships.

Speaking of fast Canadians, Jon Brown slid under the Bike-Y radar in December. He finally got over his pre-Beijing injuries to run 2:12 in the Fukuoka Marathon. This made him the fastest Canadian of 2008, and would have qualified for Beijing except he did it about 7 months too late. The good news is that Jon Brown is obviously on the comeback trail and should hopefully have some more good results in 2009.

A few other marathon notes this week. On top of Haile Gebrselassie and Sammy Wanjiru saying last week that they are planning attempts at the men's marathon world record this year, Robert Cheruiyot stated this week that his goal for 2009 is trying to set a new world record during August's Berlin Marathon. He will be defending his Boston Marathon title in April (against Ryan Hall) before trying to reload before August's big race. This is a different race than the normal Berlin Marathon in September that Geb normally runs (the August race is part of the World Championships) and it appears that Wanjiru wants to run against Geb in September. But there will be plenty of fast guys in Berlin in August as well.

Paula Radcliffe is also planning to make the trip to Berlin in August as well. She hasn't run in the World Championships since 2005 (she skipped 2007 with injury) and plans to regain her title. But she is currently training in New Mexico at altitude to try and get ready for the London Marathon. I'm not sure if she has eased off her prediction of trying for a new women's WR in London, but she will definitely be gunning for the win. The London race will feature all 3 women's medalists from Beijing, and 5 of the top 6 finishers from that race. Plus Radcliffe. Plus real fast Ethiopians Berhane Adere and Geta Wami will be there. So this could be an epic battle.

Cool race of the week is actually being held on Tuesday. Yep, 350 lucky athletes get to run up the Empire State Building. I guess you can only run the 86 floors once a year for safety reasons, and it would be pretty cool to run all the way to the top of what used to be the world's tallest building. The amazing part is that it takes the top runners only 10 minutes to climb the 1576 steps. You have to apply to the race organizers to be considered to race the event, and last year's winners came all the way from Germany and Australia to compete.



That's all for this week...next week we will do more of the above! Have a good weekend. And go Cardinals!

Lance Down Under, His New Bike, and Running News...

As much fun as it has been following Lance's progress in Australia, there has been a few other stories this week that need some attention, so grab a coffee and sit down for the update!

Ok, although the expectations for Lance were a little high in his first race in three-and-a-half years, it has been a great week in Australia. Although no one really expected Lance to win the Tour Down Under, he has at least competed during a few of the stages. He briefly was in a breakaway in Stage 2, and in Stage 3 was part of a 14-man breakaway that stayed away for 90 km. However, every stage has come down to a peloton sprint, and sprinters have won ever stage so far. With two stages to go, Lance is in 38th place overall after finishing with the main peloton in every stage. Lance is riding his special-edition Trek Madone 6.9 Livestrong bike, with a very cool paint job and lots of cancer reminders (including the number 27.5 on the seatstay which represents the number in millions of people who have died globally since Lance retired after winning the 2005 Tour).


Surprisingly, two Canadians (!) are ahead of Lance, with Garmin-Slipstream teammates Ryder Hesjedal (11th place) and Christian Meier (30th place) both performing well in Australia. I don't know much about Christian Meier, but his bio at the Garmin-Slipstream team site says he's only 23 years old, and is the defending Canadian Road Race Champion. Sounds like someone to keep an eye on as we move forward. There could be four Canadians in next month's Amgen Tour of California if Svein Tuft (also on Garmin) and Dominique Rollin (Cervelo Test Team) also compete.

The Tour of California will also feature another comeback, this time featuring Lance's former teammate Floyd Landis. Landis, who rode shotgun with Lance in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Tours, will be riding his first race after his two-year suspension for doping ends this week. Landis is riding for the OUCH Pro Cycling Team (which is not a ProTour team, just a Continental team) but will be riding in 2009 to try and get a contact for 2010. Landis is only 33 years old, so he still has a few years to compete at the highest level. He was last seen in the 2006 Tour, which he won but was stripped of his title after testing positive for a high testosterone/epitestosterone ratio. I agree with Armstrong's comments that "it's no use to criticize Landis or Basso since they've paid their penalty" . Basso will also be in California, along with Carlos Sastre, Levi Leipheimer, Lance, and Fabian Cancellara. Now that should be a great race...

A quick update on the world of elite marathoners - it appears that Haile Gebrselassie will be attempting to break the world half-marathon record (currently held by Sammy Wanjiru in 58:33) at a race in the Netherlands in March. Wanjiru, who won the Olympic Gold last August, is talking about running the Berlin Marathon in September in an attempt to beat Geb's marathon world record. It's nice to see them trying to out-do each other, even though Wanjiru is only 22 and Geb is 35!

