Of course, after a whole post on Monday discussing all things doping, there comes news that Lance vs the French is once again front and center, so we'll start with that, then move on to race results, a look-ahead, and a shout-out to the Canadians making news (good and bad) around the world...
Ok, this latest Lance-story began on March 17, when Lance was doing some riding in France. According to Lance and Johan Bruyneel, Lance had just finished a ride when a unknown tester showed up at his door. He identified himself as being from a French lab (not a cycling authority) and while Johan called to verify the tester's credentials, Lance asked to shower. 20 minutes later, Lance returned, found out that the tester's credentials checked out, then had his urine, blood, and hair samples taken. The tester's version of the story is that Johan and Lance would not let him in the house, only relented when he threatened to call the police, then Lance took a shower and "disappeared" for 20 minutes, then put up a fuss about the hair samples. He claims that Lance violated a testing rule by going out-of-sight after the tester identified himself (which is a no-no according to WADA). Now the French anti-doping Federation (AFLD) has asked the UCI if it can proceed with a hearing against Lance that could lead to sanctions and suspensions that could prevent Lance from racing in France...
Ok, there is something very odd about this story. A story from March 18 had Lance complaining about his hair "getting butchered" during this test, and that the tester was a "total gentleman". Fast forward to April 6th, and word leaks (the French always seem to have leaks) that the AFLD has sent a report to the UCI about Lance's "behavior" during the test. By yesterday, the AFLD announce they will proceed with a hearing, and perhaps have a decision made in May. This story blew up nationally, making headlines on CNN, ESPN, and every other sports site on the web. Today, the head of the UCI (Pat McQuaid) said that the AFLD was being "unprofessional" and that they shouldn't be leaking information to the media as it is supposed to be kept confidential until any decisions are made. He also said that he wasn't aware that Lance violated any WADA or UCI rules during this test.
Ok, this is turning into a "he said vs he said" argument. I anticipate that there seems to be fault on both sides (Lance knows better than to disappear and according to Lance, the tester checked the box on the form that nothing irregular happened during the testing process). So whether this is simply the AFLD trying to stir things up or a vindictive tester trying to make Lance look guilty, Lance is once again in the media highlights. Now, I really don't think that Lance used 20 minutes to flush some drugs out of his system but he is once again being villified. In any event, there will be plenty more news on this story to come....
Ok, last week's big race was the Tour of Flanders. Amazingly, for the second year in a row, QuickStep's Stijn Devolder delighted the Belgium faithful by pulling away to win the race. This year, he was in a 4-man breakaway with about 15 km to go in the race, when he absolutely hammered during a section of the final hill when the grade reaches 20%! The video below illustrates how absolutely crazy the Belgians fans are, and how Devolder turned a group of 4 into a group of 1 pretty quickly. He credits his teammate Tom Boonen (the pre-race fave) for attracting all the attention, allowing Devolder into the winning break. Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) continued his great season by outsprinting the peloton for second place. Canada's Svein Tuft got an "HD" next to his name in the official results, which might stand for Had Difficulty, as he finished over 22 minutes back.
Wednesday had another big cycling race, as Gent-Wevelgem was contested. Again, Columbia-Highroad wins, with 21-year old Norwegian Edvald Boassan Hagen winning the race. Cervelo and Columbia-Highroad controlled the race, and despite trying to get Mark Cavendish in position for the win (he flatted and missed the break), Columbia-Highroad did manage to get Hagen into position for easily the biggest win of his career. Dominique Rollin from Canada had a great day, doing a lot of work for his teammates and still finished in 18th place.
Quick note on Rollin - for his first season in Europe he is doing great, managing great results in the one-day results while working hard for teammates such as Thor Hushovd. It is increasingly possible that he gets an invite to one of the Grand Tours this year. Other Canadians in Europe are doing less well, with Michael Barry (Columbia-HighRoad) having not raced a lot so far in 2009. Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft have done less well, with a number of DNFs and back-of-the-pack finishes lately. Hesjedal is currently in 64th place during the Tour of Basque Country, a Spanish 6-day stage race that (surprise) Alberto Contador leads. Actually, this race deserves some attention, as lots of Tour faves are riding here, including Cadel Evans, Damiano Cunego, Samuel Sanchez, the Schlecks, Cadel Evans, Christian Vande Velde, etc...the race will be decided on Saturday's time trial. Not surprisingly, Columbia-Highroad has won the last two stages here too...they are the team to beat in 2009 again...
Last cycling story, Sunday is Paris-Roubaix! The "hell of the north" event is being held for the 107th time, and is expected to be a battle between Columbia-Highroad (George Hincapie), Team Cervelo (Heinrich Haussler) and QuickStep (Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder going for the double!) over the 259 km, which includes 27 cobblestone sections that total 52 km!! A ridiculous endurance test, only the strongest rider will be around at the end, which ends in a outdoor velodrome. Canadians Michael Barry and Dominique Rollin are probable starters, and will be helping teammates through the race...you can find the race online at cyclingfans.comSunday morning.
