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...
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