100% Non BikeY...

Hi All,

Bikey is taking a day off, as we are two days away from the end of the 2009 Elite Marathon season, with Sunday's New York City Marathon on the agenda. So no bike or triathlon news right now, it's all running this week...


The New York City Marathon doesn't have the history of Boston (117 years vs 40 for NYC) or the uber-fast times of Chicago (where 4 marathon world records have been set, including Paula Radcliffe's 2:17 in 2002) but it seems to have an aura about it. It helps that it can afford to attract a great elite field year after year. Paula Radcliffe has won this race 3 times, and is going for number 4 in her return to the marathon. She hasn't run one since NYC a year ago, but has always performed great at this race. She runs from the front, dares the other women to hold on, and outkicks any one who remains near the end. This year she doesn't have too many rivals to worry about, because there have been 5 major female pro withdrawals, so Radcliffe goes into Sunday's race as an overwhelming favorite. Radcliffe has only 2 main competitors including 2009 Boston winner Salina Kosgei. However, Radcliffe has stated that her 2009 win includes breaking the women's race record of 2:22:31. We shall see...


The men's race is noteworthy as well since Ryan Hall is making his NYC marathon debut. He did run 2:09 two years ago in New York City while at the US Olympic Trials but that was a modified Central Park course. So he will be the people's favorite but will be challenged by a very strong mens field. Ryan Hall has a PB and US record of 2:06:17, but that is only the 4th fastest PB in the field, and those other guys have all run faster than that in 2009. Check out this list:
* Jaouad Gharib (Morocco) - ran 2:05 in London this year, silver in Beijing Olympics, 2-time World Marathon Champion
* James Kwambai (Kenya) - ran 2:04:27 in Rotterdam (and finished second!) which makes him the 3rd fastest man all-time, has ran a 59:08 half-marathon less than 2 months ago
* Patrick Makau (Kenya) - ran 2:06 in his marathon debut in April in Rotterdam, is the second fastest half-marathoner of all time (58:52)


There are many other elite men in the race - you can check out the list here. Who will win? Since Ryan Hall has often run well in his major marathons but ultimately has a bad mile or two and falls off the pace, I can't pick him to win. Let's go with Kwambai, who'll use his experience to outlast Makau and Hall. Of course, that means Gharib will win going away...

I didn't talk at all about this month's very frigid Chicago Marathon, which was run about three weeks ago. It included a new course record (and a North American marathon record) of 2:05:41 by Sammy Wanjiru, which is a whole 1 second faster than the previous record. That 1 second was worth an extra $100,000 to Wanjiru, who is widely regarded as the best marathoner in the world today. He won Beijing last year, London this spring, now Chicago in the fall. He also owns the half-marathon world record and has run 2:05 twice this year. Wanjiru also moves to the top of the World Marathon Majors for 2008-09, which will be worth another cool $500,000 for him. It's so sad that he won't run against Gebrselassie (or vice versa) one time so we can see what they could do running against each other. The next step for Wanjiru appears to be a shot at the world record...stay tuned!


The women's winner in Chicago was not pre-race favorite Irina Mikitenko, but a Russian track star, Liliya Shobukhova, hammered the last 2.2 km (apparently running that split in 6:36, faster than Wanjiru did!) to beat Mikitenko by 35 seconds. Apparently, the combination of her track speed (she had world indoor record in the 3000m) and her huge training (regularly runs 250 km a week!) has honed Shobukhova into a future marathon star. Mikitenko can be consoled by her second place finish with the knowledge that she has already won the half-million for the World Marathon Majors for 2008-09 (she also won the 2007-08 segment and leads the 2009-10 segment as well).

I could depress you with some stories about the recent "rash" of marathon deaths that the media likes to discuss, but instead will leave you with a couple of stories to think about. One is a Globe and Mail story about the combination of drinking and running (includes the BeerMile) and the others are from the NY Times (caution: you may need to create a free account to read them). One is about the rash of "slow" runners who are now participating in the marathon. They make a case that 44% of runners in last year's Honolulu Marathon took longer than 6 hours to finish the race, and that keeping roads closed and volunteers out on the course creates headaches and extra costs for race directors. An interesting read. The other one is a fascinating look back at the NYC Marathon in the 1970's where 8- and 9-year-old children ran the marathon in 3-and-a-half hours or less! One of them later ran a 2:38 when he was 15! Ahhh - the days before Nintendo and Xbox, when all kids could do is go outside and run...

That's it for now...

The Brits are Coming...