Speaking of races, last week's big marathon weekend was indeed monumental. Both Paris and Rotterdam produced amazing results, with 11 men breaking 2:09 in Paris (the most ever in a race), and a race to the finish in Rotterdam. Watch this.
You might have noticed the time these two guys ran (and the unbelievable crowds along the finishing stretch!!). 2:04:27! That puts the two of them in 3rd place all-time (only Haile Geb has run faster with a 2:04:26 and his 2:03:59 World Record). The world of marathoning has suddenly gotten ridiculous fast. In fact, 13 different Kenyans broke 2:09 last Sunday (only 6 Americans and 0 Canadians have ever done it) with one of them being the 18-year old runner-up in Paris. It's obvious that the world record will keep dropping, perhaps as soon as this month at the London Marathon. I'll talk more about it and the Boston Marathon next week...
5 triathlons last weekend (4 of which I previewed last week) to report on. The one i forgot to mention was an ITU race in New Zealand that Canada's Kirsten Sweetland won! Actually, it was only a Continental Cup race, so the field wasn't as deep as the week before. But Sweetland again outran the field, and looks to be in great form going into next Month's World Championship Series kickoff in Korea. Congrats to Kirsten...keep it up!
This week Triathlon Canada named Philippe Bertrand as the replacement for Joel Filliol (who left to go to Great Britain) as National Senior Team Head Coach. Bertrand was previously Filliol's assistant coach, and has helped develop Kathy Tremblay as her personal coach over the last few years. It should make for a nice transition as Bertrand has extensive experience with all the team members.
The big Ironman weekend produced a ton of great results. Canadians had a very up-and-down weekend, highlighted with Brent McMahon's very impressive win at Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. McMahon ran past Chris McCormack to win by over 2 minutes. McMahon now has proven he can compete at Xterra races, at non-drafting Olympic races distances, and over the 70.3 distance. He is also part of the Canadian ITU team this year, and has a chance to become the next big Canadian male triathlon star.
Also in New Orleans was the comeback of Natascha Badmann after 18 months of dealing with injuries from her bike crash at Kona 2007. Her bike leg was 8 minutes faster than any of the other top women, and she held on to win by a minute over Catriona Morrison and a very solid women's field (Joanna Zeiger, Nina Kraft, Lisa Bentley, Linsey Corbin, and Kate Major were also in the Top 10). A very impressive performance by the 42-year old Badmann, who may be able to take another shot at Kona glory in October.
Of course, for Badmann to win Kona, she'll have to do something about Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie won her 6th straight Ironman in Australia last weekend, with a ho-hum 2:59 marathon allowing her to break 9 hours (only 12 men beat her) to stay undefeated in Ironman races. She won by 24 minutes over Rebekah Keat, and only one other woman finished within an hour of Wellington. Michellie Jones did not start the race due to a leg injury. On the men's side, Patrick Vernay faced a stiff challenge from Pete Jacobs before pulling away for a 4 minute victory and his third straight Ironman Australia title. Tim Deboom managed to run a 3:00 marathon to finish 6th in his comeback race. He'll need to get a bit faster, since Vernay ran 2:45 to pace the men's field.
The other big race last weekend was Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside, where fast run splits led to wins by Matt Reed and Mirinda Carfrae. On the men's side, Matt Reed ran a race-record 1:11 to pull away from Andy Potts by 2 minutes. Up-and-coming Swiss star Ronnie Schildknecht (4th at Kona) was 3rd. The women's race was led by American Sara Groff throughout the run, but a late surge by Carfrae allowed her to pass both Leanda Cave and Sara Groff in the last half-mile. She won by only 21 seconds, having run a race-record 1:20 half-marathon to win the $5000 first place purse.
Oh yeah, in South Africa they competed in Ironman South Africa. Marino Vanhoenacker and Brett Sutton's new female star Lucie Zelenkova won there, both setting course records. Zelenkova's teammate and previous winner Bella Bayliss had to drop out on the run but Zelenkova was already well down the road to victory. I guess Team TBB isn't dead after losing Chrissie Wellington and Belinda Granger this winter..
I try to keep on top of Canadian results, and should mention that Paul Tichelaar, Sara Gross, Heather Wurtele and Jonathan Caron all had rough races last week. Tichelaar, Wurtele and Gross all were in Oceanside but were never factors in the race and both finished outside the Top 20, while Caron dropped out of Ironman Australia. After doing Oceanside last year, I know how difficult it can be to race early on in the season, but all those results were probably well below expectations. Here's hoping they can get improve as 2009 continues...
The global recession is forcing athletes everywhere to look for alternate sources of revenue by advertising in unconventional methods. But I have never seen a video like this before...this guy won the Silver Medal at the World Championships!
Sorry guys, couldn't find any female pole vaulters doing similar videos...
This weekend is very slow for races...enjoy Easter and Paris-Roubaix! And NBC is showing the 70.3 Worlds on Sunday (from last November) if you want to set your PVRs...
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