More good news for Canadians - this time in the running world. 29-year-old Andrew Smith from Toronto ran 2:16:14 at last weekend's Houston Marathon! That's wicked fast, and fast enough that Canada will actually send Smith to Berlin in August to run in the World Marathon Championships. He needed to run sub-2:18 (the women's standard is sub-2:43) and despite thinking he might run 2:15, he was thrilled with his time since it was a 3 minute improvement over his first marathon. Smith is a member of the Brooks Canada Marathon Project, which is a 6-year 1.5 million commitment from Brooks Canada to develop Canadian marathoning! I love the idea, and hopefully we will see more Canadians in big marathons in the next while...

So Brooks is doing well enough to support Canadian marathoners, but Reebok is obviously not. Reebok this week laid off 300 workers and basically eliminated all their specialty running positions. This bring to mind an obvious question: does Reebok even make real specialty running shoes anymore? I can't remember the last time I've seen a regular runner wearing Reebok's...to be completely honest, Adidas did buy Reebok last year and it really doesn't make too sense to have Reebok running shoes competing being sold next to Adidas running shoes. I assume Reebok will become a bargain brand, and make a comeback in 5 years, once the US economy recovers. The running shoe industry is growing by one next week, when UnderArmour launches their shoe line on the 31st. Nothing like timing a shoe launch with the economy in a recession, but UnderArmour is spending millions on the launch. It's slogan is "Athletes Run" and is aiming primarily at those non-traditional runners. The shoes do look pretty good, and have a pretty competitive price point.


Here is the commercial they are using for launch. Not a bad first attempt...

However, UnderArmour can't compete with Nike just yet. Check out these two cool commercials from Nike, the first from 2000 and the second one a new viral commercial that is bouncing around the web.





Lots more next week! Enjoy your weekend...

Geb comes close and Lance is still making news...

Hi All,

Ah, we're finally into race season 2009, with plenty of racing to come. But this week and next we are finally seeing the first running and cycling races of note (triathlon World Cup and Ironman don't really get rolling until March), so there are actual races to report on. Here goes...

Haile Gebrselassie competed today in the Dubai Marathon, with a potential million dollar payday for breaking the world record (which would be his 26th overall world record, and his third in the marathon). His last 3 attempts at the marathon distance were the 3 fastest in history, and he mentioned this week that "it is possible we might get something good" on Friday. He wanted to run 61:45 for the first half (slower than last year's 61:27, which was too fast for him), and Friday he ran the perfect half, hitting halfway in exactly 61:45! He sped up a bit and was 25 seconds under world record pace at 28k, but a freak rain storm appeared to slow him. Now slowing to 15:11 for the 5k between 30k and 35k might not sound like much, but he lost over 30 seconds in that interval made the world record impossible. The wet pavement appeared to bother Geb, but he maintained his speed to finish in 2:05:29, the 8th fastest marathon of all time. So no world record on this day, but it appears that Geb is in good enough shape to make another run at it in 2009!


And to be gender equal, the women's race was a battle between 3 Ethiopians with Bezunesh Bekele holding on to win in 2:24:09. She's only 25 and will be a contender for years to come. And overall, it was an amazing day for Ethiopia, as they took 8 in the Top 10 in both men's and women's races! Ridiculous.

Okay, more track news. Usain Bolt might be coming to Canada! Unlike Ben Johnson and other Jamaican sprinters who moved to Canada and became Canadian citizens, Bolt is only coming for one race. Athletics Canada is trying to lure Bolt for a meet in Toronto on June 10. According to reports, Bolt would be paid a cool quarter-million just to show up. Bolt made headlines in December when he claimed he thinks he could run as fast as 9.58 in 2009. He says he is a below-average starter and believes he can still make great strides there. It's not looking good for the rest of the sprinters...

The other big news in track & field this month is news that the Golden League, which is the big money series of meets held every summer in Europe, might be expanding from 6 to 12 events and expanding worldwide. While the chance of the Golden League ever coming to Canada is pretty remote (Edmonton 2001 was the our last chance), there is a good chance that New York, Los Angeles, or Eugene might get a spot on the 2010 Golden League calendar. Anything that potentially increases the profile of Track in North America is great news.

Youtube find of the week is a classic blooper. Check out Gunther Wiedlinger running the steeplechase. Despite the little mishap, Wiedlinger is still running and this weekend is gunning for the Austrian record in the marathon. He would then own every Austrian running record from the 1500m to the marathon. That is a ridiculous range of running speed.

Moving over to things more bike-y, Lance Armstrong is all over the news. I guess we should expect that he will become the major celebrity of this blog when he races the Tour, the Giro, in Australia, the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, etc. The circus starts next week when Lance starts his comeback at the Tour Down Under, a six-day stage race in Australia. With 18 ProTour teams in the field, it will be a good challenge. I doubt we'll see a classic Lance breakaway, but hopefully he can show he can keep up and occasionally make the rest of the field sweat his presence. A full update next week!