Hi All,

2008 was known as the "Year of the Spaniards" with dominant years by Alberto Contador (Giro and Vuelta champion), Carlos Sastre (Tour de France champ), Samuel Sanchez (Olympic champion), a second place finish at Ironman by Eneko Llanos and a dominant year by Javier Gomez in ITU triathlon (who won everything but the Olympics). Add in Rafel Nadal's amazing summer of 2008, and it seemed that Spain owned everything sporting in 2008.

2009 can now definitely be called the "Year of the Brits". As if great seasons by Mark Cavendish (did he ever lose a sprint?), Alistair Brownlee (perfect in ITU championship races), and Chrissie Wellington (she never loses either) are not enough, this weekend included more of the same.


Two follow-up races to Kona are the Xterra Worlds, held every year a week after Kona in Maui. A few Ironman pros attempt the Kona-Xterra double, but mainly this is the weekend for those offroad triathletes to get their time in the spotlight. For multiple time world champions like Conrad Stoltz, Jamie Whitmore, and Canadian Melanie McQuaid, this is the one race that can define a career. With a unique 1500m swim, 30 km mountain bike, and 11 km trail run distance, this event has even been won by short-course specialists like Michellie Jones and Hamish Carter.

As you might have guessed from the introduction, the Brits did come to play in Xterra today. Julie Dibens, the 2007 and 2008 Xterra champion, quickly broke away on the bike to open up a huge lead over the rest of the women's field. She had over a 4 minute lead off the bike over Melanie McQuaid (a 3 time winner herself) and would not be challenged as she won by almost 8 minutes over Lesley Peterson, who is, yup, from Great Britain. McQuaid did finish third for her 7th career podium finish at Xterra Worlds. She's the Peter Reid of Xterra! So congrats to Dibens and to Melanie McQuaid for representing Canada so well again.


A quick note on the men's race. Before he was known as an Ironman threat, Eneko Llanos of Spain had won Xterra worlds twice (2003 and 2004). However, today, just 15 days after Kona where he had finished 14th overall, he outran fulltime Xterra pros Nicolas Lebrun, Olivier Marceau, and Conrad Stoltz to win his third Xterra world title. He joins McQuaid, Stoltz, and Dibens as a three time champ.


Quick Canadian content update - McQuaid was joined by two other Canadian women in the top 10 - Danelle Kabush was 7th and Christine Jeffrey was 8th. Our men weren't quite as fortunate as we were last year, when Brent McMahon and Mike Vine finished 3-4. This year, Vine was 12th and Kelly Guest was 16th. Also congrats to Calgary athletes Cal Zaryski and Sheri Foster for becoming world champs in their respective age groups.

One more for your Great Britain fans. As if having world champs in ITU racing, Ironman racing, and Xterra racing was not enough, you can add one more. The ITU Long Course world championships were also held this weekend in Perth, Australia. the 3k-8-k-20k format means that both short-course and long-course athletes can try for an ITU world title. This race actually used to be a 4k-120k-30k format until 2007, and Ironman athletes like Greg Welch, Simon Lessing, Luc Van Lierde, Torbjorn Sindballe, Eneko Llanos and Chrissie Wellington have all previously won this event. Now, with it's close-to-70.3 distance, but without the Ironman brand, and with a spot on the calendar between Kona and Clearwater, it sort of loses a bit of prestige since many pros regularly skip it. The 2009 event was supposed to be a nice post-Kona showdown between the dominant 70.3 champion Tim O'Donnell and Kona champion Craig Alexander, but Alexander decided to skip the race at the last minute. This left O'Donnell as the clear fave, and he won by a minute to show the rest of the world that he might be the best middle-distance racer in the world.


On the women's side, it was yet another dominant win by Great Britain. Jodie Swallow, who races ITU short-course mainly, absolutely dominated and won by over 10 minutes over hometown fave Rebekah Keat, who was hoping for some vindication after getting disqualified at Kona. But Swallow was first out of the water, lead by 8 minutes off the bike, and cruised to an 11 minute win. What can't the Great Britain athletes win? I guess Joel Filliol is doing an okay job over there...



More coming real soon...lots of racing news still to cover!

Big Bikey News...

Hi All,

Some just-breaking news tonight, when it was announced by the UCI that Alberto Contador can leave his contract with Astana due to Astana missing a key administration deadline this week. Essentially, teams have until mid-November to submit to the UCI a budget, a list of riders, sponsorship contracts, etc. However, any team that didn't have this information submitted by the 20th of October (a month before the actual deadline) does open a loophole where riders under contract can leave their contracts without penalty. A number of pro teams did miss this deadline, including Astana, thereby allowing Contador the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere.

