Last week I talked about the festivities that were to come this weekend at the ITU Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa (the elite race on Saturday and the Team Triathlon World Championships on Sunday). But even I was stunned to see how well our intrepid Canadian triathletes would do...
...it started out with the women's elite race, where for the second week in a row, the two Emma's finished 1-2. And once again, Emma Moffatt beat Emma Snowsill. What made this more noteworthy was the $150,000 extra that she won for finishing first. Moffatt got away from Snowsill on the bike, and hammered the run to win the race by over 90 seconds. Third place, and winner of a cool $25,000 (!!) goes to Canada's own Lauren Groves, who had the third-fastest run in the field. This is Groves highest-ever finish in an ITU race, and is probably her second best ever race result (she did finish 4th at the 2006 Worlds in Lausanne). This comes after two straight tenth -place finishes at the last two World Championship Series races, so she is having the best year of any Canadian female in 2009...congrats Lauren!
However, the biggest story of the day came in the men's race, where an elite group of 6 men broke away on the run, including Simon Whitfield, Javier (i keep calling him Sergio...oops) Gomez, Brad Kahlefeldt, Olympic champ Jan Frodeno, Kris Gemmell from New Zealand and new American hope Jarrad Shoemaker. I'd encourage you to click here and watch the video of the race to do the finish justice... For the umpteenth time this year, in a finish reminiscent of Beijiing, it came down to a sprint finish, with Simon Whitfield triumphantly hitting the tape first. This race was even closer than Beijing, as the Top 5 all finished within 3 second of each other. It was a bit of sweet revenge for Whitfield to beat Frodeno after Beijing, while Whitfield also more than makes up for his DNF last week in Washington, DC. So Simon gets the $200,000 prize for the first time in his career (he has been .... at this race the last two years). Canada's Brent McMahon was the next finisher after the top group of 6, finishing in 7th place and winning $10,000. Nice job by the Canucks on Saturday.
After the big money day on Saturday by Groves, Whitfield, and McMahon, it was time to compete for country bragging rights on Sunday with the team triathlon competition. With a 4 x (250 m swim, 8k bike, 1.8k run) it is an all-out battle with 16 from 10 countries teams trying to win the world title for 2009. Interestingly enough, it has been suggested that this type of event could be eventually part of the Olympics in 2012, as the country/team concept and short duration may warrant future interest. Anyhow, Sunday's race was won by Team Switzerland, which pulled away from race favorite Team Australia when one of the Swiss females (Daniela Ryf) hammered her bike leg (30 seconds faster than any other female) and the last Swiss athlete held off the Australian (Kahlefeldt, who now finished second two days in a row!). Canada's team of Lauren Groves, Brent McMahon, Kathy Tremblay, and Simon Whitfield held off the US team to finish 3rd. So yet another podium for Canada on the weekend. I should also mention that Canada's second team in this event finished 5th overall (ahead of New Zealand, Russia, Japan, and some other countries first team). So congrats to them too! Special thanks to Delly Carr (the world's greatest triathlon photographer) for all the wonderful pictures from the races this weekend!!
Oh yeah...one more thing...Canadian Michael Barry did not make Team Columbia High Road's Tour de France team this year. Too bad Michael, you always represent Canada so well...
More to come this week, including recaps of the Canadian Track & Field championships and the Canadian Road Cycling Championships...check back soon....
Even though we are in the middle of a two week period with zero pro cycling races going on, there is plenty to talk about...I often joke about how long these columns might be, but I'm positive that this one will be legitimitely epic. Buckle up...
Ok, with the Tour de France starting next weekend (prologue is Saturday, July 4th in Monaco), the teams are making their final roster decisions. Most team employ the build-around-a-GC-guy appoach, a go-for-breakaway-wins strategy, or a focus-on-leading-out-our-sprinter scheme. You can see the latest team confirmation lists here. Some big name teams, like Garmin and Columbia High-Road, might have enough good cyclists that they can use a combination of the three. I don't really want to spend a ton of time this week on the Tour (come back next week) but I did want to touch on the Canadians that might or might not be in the race.
