Crazy week behind us, and crazy weeks ahead, but the majority of this week’s post will be about the gigantic Giro d’Italia, which begins on Saturday. So if you don’t care about Pro Cycling, scroll to the bottom where I’ll recap a whole bunch of triathlons, make another promise about a Dopey Monday to come, and maybe show a fun video or two…
Ok, the Giro. The second biggest cycling race in the world starts this weekend with an epic Team Time Trial in Venice. How cool is that? More on that in a bit, but there are lots of stories about this race, including Lance’s first Grand Tour in 4 years. Lance is indeed back, and after pacing his buddy Levi Leipheimer to the overall win at the Tour of the Gila (a minor pro cycling event in New Mexico) where Lance, Levi, and Chris Horner competed as Team Mellow Johnny’s. Lance finished second overall (after finishing second behind Levi in the time trial) and showed decent fitness in his first race in a month. His comeback (from both retirement and his broken collarbone) continues in Italy, where he will probably not challenge for the race lead, but he has stated that he wants to win one stage. Lance is so far 0-for-2009 and probably wants to break the goose egg before Le Tour.
So if Lance is not going to win the Giro, who will? I think most cycling pundits would agree that the two main contenders will be Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Liquigas’s Ivan Basso. Basso has NEVER won his home country’s race, and is out to make his claim as one of the very best stage riders in the world. Basso vs. Leipheimer will come down to Levi’s time trialing advantages to Basso’s excellent finishing kick at the end of mountain stages. But add in Levi’s uber-domestique Lance Armstrong to help him in the mountains, and I think Levi might have enough to pull it out and be the first American winner since Andy Hampsten in 1988. For those of you who want to read about an epic stage win, you can read about the unbelievable decisive stage in the 1988 Giro, where Hampsten rode away from the peloton through a blizzard here!
There is a pretty deep field in place this year. Besides Lance, Levi, and Basso, big-time cyclists like Damiano Cunego, Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov, and Gilbero Simoni are all competing. For Cunego (the 2004 winner), this is the biggest race on his calendar, and he would love to upstage the Americans and his compatriot Basso. Sastre is using the race to get into race shape to defend his title in the Tour, so probably won’t be a top contender. You can get an official start list here...
So my predictions for 2009: Leipheimer, Cunego, and Basso, with Lance ending up in 4th. Anybody else want to make a guess? Please be aware that my predictions are never right...
One more pro cycling note. This could actually be the last time that Team Astana starts a race. Why? Because they’re broke. Yep, those crazy Kazakhs that own Team Astana have been having some money issues, and the riders have not been paid for some time (this isn’t an issue for Lance, since he’s riding for zero salary). But the UCI is paying close attention, and could be close to pulling the team’s license. If this happens, the team might compete under a new banner in France, and Lance has even recently mentioned the possibility of starting his own team. I doubt that the Kazakhstan government will allow the team to outright fold (the cycling team is a national treasure, despite the doping issues related to Vinokourov and ….) but I’ll be paying attention.
Speaking of my favorite ex-Astana racer Vinokourov, he is coming back this year! His suspension from 2007 ends in mid-July, and he is planning on gunning for the 2009 World Championships, where a victory there would let him wear the rainbow jersey for the entire 2010 season. His other goals include winning the King of The Mountains competition in the 2010 Tour. Somebody will probably take a chance on the ultra-agressive Vinokourov later this year, and I'm hoping he can come back, stay clean, and win a couple of races in his typical swashbuckling fashion.
For the second year in a row, Team Garmin is aiming to win the opening TTT of the Giro and get the maglia rosa for one of their cyclists. Last year, the team put Christian Vande Velde into the leader’s jersey, and kept him there for (a couple of days). This week they picked their team for 2009, and ridiculously did not pick a Canadian to rally all 500 pro cycling fans in Canada. Ok, earlier this year, it was widely assumed that both Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft would be part of the Argyle Armada (love that nickname) in the Giro. Both riders were sent to Italy early in the season to prepare (remember Hesjedal skipped the Tour of California for this reason). Hesjedal had a pretty amazing 2008, with his participation in both the Giro and the Tour, and seemed set up to improve on both performances in 2009. Tuft, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Worlds after his amazing performance in the Olympics (finished 7th), seemed to be a perfect addition for the Garmin time trial squad. Apparently, the news came as a shock to Hesjedal, since in an interview from 2 days before the team was announced, he mentions how “excited he is to be a part of the Giro blah bl;ah blah”. I have no idea what happened with Tuft, except that I haven’t been overly impressed with his 2009 results. Apparently Jonathan Vaughters and Team Garmin are not either. Some good news though – Hesjedal is apparently going to be the right-hand man for Christian Vande Velde at the Tour. So Hesjedal is skipping Italy in order to be well-rested for a trip around France in July. But Vande Velde is not. I’m confused. Team Garmin is still my fave team (cmon, they have 3 Canadians on their roster!) but they are starting to stretch my loyalty.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. The Team Garmin website actually sells beautiful autographed posters of the 3 Canadians on the team (Hesjedal, Tuft, and our Road Race National Champ Christian Meier). You can check out the posters here, but I’m not buying until they start adding some more Canadian to their Grand Tour rosters.