Lance is really in great shape this year. For those who want to see some great riding pictures of Lance, check out this link. And for those of you who want to see a shirtless Lance life weights, check out this video. The reason I'm commenting on his fitness is that the February 2009 issue of Outside magazine includes Lance answering the question we all want answered...Will you ever do an Ironman?

Yeah. Whenever I'm done with this [comeback]. I can unequivocally say yes to that. That's a fact. And I get asked that question every day. I don't know when it was, less than a year ago, that I got some of these Ironman DVDs. I said, Let's see what that's all about. So we've been watching them for the past year. I'm definitely motivated to do an Ironman. We'll go back and I'll be close to 40, but I've swam more in the last three years than before that. And I don't want to just do an Ironman. I don't want to approach it like I approached the marathons. I want to do it as fast as I can.


Stay tuned. If Lance ever did an Ironman it would be the biggest thing to happen to Ironman since Julie Moss crawled across the finish line in 1982 on Wide World of Sports.


I'll keep you posted. Enjoy the weekend!

January is busy!

Hi All,

With NO races of note this week, I was surprised that so many things made headlines this past week. It promises to be a busy update ahead, so grab a Starbucks and settle in.

First off, big news in the world of Ironman races. WTC (World Triathlon Corporation), who own the Ironman brand worldwide, puchased the race assets of all the NAS (North American Sports) Ironman races in the US. This is big news because WTC appears to be reigning in its own licensees (NAS was the largest) and retain more power over its brand and trademark. For the last number of years, NAS has put on races including Ironman Canada, Lake Placid, and Florida, and has gradually expanded with races in Couer d'Alene, Wisconsin, and Arizona. As some of you may remember, WTC itself was bought a venture capital company in fall of 2008, leading to speculation over the future of the brand and its races. This re-purchase of US Ironman races might be the first step in the "evolution" of Ironman in North America.

What does this mean for the average Ironman triathlete? In the short term, probably not much, at least at the local race level. It appears that many of the key NAS executives (president Paula Newby-Fraser, race directors Paul Huddle and Roch Frey) will be transitioning into similar role with WTC. But with one corporation now running the show and looking to make changes, it would be safe to assume that prices could go up, race fields could get bigger (more relay teams?) and the races experience might become more homogenous.

Some of you might have noticed my awkward first sentence where I mentioned 'all of the NAS Ironman races in the US'. Curiously, and for still unknown reasons, Ironman Canada was not included in this transaction. And although it seems that Ironman Canada is still an official "Ironman" for now, this could be in jeopardy down the road. There could potentially be contract issues to be worked out down the road, but it is no sure that Ironman Canada 2012 will not be an Iron-distance race in distance only. However, I am optimistic that Graham Fraser, who is retaining the license for Ironman Canada, will continue to defend the best interests of Penticton and the 2400 athletes who descend on this area every August. Stay tuned.

More doping news - Chris McCormack was interviewed this week and alleged that "drug culture is huge in Europe" and is pervading the sport of triathlon. Although he didn't name any names, he said that drug use is "so blatant in Italy and Spain". He also mentioned that he used to get tested a lot under IOC testing and that testing in triathlon is more stringent than in cycling. Ha. Since McCormack has switched from ITU racing to Ironman racing, I doubt very much that he gets tested very much. With Ironman Hawaii only tests the Top 10 pro men and women post-race, the chances that Ironman has a potentially huge drug problem does exist.

Cycling news: Lance was spouting off this week that his Team Astana is so strong this year that they could sweep the Tour de France podium in July. I'll admit that they do have the two favorites (Armstrong and Contador) but can't imagine that they won't burn out the rest of their teammates so that Contador and Armstrong have lots left for the end of each stage. So I will go out on a ledge and predict that there is no chance that they sweep the podium...

Speaking of Team Astana, fave doper Alexander Vinokourov's status for 2009 is still up in the air. He was originally given just a one-year suspension by his Kazakhstan Cycling Federation when he was caught blood doping in the 2007 Tour, despite the UCI recommending the usual 2-year suspension. He "retired" soon after, so the matter was dropped. Now he is "unretiring" and the UCI wants the 2-year ban, which would last until mid-July 2009. So the courts are involved. Another 2007 cheater - fellow suspended bike racer Michael Rasmussen is also aiming at returning to racing in summer 2009. Assuming he can find a team to employ him. Again, stay tuned...

Tongue-in-cheek product of the week - the new Speedplay Nanogram Zero. What's so great about these? Well, they weigh nothing - only 65g per pedal. So light, in fact, that they are recommended only for race-day use! Actually, the regular Speedplay Titanium Zero's only weigh 82g per pedal. So you save 17g per pedal. Yep, for only $630 per pair. Which is a hefty $325 MORE than the already expensive Titanium pair. Ridiculous. Ha. Sounds like lots of age groupers will be stocking up on these!