After 11 years without a Canadian in the Tour, Ryder Hesjedal raced in 2008 and finished in the Top 50 overall. And now he's back in 2009! He made the cut for 2009 after being skipped in the Giro to rest up for the Tour. This year Ryder is being counted on to help Garmin's top GC rider, Christian Vande Velde, at the end of the tough mountain stages. However, Vande Velde really struggled in his final tune-up (the Tour du Suisse last week, where he finished 81st and 44 minutes back of Fabian Cancellara), so that might mean more chances for Ryder to show his stuff with the big names in the big mountain stages. I can't wait...
Ryder's spot on the Garmin Tour team left one less spot for his teammate and fellow Canuck Svein Tuft. And unfortunately for Tuft, he didn't make the cut this year. He is in his first year on Team Garmin, and was expected to leverage his great time trial skills into valuable contributions for Team Garmin in the Grand Tours. Unfortunately, Tuft has struggled this year, with a bunch of crashes this year that have hurt his preparations and his results in some races. So Tuft was skipped by Garmin, but hopefully he gets 100% healthy and has a chance to compete in his first Grand Tour next year.
Cervelo Test Team's lone Canadian is Dominique Rollin, and unfortunately he got mononucleosis earlier this spring and is not fit enough to compete in the Tour. But he's only 26 and will have many more chance to make the cut...
The other Canadian under consideration is Team Columbia High-Road's Michael Barry. Barry has had a great career, and has been a solid domestique for US Postal, Discovery Channel, T-Mobile and now Columbia. But he has never been chosen to compete in the Tour, and is on the fence to make the team again this year. Columbia might have the best team in the world (they are so strong that they won 6 of the first 8 stages in the Tour de Suisse, with 5 different riders winning a stage!) and Barry must hope that his work helping Mark Cavendish through the tough stages at the Tour of California and in the Giro d'Italia will pay off and get him into the Tour finally. Columbia High Road should announce their team either Friday or Saturday...I'll post it as soon as soon as I find out...
The other big Canadian cycling news story of the week is that Canadian Nationals go this weekend in Quebec. The time trial championships are today (Friday) where Svein Tuft gets to defend his 2008 title (he has won the title 4 times in all). Then Sunday is the elite men's race, where Christian Meier (also on Team Garmin but not really yet a Grand Tour possibility) defends his Canadian Road Championship title against Tuft and a number of young contenders. Also this weekend the U23 men compete in both events, and the elite women and U23 women do so as well. The big prize is the title of top Canadian and the chance to wear the Red & White champions colours for the whole year. You can read more here... Okay, enough cycling for this week. The ITU triathletes have taken centre stage both last week and this week with races in Washington, DC and Des Moines, Iowa. The Washington race was the third stop on the ITU World Championship Series, and again the competition was top-notch. The women's field included the Emma's (Snowsill and Moffatt), Madrid winner Andrea Hewitt and runner-up Lisa Norden, 2008 World Champion Helen Jenkins and a boatload of top North Americans including Lauren Groves and Kathy Tremblay. However, on this day, it was Emma Moffatt holding off Emma Snowsill for the win. Top Canadian was Lauren Groves, who actually had the third best run split but only finished 10th. The men also did their thing in DC, and it appears we have a new King in town. Alistair Brownlee, who is only 21 years old, won his second straight ITU race by outrunning Javier Gomez (again). This kid has tons of ability, and just unreal running speed. His running speed enabled him to cruise to a 13 second victory over Gomez. The race was notable not only for the Brownlee-Gomez duel, but for the carnage that it exacted on the rest of the field. Simon Whitfield, Greg Bennett, Matt Reed, and Bevan Docherty all DNF'ed on this day. Andy Potts actually returned to ITU racing and finished a strong 4th. It's amazing that he still has the ability to compete in ITU races while he is preparing for another shot at Kona in October. Top Canadian was Brent McMahon in 12th place. As I mentioned, Simon Whitfield just didn't have it in DC but is hoping to use some of the energy he saved from Washington this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, where the big money ITU race will be held. Saturday's Elite Men and Women's race pays a whopping $200,000 to the winner, which easily makes it the richest race in triathlon. It even pays $3000 to the 20th place finisher in both races! Most of the big names from Washington will be in Des Moines, with Sergio Gomez looking for his first big win of the season. 2007 and 2008 Men's Champion Rasmus Henning is not participating this year since he is training for Kona, but 2007 Women's winner Lisa Bennett and 2008 winner Emma Snowsill will both be participating. It should be a great race! Des Moines also has a fun day planned on Sunday, as the ITU World Team Triathlon Championships will be held. Each country selects 4 athletes (2 women and 2 men) to each complete a 300m swim, a 8k bike, and a 2K run before tagging off to their next teammate. It sounds like an amazingly fun event since this is the first time it has been a co-ed competition, and with country bragging rights on the line, even the tired pros who raced on Saturday should be giving their all. It appears Team Canada will be composed of Whitfield, Groves, McMahon, and Tremblay. Hopefully they can knock off the powerful American and Australian teams for some bragging rights in 2009!
