Lots of updates this week, plus a look ahead at a few things to come. There's some big news at the bottom so read the whole blog...lots of videos near the bottom too!
First off, the Spring Classics have begun over in Europe. Over in Belgium last weekend, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne were last weekend, and with both races close to 200 km in length with numerous cobblestone sections, they are fairly taxing for early season racing. The big names did rise to the top though, with Thor Hushovd winning on Saturday and Tom Boonen winning on Sunday. Hushovd's teammate and Bikey fave Dominique Rollin never really got going in either race, finishing 137th on Saturday (12 minutes down) and 52nd on Sunday (8 minutes down). Oh well, the good thing about the early bike season is there is always another race to tackle next week!
If you go thru a list of the one-day northern Spring Classics, you might have trouble recognizing most of them. Actually, the "big races" on the calendar are probably all in April, with Tour de Flanders on April 5th, Gent-Wevelgem on April 8th, and Paris-Roubaix on April 12th, then a tough week in late April with Amstel Gold, La Fleche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The only "southern" Classic is Milan-San Remo later in March in Italy, and will incidently be the European kick-off for one Lance Armstrong. He has switched around his schedule and is now going to race with his teammate Alberto Contador from March 23-27 in the Castille and Leon Vuelta. You might remember that they were not supposed to team up until the Tour, but perhaps the Astana team wants to ensure that they can play nice together.
Speaking of Astana, tomorrow they enter the Paris-Nice stage race as the favorite with Contador expected to win the 8-day event for the second time (he won it in 2007). There are not a lot of huge names in the race (complete list here) but Contador will probably hold off Frank Schleck, Cadel Evans, and Christian Vande Velde for the title. Canada is being represented by Michael Barry for Team Columbia-HighRoad. Good luck this year since it is an extra hilly version this year.
Overlapping with Paris-Nice is Italy's Tirreno Adriatico. Running from March 11-17, this race includes the rest of the big names in cycling, with Ivan Basso, Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd, Andy Schleck, and a trio of Canadians (Ryder Hesjedal, Svein Tuft, and Dominique Rollin) taking place. Good results are important for all 4 Canadians in stage races next week as they try to solidify their places on team rosters for the Giro and the Tour. Good luck to all of them!
Actually it seems as if everyone is racing in Europe this week and next except for Lance. Hmm. But remember that Lance has rarely raced a lot in Europe to prepare for previous Tours. In 2003 and 2005 he won exactly one race (the time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré) before winning his 5th and 7th Tour de France titles. So I wouldn't worry until we see his fitness at the Giro in May. Other riders who are sitting out right now are Fabian Cancellara (out with a shoulder injury), Oscar Friere (broken ribs) and Levi Leipheimer (out with fractured sacrum). Unbelievably, Levi suffered this injury during Stage 3 of the Tour of California but managed to grit out 5 more stages and capture the title. Nice job Levi!
Levi also has the best accomplishment of the Grand Tour contenders so far this year with his dominance in California. cyclingnews.com recently published a list of Tour contenders and put Levi and Contador in the 1-2 positions. We still have 4 months until the riders kick off the Tour in Monaco but this will undoubtedly be one of the most anticipated Tours in recent memory. So many big names! Check out the list here...and the official race video here...
Cycling also gets this week's Product of the Week. Check out the Speed-Vest, a vest that shows the cyclists speed on their back. Designed to enhance cyclist safety by educating drivers about overtaking cyclists safely, this Vest is another example of mating technology with function. For now, it's just a prototype, but soon could be gear for the techie commuter. I love it.
Triathlon updates: As expected, Belinda Granger cruised to a win last week at Ironman Malaysia. She's obviously in great shape as she biked a 4:48 and held on for an easy 15 minute win. Aussie Luke McKenzie won the men's race. Her old teammate Chrissie Wellington is also in the news this week as she (gasp) switched bikes and will be riding a Cannondale Slice in 2009. No more Cervelos for her!
Canadian tri news: Kirsten Sweetland fooled me and didn't race last week. She's now back in Canada and probably won't race until May when ITU's World Championship Series begins in Singapore. She will be joined in Singapore by Simon Whitfield, who announced in an interview this week that his 2009 season will include a 70.3 race and 70.3 Worlds! That's great news, and I'm excited to see what Simon can do in the non-drafting format. You can read the whole article on Simon here....
Moving over to the running world...the lottery for the New York Marathon is up and running. And if you're lucky enough to be selected to compete, us Canadians have to fork over $231 US. Wow. Lottery runs until May 1 if you're interested.
I think this was blogged about last year, but this week there were news reports that Usain Bolt might christen the new Toronto track on June 11. Apparently, it costs $250,000 to get Bolt to show up at the meet. Wow. Bolt's Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell started out 2009 with a lackluster 10.23s in the 100m in Australia this week.
The biggest track news of the year so far is that the IAAF announced this week that the Golden League, their group of marquee athletic meets, will be expanding globally in 2010. Now called the Diamond League, the 2010 schedule will expand to include the Reebok Grand Prix (New York), the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, and will also include races in China and in Qatar. It is being called the Diamond League since each overall event champion for the season will win a 4-carat diamond. Right now, the Golden League prize is a share of $500,000 in gold. Makes sense. Of course, the big names will still be getting massive appearance fees on top of any prize money they might win...ahhh, the economics of sport. There is a good article on the Diamond League here and the benefits that it may allow.
And yeah, bad news for marathon fans. Paula Radcliffe broke her toe and is out of the London Marathon. Damn. Apparently she developed a bunion which caused her to change her stride which resulted in the broken toe. Must be the shoes...
Oh yeah, fun video to end the week! See you next week...
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