Anyhow, if Contador does leave Astana, it is still expected that 3 or 4 other ProTour teams will seek to sign him. Quick Step, Caisse D'Epargne, and Garmin-Slipstream have all expressed interest, and it will be interesting to see what team can provide both the financial backing for Contador as well as providing him a team that can help him win his 3rd Tour de France. Or the Giro d'Italia. Or both.

Quick Step has traditionally been built around Tom Boonen and his preference for one-day race success (Paris-Roubaix, etc) or his desire to compete for the Green Jersey at the Tour de France. They have never been a real Yellow Jersey contender and are not built to support a rider like Contador. However, they are a stable, well-run team.

Garmin-Slipstream is a team that needs Contador. They have been trying to develop a Grand Tour winning team for the past two years, with three stage wins in the Vuelta to show along with a whole bunch of second places. They have been successful in protecting their GC guys the last two Tours, as both Vande Velde in 2008 and Wiggins in 2009 being fairly well-protected by their teammates. Add in Tyler Farrar (who might be the second best sprinter in the world) and Garmin could be a threat on every Grand Tour stage next year with the addition of Contador. Hmmm...

However, the favorite right now might be Caisse d'Epargne. Despite being sponsored by a French bank, this team is filled with Spanish riders such as Alejandro Valverde and Luis Leon Sanchez. For 2010, the team has already signed Christophe Moreau and Mauricio Soler (Polka Dot jersey winner in 2007 Tour) to bolster their lineup. With Contador in the fold, they could field a Grand Tour team that rivals that of Astana in the 2009 Tour (with Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, and Kloden). This might be the most appealing option for Contador.

Who knows? Maybe he decides to stay with Astana for one more year. They have really bolstered their team for 2010 lately too, with Gilberto Simoni the latest to join Vinokourov's group for next season. Only Alberto knows right now...we'll keep you posted...

Cycling tidbits..

Hi All,

Rather than trying to talk about 19 items every Friday, I might try and break it into smaller chunks for the next while to discuss all things Bikey...starting this week with a bunch of news on the Pro Cycling world.

2010 Team News - Team Astana finally let 3 key riders and their director out of their 2010 contracts so they could ride with other teams. Gregory Rast, Andreas Kloden, and Yaroslav Popovych, along with team director Johan Bruyneel all were allowed to leave Team Astana and all 4 of them have joined Lance, Levi, and Team RadioShack. Unfortunately for most of the cycling fans outside Kazakhstan, Astana did not release Alberto Contador. So it appears that Team Astana 2010 will include both Alberto Contador and Alexander Vinokourov, as well as Haimar Zubeldia, who Contador was allowed to keep as his personal domestique.

Team RadioShack also got some more great news this week as they were awarded a ProTour license, which essentially grants them entry into all the prestigious races for next season. Some traditional cycling teams like Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis have lost their ProTour status for next year, so for a first year team like RadioShack to be assured entry without needing wildcard status will be a relief for Lance and his crew.

Wednesday was the official unveiling of the 2010 Tour de France route. Starting with the prologue in the Netherlands, the route goes clockwise thru France towards the Pyrenees with several tough mountain stages before the traditional finish in Paris. Here is a cool Google maps view of the route.


View 2010 Tour de France in a larger map

Unfortunately, the Tour is skipping both a team time trial and a trip up Alpe D'Huez for a second year in a row, but will try and reward fans with 2 trips up the giant Tourmalet. The riders climb Tourmalet as part of a 4 mountain day in Stage 15 before finishing on top of the same hill in Stage 18. This is the highest road in the Pyrenees and will surely factor in the final podium - the road averages over 7% over the 17+ km length! Also new for 2010 is an early couple of stages that include cobblestone sections (up to 30km!) which may take a contender or two out - that's what cobblestones seem to do best. There are also 6 days in the high mountains, including 4 of the last 6 stages before Paris. You can read more on the route here...

Kona recap 2009 coming this weekend...cheers!

My Kona Picks...

Hi All,

Just to be for the record, here are my late-breaking Kona Top 10 Predictions. They are guaranteed to be 100% inaccurate!

The Men
1. Craig Alexander - repeat. He'll be invisible as the top cyclists go nuts on the bike but will run everybody down. Again.

2. Gut tells me Eneko Llanos, but he won't be second again. So instead I'll pick Timo Bracht as breakthrough German of the year.

3. Marino Vanhoenacker - some one off the radar for the final podium spot.

4. Rasmus Henning - uber talent can run a ton, and hopefully he doesnt lose his chance for top 10 with a bad swim after breaking his hand about a month ago.

5. Chris McCormack - I think he doesn't have the blazing speed anymore to hang out near the top of the race in the end.

6. Chris Lieto - i anticipate a huge bike, and then a decent start to the run before the very fast runners come flying by.

