My list of things-to-blog-about-but-haven't-gotten-to is out of control, so here goes a very special Spring Cleaning edition of Bikey Friday. Lots to review, lots to preview...read on! We're starting with Paris-Roubaix and ending with Boston Marathon so here goes...
20. This should be #1 with a bullet, but how can you can not lead off with the robo-biker Fabian Cancellara. For the second week in a row, Cancellara was easily the biggest star at Paris-Roubaix. One week after breaking away on a steep section about 16k from the finish, Cancellara once again solo'd to victory after a surprise break with about 50 kilometers to go. From then, it was a time trial to the finish as he managed to hold off a group of key rivals for a decisive victory. This makes Cancellara the first since Tom Boonen (in 2005) to win both Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but the sheer dominance (even with a celebratory lap around the velodrome he won by 2 minutes!!) he showed will make it more remarkable. He's so strong right now he could win any race he chooses, but rather than trying to increase his April winning streak at this week's Amstel Gold or next week's Liege-Bastogne-Liege, he is going to take the rest of the month off before returning to competition at the Tour of California as he gets set for the Tour de France.
Here's the video of the decisive move. Cancellara notices Boonen sitting at the back of their little group, attacks, and 50 km later, it's all over. Remarkable riding by Cancellara.
Interestingly enough, one of Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso's coaches suggested this week that Cancellara is so strong that he could be close to competing for the overall Yellow Jersey at the Tour. Cancellara has worn the leaders jersey a few times after winning early prologues or time trials, but Italian Coach Aldo Sassi suggests that if Cancellara could lose 10 or so pounds, he could be a revelation in the mountains using his superior strength. Hmmm....
19. More Paris-Roubaix news. To give you an idea of how hard this race really is, only 74 out of 200 pros who started were given official finishing times. Over 30 pros finished outside the finish time and the remaining 100 simply decided to fight again another day and take the DNF. Crazy. The Canadian duo in the race both had solid finishes, finishing 26th (Michael Barry on Team Sky) and 33rd (Dominique Rollin on Cervelo). Both are finishing up solid spring seasons in Europe and should get chances in Grand Tours ahead. There is a short interview from Pedal Magazine with Michael Barry here. The before (Barry) and after (Rollin) pictures of the two Canadians are classic...lots more great race pictures on cyclingnews.com here...
Here is also a short video showing some of the fun that the riders dealt with during their day from Paris to Roubaix. Enjoy.
18. So after Paris-Roubaix, the race calendar continues into Holland for this Sunday's Amstel Gold Race. It's not as important for the pro riders to win as the big races the last two weeks, but it starts the shift from cobbled races into hillier ones as the riders start getting ready for the Giro and the Tour. However, this race is short a lot of main riders. Why? Illness? Training? Other races? Nope - it's due to Volcano Eyjafjallajokull, which has shuttered European airports and this week is preventing big names like Valverde, Sanchez, Sastre, and Wiggins from reaching the start line. It's so bad that Caisse d'Epargne is expected to start only 3 riders on Sunday!! Although the lack of big names could mean an unknown winner, I expect Team Saxo Bank to protect the Schleck brothers and let them get their season off to a fine start. We'll see on Sunday!
17. Two more quick cycling notes. This week saw two week-long events going on in Spain and in Turkey. In Spain, it was the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, where Alberto Contador is again dominating after today's stage 4. He has figured out the strategy to win these muti-stage events -stay close on the flat stages, thin the field during moutain stages, and blow away your competitors in the time trial. Today, he did just that in the 15 km time trial as he won it by a huge margin (30 seconds!). I don't care what anyone says, Contador will go into the Tour as the dominant favorite.
Two sentences on the Tour of Turkey: Andre Greipel is the man. He won 4 of the first 6 stages including the time trial on day 1. Greipel is the "other" sprinter for Team Columbia behind Mark Cavendish but he continues to win races at a great pace.
16. One last pro cycling note that is interesting since we've talked about both Fabian Cancellara and the Schleck brothers already. It is the last year that Saxo Bank is going to be the main sponsor of their cycling team, but last month a report surfaced that the Schleck brothers were thinking of leaving Bjarne Riis's team and would start their own team, possibly recruiting their teammate Cancellara as well. Wouldn't that pretty much destroy what's left of Team Saxo Bank anyhow?
