Bikey Catch Up!!

Hey All,

A last-minute vacation made me push back last weekend's update. Which might have a good thing, since last week included pretty much NOTHING newsworthy in the BIKEY world. But this week has a few updates, a few results, and a couple of previews. So let's get going...

Ok, what's new in cycling? Let's recap quickly. Ivan Basso is back - and although he didn't win his first race (beaten by Damiano Cunego in a sprint), it appears he hasn't lost too much. And he's only 30! And will be back competing in the big races next year - the Giro and the Tour. It should be a great year in 2009 as the "old names" like Armstrong, Hamilton, Basso, Sastre, Vinokourov, etc compete against the "new" names like the Schlecks, Valverde, Cunego and the rest.



Speaking of the Schlecks, the doping case against Andy Schleck is still proceeding, but is not proceeding quickly. To recap, Schleck wrote a cheque to Dr Fuentes (the head of Operatin Puerto) but says the money was for training plans. Since this was 2+ years ago, it is difficult to find evidence. So we'll see. But the Luxembourg anti-doping agency hopes to wrap this up by the end of the year. So expect to hear more soon.

Interesting story on ESPN.com where Alberto Contador appears to be more happy with the Alexander Vinokourov joining him on Team Astana than Lance Armstrong doing so. This story refuses to go away, and it will be interesting to watch how the Team divides its resources between Armstrong and Contador. Contador has already decided to NOT defend his Giro title, so he will not be competing with Lance in Italy. It remains to be seen what will happen if we have a fit Lance vs a fit Contador in France in July...



Moving on to marathon and running news...an interesting story from last week's Nike Woman's Marathon in San Francisco. With 20,000 women in the field, Nike decided to hold an "elite" start - kind of a self-seeding 20 minute lead for "fast" runners. No big deal. But what happens when a female runner starts in the main field and ends up with a faster time than any of the "elites". Arien O'Connell ran 2:55 (a 12 minute PB) and beat the best "elite" by 11 minutes!! Race organizers originally held to their original belief than only "elites" could win prizes, thus O'Connell went home empty-handed. It took a huge media campaign and a lot of public pressure, but 3 days later, Nike finally awarded O'Connell the trophy for being "a" winner of the race. What a disaster. Next year there will be no "elite" start...

This weekend a way faster marathon will be run, as New York hosts the ING NYC Marathon. And because this race is 2-and-a-half months after Beijing, is attracting a super fast field. The men's race features Paul Tergat (2005 winner, WR holder before Geb broke it), Hendrik Ramaala (2004 winner), Marilson Gomes dos Santos (2006 winner) and a truckload of fast Kenyans. But I like Abderrahim Goumri from Morocco, who has finished 2nd at NYC (2007) and in London (2008) to break through. Of course, my predictions are never right...

The women's race is even better, with Paula Radcliffe back to defend her title from 2007, where she and Geta Wami ran together for 25 miles before pulling away. Other names include Catherine Ndereba and Rita Jeptoo from Kenya and the Ethiopian Dire Tune who won Boston this year. What a great race this could be on Sunday! I guess I will stick with Radcliffe as she has something to prove...race highlights are on NBC Sunday afternoon too.




Actually I'm not the only one picking winners for this race. For the first time, you (assuming you live in the US...darn it) can play Fantasy Marathon!! Yep, NYRR and Toyota have a contest running where if you can pick the Top 3 male or female finishers in this race. And the prizes? 2 Toyota Prius's (One for each race)!! Yep, that's unbelievable. And the contest is free...wow. Since I'm ineligible being a Canadian, I'll go with Radcliffe-Wami-Tune for the women's race and Goumri-Kirui-Tergat for the men.

Ok, on to triathlon news. And there is plenty. At the top of the list, a big shakeup among the elite Ironman women. Chrissie Wellington, Belinda Granger, and Hilary Biscay all decided to leave their coach Brett Sutton and switch to Cliff English. Very interesting for a bunch of reasons...first off, Sutton's Team TBB obviously was pretty strong, since Wellington/Granger/Biscay all won Ironman races this year. So Sutton's techniques were obviously pretty successful. Team TBB still has Rebecca Preston, Erika Csomor, and Bella Comerford, so they will be okay. But now Cliff English adds 3 winners to his group that includes his fiancee Sam McGlone. So I guess McGlone has decided to use the "keep your friends close, your enemies closer" strategy to deal with Chrissie Wellington. It is obviously most dangerous for Wellington, since she has never lost an Ironman with Sutton as her coach. As usual, stay tuned...

More interesting coaching news, as Kirsten Sweetland has also switched coaches. She is leaving Joel Filliol (coach of Simon Whitfield) to start training in Australia with Emma Moffatt's coach. Hmmm. This one is surprising, since Sweetland was very successful in 2007 under Filliol. She was injured throughout 2008, but regardless of her coach, here's hoping Sweetland bounces back in 2009.

Speaking of Canadians, Canada had a great day at Xterra Worlds last week in Maui. Danelle Kabush from Canmore finished second in the women's pro race, while Brent McMahon finished in third on the men's side (Canadian Mike Vine finished 4th too). I guess the only huge surprise was that Melanie McQuaid (a 2-time world champion and pre-race favorite) got sick and DNFed. Too bad for her. But Canada continues to do well in Xterra racing, despite zero Xterra events in Canada. And Brent McMahon turned out to have a pretty good 2008, despite not making our Olympic team. He won the National Championships, won some decent money in the Lifetime Fitness events, and now finished 3rd at Xterra Worlds. Solid year.

The race to Kona 2009 starts today with Ironman Florida tomorrow in Panama City Beach. As usual, Bella Comerford is there, trying to win that race for the 5th time. She will be challenged by 2007 winner Nina Kraft. The rest of the women's field is pretty weak, so it would be a surprise if Kraft or Comerford doesn't win. The men's race is very competitive though, with Canadian Tom Evans a serious front-runner. He will be opposed by Petr Vabrousek, Victor Zyemtsev, Andriy Yastrebov, and potential starter Torbjorn Sindballe. It should be an interesting race as pros start to get their Kona spots for 2009...

Happy Halloween everyone!