I have been dying to talk about swimming and the ridiculous sham that swimming has become as technology takes over the sport. This was further illustrated this week when a German female swimmer, Britta Steffen, broke the world record in the 100m freestyle and complained that "one swims as if on a air mattress" and "the new suits are ruining the sport". The Speedo LZR that was the hot suit in Beijing just last year has been passed by several manufacturers as they have created 100% polyurethane suits like the Arena X-Glide and the Jaked 01. These new suits have resulted in more world records being set, and despite the sport less credible since the records only last as long as it takes to make a faster suit, FINA (the governing body) has really done nothing to stop the smashing of world records. To be fair, FINA tried to make some rule changes and actually banned some new suits earlier this year, but this week they essentially said that anything goes in 2009 and they will try to fix swimming in 2010. It appears that many groups want to go back to textile-only swimsuits, which will lead us to a future where the 2008-2009 world record times will appear as ludicrously untouchable for the next decade or two. It's similar to baseball and the PR disaster they have faced as a result of the steroid controversy and the home run records it produced.
Anyhow, FINA is taking a huge hit by continuing to allow this "circus" to go on. It has gotten so bad that L'Equipe (that famous French sports newspaper that hates American cyclists) refuses to acknowledge any new swimming world, European, or national records that get broken until this generation of speedsuits get banned. Other blogs discuss how we need to have multiple world record tables now, with different levels for normal suits, for approved (LZR) speedsuits, and now for originally-not-approved-but-now-FINA-stopped-caring-and-approved speedsuits. Anyhow, the World Championships in Rome will undoubtedly have more world records that are ultimately meaningless, and hopefully FINA figures it out before 2010. A great post by the Science of Sport guys on this topic here...
Next week, I will update some Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races that have happened recently, and of course come back on Friday for the Official Tour de France preview...
This one is all-Canada, all the time...the normal Bikey blog will return on Friday!