7. Eneko Llanos - so consistent, but not this year. I think.

8. Terrenzo Bozzone - future of the sport. I expect him to lead at some point on Saturday - just not when it matters.

9. Matthias Hecht - another under-the-radar German who will consistently hang out with big guns.

10. Patrick Vernay - one last top-10 for him

Notable omissions from top 10 that make up the next 10 (although a few DNFs will be in this group): Andy Potts, Cam Brown, Norman Stadler (this one pains me), Faris Al-Sultan, Ronnie Schildknecht, Andreas Raelert, Tim Deboom,Philip Graves, Mike Lovato and Reinaldo Colucci.

The Women


1. Chrissie. #1 fave until she gets beaten. And that might not happen for a long time.

2. Rebekah Keat- the new Aussie star.

3. Yvonne Van Vlerken - second last year, will come from way back to end up third this year.

4. Mirinda Carfrae - 4th in her Ironman debut? Has the speed on the bike and run to mirror Chrissie, but can she last 140.6 miles?

5. Bella Comerford Bayliss - could be her breakthrough year into the top 5.

6. Cat Morrison - might be a nice battle between her and Bayliss for 2nd best GBR finish. Morrison might need 1 practice run at Kona before becoming a podium threat next year.

7. Kate Major - always seems to be in the mix in Kona

8. Tereza Macel - two summer Ironman victories will take a bit out of her legs, but she'll still be around for much of the day

9. Sandra Wallenhorst- No reason she can't finish 3rd again, but I think she'll slide a bit in 09.

10. Sam McGlone - an injury plagued couple of years will end with her second top 10 in Kona.

Notable omissions : Erika Csomor, Belinda Granger, Michellie Jones, Natasha Badmann, Gina Ferguson, Jo Lawn, Leanda Cave, and Linsey Corbin. The women's field is loaded...

T minus 2 years...

Hi All,

In what could be the most talked about comeback since Brett Favre, the return of Lance Armstrong to his triathlon roots appears inevitable. And if you can believe his coach, Chris Carmichael, Lance has his eye on a particular race in 2011...



Yep, Lance in Kona in 2011...let the speculation begin!

A quick update...

Hi All,

With only 8 days until Kona 09, most people would expect a slew of stories and predictions. However, with my flight to Kona early next week, I would expect that there might be multiple posts next week on the biggest race of the year.

Ok, I fold. The good folks at Slowtwitch have come up with a list of odds for the favorites for Kona. There is a list of male pros and one for female pros. Of course, betting on Chrissie W might be the triathlon equivalent of betting on a 18-0 New England Patriots team from a few years ago (and we all know how that turned out). She's never lost an Ironman race (never really been pushed actually) but that "you never know" factor will keep us all watching on October 10.

Moving along, the Pro Cycling world (UCI) wrapped up the important part of their 2009 season with the Worlds Road Race last week. This is the race where World Champions are made, and forever become part of cycling lore. Past champions include Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond, and even a very young Lance Armstrong way back in 1993. Recent chamions include Oscar Friere (3 times), Tom Boonen, Paolo Bettini, and last year's champ Alessandro Ballan. This race is different than most since it becomes a country-vs-country race, with Italians competing against Spaniards and the like, with each national team trying to set up their big names for the finish. This year's race involved 19 laps and 38 monster climbs over 262 km, and the difficult course in Switzerland really did let the world's best cyclists come to the front.

Here is a 10 minute video of the last few km, and you can see that the final select group includes Alejandro Valverde (winner of the Vuelta), Sammy Sanchez (Beijing gold medal), Fabian Cancellera (Beijing TT Gold Medal, Worlds TT Champion, Home Town Favorite), Damiano Cunego (who excels in one day races) and Cadel Evans (Mr Almost-Win-The-Big-Race) among a group of 9. Earlier in the last lap, names like Tom Boonen and Alexander Vinokourov (in an epic solo attack that ended with him getting pulled back on the first of 2 climbs on the final lap) also made appearances at the front of the race. This truly was an epic grouping.



As you can see, Cadel Evans made the decisive move, and powered away to the biggest win of his career. The last 5 or 6 years are full of close calls in big races (2 second overall finishes in the Tour de France, plus a 4th place finish, also a 3rd and a 4th in the Vuelta D'Espana) so to see the Aussie finally get the proverbial kangaroo-off-his-back was nice to see.


By the way, kudos to Michael Barry, who finished 18th overall at the Worlds Road Race and was both top Canadian and top North American finisher. Both other Canadians did not finish (Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft) but they had plenty of company as over half the field did not finish.

Come back later for more...but here's a funny poster...