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.
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