Woohoo, we have some major Canadian news. Starting off with a new face in the world of triathlon, 27-year old Magali Tisseyre from Montreal (though she trains in Victoria with Lifesport) has become one of the new stars of the 70.3 world. She easily defeated Linsey Corbin and Sam McGlone at Ironman 70.3 Boise by posting both the fastest bike split (2:16) and fastest run split (1:24) in the women's field to win by over 8 minutes! Defeating both Corbin and McGlone makes her a definite threat for the top women at the 70.3 distance, and it's nice that Sam McGlone might have some company (and a Canuck rival) on the podium at future big races. Tisseyre has really come a long way this year, as she finished 6th at Ironman 70.3 New Orleans in May (against a pretty stacked female pro field), then was 3rd at Ironman 70.3 Florida in May (behind Leanda Cave and Jo Lawn). Her climb to the top of the podium in Boise was probably a bit unexpected with McGlone and Corbin in the field, but they are both coming back of lengthy injury breaks and might not be in great race shape. That being said, Tisseyre's 4:12 clocking proves that she has the speed to compete in all major 70.3 races, and here's hoping that she can continue her run of success and become that next great Canadian triathlete in the non-drafting races. Triathlete Mag just did a great Q&A with Tisseyre late in May where she admitted that she would love to do an Ironman in the near future, but for now her priority is getting faster in 70.3 races. Plus she's young enough (and new enough) to develop before tackling Chrissie and the rest of the Ironman ladies! You can read the Q&A here... The next Canadian athlete that made headlines was Brent Hayden, who defeated Michael Phelps in the 100m freestyle at a swim meet in California this past weekend. Anytime Phelps doesn't win is a headline, and Hayden was one of two swimmers to beat Phelps this weekend (Aaron Lochte beat Phelps in the 100m backstroke). But Hayden is quite possibly Canada's best swimmer right now (he was 2007 World Champion at the 100 free) and despite missing out on qualifying for the Olympic final, he is still competitive at this distance and plans on defending his title at Worlds later on this summer. It is only the second time in his career he has defeated Phelps (he was 6th in a race that Phelps finished 7th at way back in 2005). To be fair, Phelps doesn't often swim the 100m freestyle, but after Beijing, he has decided to race the 100 free and some other shorter races that he doesn't normally (like the 100m backstroke) compete in. In Beijing, Phelps raced the 200m freestyle but skipped the 100m and 50m races. Regardless, anytime a Canadian can beat the great Phelps (who has 14 Gold Medals and holds 7 current World Records) it's a big story. Congrats Brent, and hopefully he can duplicate the feat at the 2009 Worlds in Rome in July. 2 other Canadians joined the winner's circle at this swim meet. Brian Johns won the 200 IM and Ryan Cochrane won the 1500m. Cochrane won the only Canadian swimming medal in Beijing with a bronze in the 1500m. Cochrane also competed and came very close to beating Phelps in the 400m freestyle in California, losing by only a third of a second. Cochrane is a definite gold medal contender in the 1500m in future Olympics for Canada, and we have had very few of them over the past 20 years.
Last Canadian note: Dominique Rollin is not going to be at the Tour de France in 2009. Team Cervelo just announced their roster of 14 candidates for the 9 slots for the race, and Rollin was not on the list. The team is going to be set up to support their leader Carlos Sastre, and Rollin is not nearly experienced enough to support Sastre in the big mountains. Anyhow, he's still in his first year at the highest level of competition, so I anticipate many more good seasons from Rollin ahead.
Better news for Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal, who will be at the start line of the Tour when it begins in three weeks in Monaco. Hesjedal, who was skipped in the Giro to better rest and prepare for the Tour, will be Christian Vande Velde's right-hand man for those 3 weeks. When he wasn't selected to compete in Italy, he came home to Canada for a brief midseason break before returning to Hawaii and then Spain to prep for France. He is back competing at this week's Tour du Suisse, but is definitely looking ahead to the Tour in July! A nice lengthy interview with Ryder can be found here...
No news on the other two Canadians that could make the Tour this year. Michael Barry from Columbia High-Road has a decent shot at making it to France for the first time ever in his long career, while Garmin's Svein Tuft is a longshot based on his recent results. I'm hoping that Barry gives us two Canucks in the starting field and will be paying attention for the team's decisions in the next couple of weeks...i'll keep you posted.
It was very odd to turn on the TV and watch live track & field on a Thursday evening. Yep, TSN spent an hour of prime-time coverage last night to broadcast the Festival of Excellence, which was essentially a showcase for the new Toronto Varsity track stadium built around Usain Bolt's first 100 m race of the season. Bolt, who was paid a reported $250,000 for his visit to Toronto, was the main reason that almost 6000 spectators showed up to watch the meet. There were 50 Olympians that participated during the one-day meet, but other than Bolt and Canadian female hurdlers Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, there were not a lot of big names for the casual Canadian fan.
Those three big names did not disappoint, as Bolt cruised to victory in the 100m, and despite a couple of false starts and a very wet track, managed to run 10.00 flat. Here's the best video I could find this morning...