However, could the amazing results of Cancellara the past two weeks possibly encourage a new big-money sponsor? Stay tuned...
15. Some Canadian content - the Canadian Cycling Association announced a new anti-doping awareness program called Race Clean - Own Your Victory. It launched at the end of March in conjunction with a media blitz featuring Canadian pros Tara Whitten, Zach Bell, Svein Tuft, Catherine Pendrel, Geoff Kabush and others. The riders support includes a pledge to drug-free sport. Great job by our Canadian racers!
14. A Bikey Mea Culpa - When I discussed the great results of Canada's Tara Whitten at Track Worlds - I made a comment that she doesn't participate in road racing. Turns out I was dead wrong - she participated in the Worlds Road Race for Canada last fall and is the current Canadian Time Trial Champion. Oops. It turns out she races in the summer on the road for Quebec-based Specialized Mazda Samson team. I promise to keep better track of Canada's best Olympic cycling medal threat going forward!
The good news for Tara Whitten is her news gave her and her sport of track cycling some much-needed media exposure. Here are two stories on her...one from the Toronto Sun and one from Toronto Star.
13. From cycling to triathlon - last weekend finally saw the ITU World Championship Series kick off in beautiful Sydney harbour. The men kicked off first, and despite missing a few big names, many superstars in the sport were still there. A couple of Americans (Simon Kemper and Matt Chrabot) were among those that tried to escape near the end of the bike ride. However, like 99% of recent ITU races, it came down to the fastest runners to determine the podium. On this day, it was New Zealand's Bevan Docherty who took off and was able to hold off the main group which included two fast-running Russians and Canadian Simon Whitfield. Russian Alex Brukhankov was 2nd and France's David Hauss was third. Docherty has two Olympic medals and managed to outshine the two Gold Medalists in the field (Whitfield finished a strong 5th, Jan Frodeno had bike problems and finished 32nd). Canada's other male competitor Kyle Jones unfortunately did not finish.
12. The women also started their season last Sunday in Sydney, and might have upstaged the men's race by having a sprint finish in race #1 of the World Championship Series! Unlike the men, it wasn't a pre-race favorite who emerged victorious. A final group of 3 featuring hometown favorite and 2009 Champion Emma Moffatt, New Zealand's Andrea Hewitt, and Chilean Barbara Riveros-Diaz would normally favor Moffatt, but it was newcomer Riveros-Diaz who outsprinted the two (much) bigger names to win her first UTU WCS race. Unfortunately, Canada's Kathy Tremblay did not have a great day and finished 30th.
The ITU series now shifts to Seoul, South Korea for the next race on May 8th.
11. Speaking of the ITU series, the good folks at the CBC are strongly behind it again this year. All year long, they will be live streaming the ITU races on cbcsports.ca and will be showing several races on CBC television and on their BOLD network. It's great to see ITU racing getting some television coverage. I'll try to keep you posted...for those who want to see, here's the schedule...
10. Ironman news - one big race coming up on Sunday in New Orleans for the second edition of Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. This made big news up here last year when Canadian triathlete Brent McMahon outran Chris McCormack for the victory. McMahon isn't back this year to defend his title, but McCormack does have some big names challenging him. Andy Potts (2007 70.3 World Champ) is making his 2010 debut in New Orleans and will be a factor, as will McCormack's occasional training partner Terrenzo Bozzone (2008 70.3 World Champ). It should be a great early season race. On the women's side it appears to be a battle between Linsey Corbin and Yvonne Von Vlerken. Unfortunately no Canadians of note in the pro field this year.
9. Beginners beware - although consistently known as one of the fastest age-group Ironman races on the planet, Ironman Germany (aka Ironman Frankfurt and the Ironman European Championships) has modified it's bike course in 2010 to be a full 185k due to road construction issues. And if that's not enough, it has backed up their official finishing time to 10 pm (it used to be 11 pm) . They say that it's because of noise bylaws in downtown Frankfurt that they plan to finish earlier, but for some age group athletes it means only 15 hours to complete the 143.6 miles! Last year there were 120 finishers that this would have affected!! Wow...those Germans have funny ways to motivate their athletes to run (and bike and swim) faster....