Tongue-in-cheek product of the week part 2 - the new Schwinn Tailwind. It premiered this week at an electronics show, and is supposedly the world's fastest charging electric bicycle. Yep, for only $3200, you can own a bike that produces 180 watts of continuous power. I'm pretty sure that I don't produce 180 watts of continuous power! Wow. Anyhow, it's not likely that I'll ever own an electric bike, but it does warrant a mention since it is a velo-lutionary product! Terrible, i'll move on...

This week does get a real product of the week - the Trek District. This bike is cool for two reasons, the orange wheels and the uber-cool carbon fibre belt that takes the place of a chain. This singlespeed is virtually maintenance free, and definitely looks cooler riding down the street than some chunky & clunky mountain bike. And for around $1000, it is a much better investment than a pair and a half of stupidly light pedals!

Next Friday - lots of track and field news! And potentially a new world record in the marathon, as Haile Gebrselassie is racing Friday in Dubai with his eye on another world record!! And he says he's in better shape than last year...Go Geb Go...

A Bike-Y New Year!

Hi All,

2009 is already here, but before I start talking about the year ahead, i did want to recap a couple of stories from 2008...

First off, doping news. Frank Schleck is officially free and clear. He has been cleared by the Luxembourg Anti-Doping Agency of any doping related charges, despite a paper trail where it is alleged that Schleck paid Dr Fuentes (of Operation Puerto infamy) about $10,000. The anti-doping agency has found no other links between Schleck and Fuentes in their investigation, and thus have dismissed all the charges.

So that was great news for Team CSC and fans of Schleck. Unfortunately, one of their major sponsors for 2009 has gone bankrupt. You may recall that CSC was going to pull out of cycling after the 2008 season. Co-sponsor Saxo Bank was to take over, and their role as secondary sponsor was to be filled by IT Factory, another technology company. Unfortunately for them, only two months after joining on, the company has gone bankrupt and their CEO has gone "missing" on a trip to Dubai. So now the team that was CSC became CSC-Saxo Bank in mid 2008, then was to be Saxo Bank-IT Factory in 2009 but is now Saxo Bank - TBA.

Canada's best professional cyclist, Ryder Hesjedal, is getting ready for 2009 too. His blog announced that he is planning to ride against Lance in Australia later in January, plus trips to Italy for the Giro and the Tour in July! So hopefully he can stay healthy and have a great year in 2009. He also posted a great video of his training in Hawaii just before Christmas. It makes me want to do a training camp in Hawaii!



Ryder Hesjedal will probably be joined by his new teammate and fellow Canuck Svein Tuft at the Giro d'Italia. However, the big news in this year's Giro will be the Grand Tour comebacks of Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso. Other big name cyclists who have said they will compete include Damiano Cunego, Gilberto Simoni, Carlos Sastre, Danilo DiLuca, and Denis Menchov. This year is the 100th Giro, and lots of special events will happen for the anniversary edition. It includes such things as getting designers Dolce & Gabbana to design this year's maglia rosa.


Some running news for 2009. Good news, Haile Gebrselassie is going to start 2009 with the Dubai Marathon on January 16th. Gebrselassie has run the 3 fastest marathons of all time in his last 3 marathons, and with Dubai offering a million dollar bonus for a new world record, it's possible that Geb might break his 2:03:59 record that he set in Berlin in September. Sean Hartnett from Track & Field News actually did a great poster of Geb's run in Berlin with splits of every kilometer during his record-breaking run. As you can see, Geb ran a negative split (about 11 seconds faster in the second half) and was metronomic, with one 13 km stretch where he ran between 2:56 and 2:59 per km. Just clockwork precision! A recent article on Geb helps uncover some of his secrets - like the two hours he runs every morning before going to work (he is a business owner in Ethiopia) before a second running workout every night.

More running news, and this has a definite Edmonton connection. Kevin Tyler, who has been coaching Canadian sprinters such as Tyler Christopher to world-class status in Edmonton since 2001, is leaving Canada to become head of coaching and development for UK Athletics. Too bad for Edmonton and for Athletics Canada. I was hoping Tyler would have gotten the job as the new head coach for Athletics Canada (Alex Gardiner was chosen to replace Les Gramantik). I'm hoping for good things to continue with the Edmonton sprinters (now coached by Derek Everly) and for Team Canada. Despite only the one medal in Beijing (from hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep), Canada's program still has many prospects for London 2012.

My New Year's Resolutions are as follows:

1. Try to go 52 for 52 for posting this blog on Friday's this year! But I do like the Monday recaps as well after busy weekends. So expect more posts in 2009 that 2008.
2. Expand the bike-y universe and spend a little more time on road racing (marathons etc) and track & field events.
3. Bike more!

Happy New Year Everyone!