As I mentioned, the women's 100m hurdles featured Perdita vs Priscilla in a showdown between the 2003 World Champion and the 2008 bronze medallist from Beijing. Perdita, who has seemingly been injured since her infamous fall at the Athens Olympics. Perdita's throne as the Top Canadian hurdler has been grabbed by Priscilla, who has also run the fastest time of the year in 2009 (12.52s). In Thursday's race, the two Canadians beat the rest of the field fairly easily with Priscilla holding off Perdita by .02 seconds (12.86 vs 12.88). Again, the wet track may have slowed them down a bit, but the two Canadians are hoping to stand together on the podium in Berlin later on this summer at the World Championships.
Other Canadians who had great results on Thursday include Nate Brannen in the men's mile, who won in 3:55:07, and Malindi Elmore who was second in the women's mile in 4:30:70. Other big names who won included Americans Brian Clay (easlly won the Pole Vault-110 m hurdles- 400 m triathlon), Khadevis Robinson (800m), Amy Acuff (high jump), and LaShawn Merritt (400m). And despite the terrible weather, the event hopes to develop into an annual event on the North American track calendar. And with last weekend's Prefontaine Classic turning into a Golden League event next year, there will perhaps be many more European and African track stars in North America who might be available to race in Toronto.
As I mentioned, the IAAF Golden League starts this weekend with a meet in Berlin. The Golden League offers a million dollar purse if any athlete sweeps their event in all 6 Golden League meets. So it's all about winning the 6 events. Last year, Pamelo Jelimo from Kenya won all 6 Womens 800m races, so she didn't have to share the million dollars with anyone (compared to 2001, where 6 athlets shared the prize). Of the marquee sprinters (Bolt, Powell, and Gay) only Asafa Powell is running, so the spotlight shifts to longer-distance runners and field athletes. Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and high jumper Blanka Vlasic might be the best bets, since Isinbayeva has won 14 meets in a row, and Vlasic has only lost 3 times in the last two years (although she has lost twice in clinching Golden League events and in the Olympics). Anyhow, I'll post results next week...i don't think any Canadians of note are racing this weekend in Berlin.
Some quick Triathlon snippets - last weekend saw the inaugural Rev3 Triathlon in Connecticut. This was billed as a big money Half-Ironman (but non IM 70.3 brand) race, with a cool $100,000 in prize money. It's nice to see that long-distance triathletes have a chance to make some decent prize money outside of the big races, since they normally don't have the chance to make the prize money that ITU athletes can during a given season. Anyhow, Matt Reed (who is having a great 2009) and MIrinda Carfrae (amen) both claimed $16,000 for their victories, with Carfrae's coming over a great female field that included Leanda Cave, Natascha Badmann, Joanna Zeiger, Joanna Lawn, and Belinda Granger. Canadian Lisa Mensink finished 6th. Nicely done Mirinda, who is peaking for her Kona debut in October...
This weekend there are two big triathlons on top, with Ironman Boise 70.3 and Escape from Alcatraz as well. I'll focus mostly on Alcatraz, since it gets a lot of big names, including defending champions Andy Potts and Leanda Cave. Alcatraz features a non-drafting, close-to-Olympic distance race, with a longer swim and slightly shorter bike and run distances. Potts should repeat easily, as he doesn't have his normal rivals like Matt Reed around this year. The women's race is probably between Cave, 2006 champ Becky Lavelle and multiple winner Michellie Jones, who used to dominate at this distance before moving up to the Ironman in 2006...should be a fun race to follow.
First off, last week I didn't have a chance to add pictures and/or video, so I will try and add a few extras this week to make up for it...lots and lots to cover (again), so let's start with the Giro, and go from there.
Let's start with the drama of Stage 21 (the final stage) where it all came down to the final rider, Denis Menchov, who started the time trial only 20 seconds ahead of Danilo Di Luca. Di Luca had publicly announced that he didn't think that he could out-pace Menchov, since Menchov has consistently been a better time trialist. Di Luca started the 14.1 km stage with a furious pace, putting the pressure on Menchov. 20 seconds sure isn't much, especially when a flat tire or something like thing happens...