8. What do Julie Dibens, Chris Lieto, Terrenzo Bozzone and Belinda Granger have in common? They are all sponsored by K-Swiss (among others), who have used athlete sponsorship to become a huge force in Ironman racing. In 2010, some lucky athletes have become members of the Trek/K-Swiss Triathlon Team. Now Ironman racing is anything but a team race, but rather these two companies are able to fully sponsor their athletes and provide them with cutting-edge racing and training products. In return, the athletes are involved in testing, developing, and promoting the products. In 2010, 9 athletes are on this team, including Lieto, Dibens, and Michael Raelert. I found it interesting that Chris Lieto's brother Matt made the team but Raelert's very fast brother Andreas did not. Hmmm....
Regardless, this type of sponsorship is GREAT for Ironman racing! Hopefully it is successful for all parties and will continue long into the future. Good luck.
7. Time for running stories...last weekend featured probably fastest marathon on the planet and maybe the most important outside of the Big 5 (London, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, New York). It was the Rotterdam marathon, which for years has been known for its breakthrough performances by lesser known runners and the incredible times they invariably turn in. This year was no different, as 4 men ran below the magical 2:05:30 mark (4 runners had never broken 2:06 in a race before) led by Kenyan Patrick Makau who became the 4th-fastest marathoner ever with his 2:04:48 time. Only Haile Gebrselassie (with a magical WR of 2:03:59) and the top 2 runners from 2009's Rotterdam marathon (Duncan Kibet 2:04:27 and James Kwambai 2:04:27 but just behind Kibet) are faster. But that wasn't it - the 2nd (Geoffrey Mutai 2:04:55) and 3rd (Abel Kirui 2:05:04) finishers at Rotterdam this year have added their names to the Top 10 Fastest Marathoners in History list...an amazing day in Rotterdam.
The biggest question I have is when will the World Record go down? With 5 of the 8 fastest marathon times in history having been run in Rotterdam the last two years, it makes sense to pick next year's Rotterdam as a good candidate. And I have a feeling it could happen before then...
6. Women's Marathon News - Fresh off a 3 month training camp in the Portland area with American rival Kara Goucher, Paula Radcliffe recently let it be known that she's pregnant with baby #2 (due in September). This is the second baby for her and she planned it well as she will have almost 2 full years to get herself into shape for what will be the biggest race of her life, the 2012 Olympic Marathon in her homeland. Anyhow, congrats to Paula, we hope she comes back stronger next spring!
5. Usain Bolt has now decided that breaking Michael Johnson's 200m world record is not enough and will soon be gunning for the 300m world record. Then maybe the 400m world record. Personally, I think if Bolt wants to run really fast he just needs a little motivation and a little competition. Perhaps he might challenge his own 100m record in August when he is expected to race against both Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay in Brussels...
4. Some Castor Semenya news - even though most of the world has stopped following this epic soap opera I will spend 3 sentences trying to recap it. No official results have been released on her gender identity tests. Semenya is already planning to run a race in June. The IAAF is telling her to be patient. Stay tuned...
3. Canada's greatest recent marathoner is Jon Brown, even though he didn't become a Canadian until the tail end of his great career (back-to-back 4th-place finishes at Olympic Games). Unfortunately for Canada, he has stopped competing at the elite level in marathons. But he remains active in both running and coaching circles in the Victoria area, and Canada is very lucky to have him. Hopefully he can help foster some more career arcs similar to his, where he was one of the best runners on the planet for a decade or more. He has a great article in the new issue of Impact Magazine - available here...
2. Ryan Hall - the Faith Interview. Enough said.
1. We made it!! Boston Marathon 2010 is on Monday and will be the 114th running of the world's most famous 26.2 miles. The men's race is actual pretty wide open, with last year's winner Deriba Merga back to defend against a field highlighted by 2 very fast Americans (Ryan Hall and last year's NYC winner Meb Keflezighi) and Abderrahim Goumri (who is still known as the fastest man never to win a major marathon). Or it could some unknown Kenyan to breakthrough. I like Ryan Hall or Goumri to finally grab their first major title...
The women's race features a rematch of last year's sprint finish between Dire Tune and Salina Kosgei. Tune won Boston in 2008 before getting beat by 1 second in 2009. Will one of them do it again? Or will one of the other 4 women who have PB's below 2:25 win the $150,000 top prize? I like Tune -she's only 24, has raced Boston twice before, and should have the desire to get back onto the top step.
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