Canada will have a presense in Italy. Michael Barry from Columbia-Highroad will be competing, and his job will be as an experienced domestique and do-it-all as he tried to keep teammates Michael Rogers, Thomas Lokvist, and Kanstantin Siutsou in the Top 10 and help Mark Cavendish win some sprint finishes. The other big Canadian, Dominique Rollin, will not be in Italy because of his extensive racing schedule this spring. I have no idea if they have any plans for Rollin in France, but because of his great work in setting up Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd for big wins, I think he has a decent shot. Here’s hoping! Good luck to Michael Barry as he represents the Maple Leaf Nation in Italy!
This could be the last great chance for awhile for an American to win the Giro. Why? Because next year most top American cyclists will be staying home in California. The Tour of California, which has prospered the last couple of years despite terrible weather, is moving from February into May for 2010. This means that Lance, Levi, Vande Velde, and the rest of the boys will probably skip the Giro next year to compete in front of the fans in the biggest American cycling race. I guess my travel plans for February have changed…
Moving to triathlon world, the Canadian women did us proud last week in Korea, where in the first ITU World Championships Series race, Kathy Tremblay and Kirsten Sweetland fought at the front of the race before succumbing to finish 4th and 5th in the race. The top spot went to Emma Snowsill(she wins about 90% of her races) who passed her teammate Emma Moffatt in the last few minutes. Japanese star Juri Ide outsprinted the Canadian girls in the last 200m to get third, with Tremblay 2 seconds and Sweetland 9 seconds back. Fellow Canadian Lauren Groves finished 10th, which makes Canada the best team in the world (at least after one event). So Canadian to the girls, who did us proud and are now getting prepped for the next race in Madrid.
The Canadian boys did not do as well. Simon Whitfield, despite being in great shape, could not find another gear on the run and ended up 14th. This put him in well ahead of teammates Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones. McMahon, who won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans about three weeks ago, was racing an ITU race for the first time in a long while, so can be excused a bit. I do have high expectations for him later on this year…
Whoops, haven't even mentioned the outstanding finish in the men's race. Just watch the first 30 seconds of this video!
A photofinish in triathlon? Yep, and despite an appeal by Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty did get the win. Pretty cool race indeed. If the rest of the races in the series come anywhere close to this one, we are in for a treat in 2009.
The other two races last weekend included a bunch of surprise winners and a only one favorite coming thru. Andy Potts used an amazing bike and an equally amazing run split to destroy the field at Wildflower. He won by over 3 minutes over Eneko Llanos. In the women's race, Virginia Beratasegui won going away (over 5 minutes) ahead of Leanda Cave of Great Britain. The women's field was supposed to be very competitive, but late scratches (McGlone, Dibens, Corbin, Macel, and Lavelle) left very few top contenders out in the California desert.
Moving to the Carribean, Catriona Morrison passed Mirinda Carfrae very late on the run to win the 70.3 St Croix event. Her 1:23 run split was enough to win the race by 3 minutes. The men's winner was Tim O'Donnell, who beat equally unknown pro Igor Amorelli by over a minute. The bigger names (Bryan Rhodes, Michael Lovato, etc) were well back.
What happened to Sam McGlone? I was very excited last week about the supposed impending return to racing at the Wildflower Triathlon. Alas, it was not to be. She didn’t start the race (still not ready to race) and thus continues my rare talent of reporting incorrect news (cyclingnews is infamous for having wrong start lists, which is why I often report that Canadians are going to start races but don’t eventually make it to the start line). Anyhow, Sam is hoping to begin her 2009 season in June at the Honu 70.3 race in Hawaii.
What else is happening out there? The spring marathon season (Rotterdam, Paris, Boston, and London) is over, the IAAF Golden League hasn’t begun yet (not UNTIL) and I think the triathletes are off until mid-May (ITU and Ironman). So enjoy the Giro (cyclingfans.com is the only way for us Canadians), I will try and keep close tabs on what happens here!
Next week, lots on our favorite runners (Bolt, Radcliffe, Goucher) and lots on the Giro!
Have a good weekend…
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