If you watched the full video, you will see that Menchov did quickly remount a new bike, and actually finished the stage with a faster time than Di Luca. So victory to the 31-year Russian, who has now 3 Grand Tour wins. Despite winning the Vuelta d'Espana in 2005 and 2007 (in 2005, he finished 2nd but was moved up when initial winner Roberto Heras was DQ'ed for doping), this win really puts Menchov into the elite group of Grand Tour riders. He was very good in the Giro, giving up a few seconds here and there in the big mountain finishes, but kept his rivals from getting too much time on him. And despite a huge amount of attacks by Di Luca (who gets full marks for his efforts), Menchov refused to crack. And he never had that one terrible day that proved to be the undoing for riders like Sastre, Basso, and Leipheimer (who finished 4th, 5th, and 6th).
3 more riders to mention: Congrats should also go to the winner of the White Jersey (Best Young Rider) Quick Step's Kevin Seeldrayers, who finished 14th overall (only 2 spots behind Lance). Franco Pellizotti, who was supposed to be the top teammate for Ivan Basso but instead finished 3rd overall, only 1:59 behind Menchov. The Liquigas rider had a great stage win in Stage 17 that ended at Blockhaus and was consistently a factor on the tough mountain stages. The best climber of the Giro was Carlos Sastre, who won two stages that ended with epic climbs, as he showed he could simply ride away from the other two riders. Both times, Stage 16 up Monte Petrano and Stage 19 up Mount Vesuvius, he simply accelerated away from the rest of the field. Ultimately, he was unable to move himself into the Top 3, but Sastre looks as though he could well be a factor again at the Tour. Solo attacks that result in decisive stage wins on hilly stages rarely happen, and for Sastre to do so twice in 4 days speaks to his talent.
So what did we learn at the Giro? Here are 5 things... 1) Never pick Cunego to compete at the Giro again. Damiano Cunego was terrible, finishing 19th overall. For someone who plans his whole year around the Giro, this has to be considered a disaster. He is just too inconsistent to be a Grand Tour contender. A decent enough rider who can occasionally make noise on a mountain stage, but not strong enough to ride at the front for 3 weeks. Too bad - Cunego was supposed to be the next great Italian racer after his win in the 2004 Giro, but it looks as though it is not meant to be.
2) Team Astana is still great - despite Levi having one terrible day that cost his a spot in the Top 3 (he finished 6th) and Lance being a bit inconsistent, the team is still strong. They easily won the Team Classification by 24 minutes, and their team often had multiple riders in the final groups. True, they didn't win a stage (Columbia-High Road won 6), but they were the only team with more than 2 riders in the Top 20. Astana had 4 in the Top 20, with Yaroslav Popovych (14th) and Jani Brajkovic (18th) having great tours as well. And more good news for Astana, as it appears they have satisfied the UCI regarding their not-paying-their-staff-and-bills issues and should be competing as a team throughout 2009. A great month for Astana...
3) Mark Cavendish is awesome. 3 stage wins plus the team time trial win for Cavendish, and despite dropping out during the last week of the Giro to prepare for the Tour, Cavendish is THE sprinter to beat. He has already stated that he intends to win the Green Jersey at the Tour in July. We'll see, but I wouldn't pick anyone in the world to beat him in a group sprint right now.
4) What happened to Team Garmin-Slipstream? They lost the Team Time Trial in Stage 1 in a fairly major upset to their rivals (Team Columbia), didn't win a stage (although they did have 3 second place finishes), lost their top GC guy when Christian Vande Velde crashed in week 1, and had their top rider finish in 71st place. Not good. If that's not bad enough, they finished last in the team classification. I'm sure they will be trying a much different strategy in the Tour, which will hopefully include a couple of Canadians...
5) The Giro itself. Although widely acknowledged as the second largest race in the world, the increased media coverage really showcased this great event. It was a great event in 2009, with epic mountains, involvement in a lot of major Italian cities (Milan, Naples, Venice, and Rome), and great vistas throughout. True, there were a few quirks (a very short stage 17 that was only 78 km long and a very long and hilly time trial in stage 12) and a number of safety concerns (lots of dangerous descents in week 1 led to crashes and then a rider protest on stage 9 before a fairly dangerous time trial on bad roads in Rome). But the overall beauty of Italy was shown to the world, and the racing was top-notch.
So what's next? We have about one month to go until Contador, Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers, and perhaps even Tom Boonen join the party in France. And there will be lots of news to come , so stay tuned...
Two more cycling news before I move on. The UCI cycling rankings have been updated after the Giro, and the biggest thing to notice is the depth of some country's riders. In the Top 20 in the rankings, 8 are from Italy and 5 are from Spain. Just to compare, the top American is Levi Leipheimer in 39th place and top Canadian is Ryder Hesjedal wayyyy down in 81st place. So the Italians are strong. Conversely, the French are not. This fiercely proud cycling nation has ONE rider in the Top 75 (Sylvain Chavanel is 30th). Jacques Anquetil must be spinning in his grave. For us Canadians, this would be like if there were no Canadians in the NHL. When you look at overall country rankings, Italy and Spain take the top 2 spots, with the US and France both outside the top 10 right now (Canada is 21st, right between Kazakhstan and Ukraine) Sacre blue...something to follow as the Tour de France takes centre stage next month.
Last thing...Bikey's favorite young rider, Taylor Phinney, has struck again. Only 18, he won the World Championship in the Individual Pursuit earlier in 2009, now won the U23 version of Paris-Roubaix last weekend. Phinney outsprinted the final group of 11 in the Roubaix Velodrome to become the first American winner of this race. Congrats to Taylor and his Trek-Livestrong team.
ITU racing was back last weekend, with the second race in the World Championship Series in Madrid, Spain. And for the seond time this season, the WCS had a great finish. After a photo-finish in the men's race in Tongyeong, the women had their turn. Check out this video...
It turned out that Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand won by outleaning Lisa Norden. The ITU must be thrilled that it is getting so many great finishes, despite having essentially zero media attention in the US and Canada. Personally, I'm still disappointed at not having Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes go head-to-head in Madrid (both did not start) but it is great to have the race go down to the last few metres. Awesome to watch. The men's race in Madrid also did not go according to plan, with Javier Gomez getting upset (and outrun) by Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain. Brownlee, who won the Junior Worlds title in 2006 and the Under-23 Title last year, ran 30:30 to blow apart the front of the race. And he's only 21. Look out...Gomez could only finish 3rd after getting outkicked by Courney Atkinson for 2nd place. The only Canadian in Madrid was Brent McMahon, who finished 20th. You can see the recap video here...
The ITU WCS now moves to Washington, DC, for a race on June 21. Hopefully the Canadian team will show up and produce some great results. But Kirsten Sweetland will not be part of the team, as she is injured again. According to her blog, she has a fracture in the semihacral region on the left side of her pelvis. So she's out for 6 more weeks or so. Not good.
Speaking of injured female Canadian triathletes, we did get one back from the sick bay. Sam McGlone raced for the first time in almost a year at the Honu (Hawaii) 70.3 race, finishing second to Belinda Granger. But she's back, and ready to take another shot at Chrissie Wellington in Kona. So here's hoping Sam can get fast again! The men's race in Honu featured Craig Alexander running a remarkable 10 minutes faster than Chris Lieto to catch and defeat the American. Alexander, who hasn't raced much in 2009 due to family issues in Australia, is showing that he won't be easily defeated in Kona this year.
Also last weekend was Ironman Brazil, where American Dede Griesbauer posted a very fast 9:10 time to win the women's race while Eduardo Sturla won the men's race. Canada's Sara Gross had a good race, finishing 4th.
Okay, i think i've typed enough for this week, so hope you enjoyed the pics and videos, and next week we will talk more pro cycling, and hopefully get to the brewing swimsuit controversy...Cheers!
