My laptop-less vacation cost me a post last week, but with swimming, track, Ironman, ITU, and pro cycling all pretty much taking a deep breath before getting on with more big competitions, starting this week. So in honour of my first post in 15 days, here's 15 things you might want to know...
1. We'll lead off with the biggest event currently going on anywhere on the planet. The IAAF World Championships in Athletics got underway today in Berlin. And while they offer an action packed 9 days, the marquee events haven't really been decided yet. The sprinters got started today, and going into Sunday's final, all 3 marquee guys are still on a collision course. Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, and Usain Bolt all cruised thru the second round into the semi-finals tomorrow morning. And Sunday night in Berlin (Sunday afternoon in North America) the final will see who will take the title of the "World's Fastest Human" for the next two years, and to see if Usain Bolt or Tyson Gay can try and lower the World Record. Should be great theatre...you can watch live coverage on the weekends on CBC and NBC, or online all week long on CBC's website.
2. Later on this week, the women's 100m final (Monday night), and the men's (Saturday morning) and women's marathon (Sunday morning) should be highlights. The one problem with both the men's and women's marathons is that a large group of top contenders are NOT racing, saving themselves for the big money fall marathon series. So we are not going to be treated to seeing Gebrselassie, Wanjiru, Ryan Hall, and a few other big names in Berlin this week. But the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place guys from Beijing are all back to compete, and should battle for the win along with a slew of top Kenyans and Moroccans. I'm going to pick Deriba Merga, who has already won Boston this spring, and set World's Best times at 8K and 15K this year. I'll have more on the marathons next Friday..
3. Canada's team at the World Championships is only 31 athletes strong, and is not expecting to win too many medals at this year's event. Team Canada is hoping for 2 medals, but truthfully we only have 4 or 5 chances to medal. And one of those, shot putter Dylan Armstrong, who missed an Olympic medal by a single centimetre, didn't even make the final of the shot put today. Oops. So now we have Perdita and Priscilla in the women's 100m hurdles, perhaps Gary Reed in the 800m, and maybe the 4X100m relay team (assuming the USA drop the baton as often happens) as medal hopefuls. It's not out of the realm of possibility for Perdita and Priscilla to both make the podium, and to have neither of them get a medal would be a major blow to Team Canada.
4. There is one more big road race this week, and it takes place in New York City. The NYRR Half Marathon takes place on Sunday, and most of the big names who aren't in Berlin are here. Ryan Hall, Deena Kastor, Catherine Ndereba, and the great Paula Radcliffe are all racing in New York as a fitness check before fall marathon season. But Radcliffe is using the race as a fitness check, as she is still considering racing next week's Berlin's marathon. You rarely hear about pros racing on a back-to-back weekends (especially across an ocean) but Radcliffe has stated that she wants to win NYC to gain confidence before next week's foray into Berlin. It is Radcliffe's first race since last year's New York City Marathon, and after bunion surgery and a broken toe, she is trying to rescue her 2009 season. She is also hoping for a fall marathon (perhaps NYC again?) but it will depend on the results of tomorrow's race and perhaps Berlin next weekend. Here's hoping that Radcliffe can make it to Berlin since she is the biggest female marathon star in the world.
5. Moving to the triathlon world, the ITU crowd stepped into London for today's race in the heart of London. Unfortunately for Canadian fans, Triathlon Canada sent a grand total of zero racers for the 6th event of the World Championship Series. It's too bad that our best athletes don't get a chance to compete in every race. With the Series leader Emma Moffatt skipping the race, it left the race wide open. Swiss star Nicola Spirig won today's race, with Lisa Norden of Sweden finishing second for the third time in her last 4 World Cup races. This moves Norden into second place overall in the Series standings, and now Canadians Kathy Tremblay and Lauren Groves fall back into 6th and 8th place overall.
The men's race was also today, and hometown fave Alistair Brownlee won his 4th race in a row! (Did i mention he's only 21?) This kid is the fastest runner in the sport, and continues to simply run away from his challengers. Barring an injury or setback, he's already the favorite for every race in the next three years, including the Olympic games in London. A bike crash eliminated Javier Gomez today, and since he was the only guy to defeat Brownlee this year, it set up an easy 8 second win for the Londoner. Steffen Justus from Germany continues his strong season, finishing second today and moves into third in the overall standings. Canada now has zero athletes in the Top 20, but with Whitfield, Tichelaar, and McMahon we do have strong contenders in the Series finale in Australia in September. Can Simon win the big one? Stay tuned...
6. A couple noteworthy triathlons in the last couple of weekends. Calgary 70.3 was held two weekends ago, and did showcase a few of the biggest 70.3 stars on the planet. The very under-the-radar Tim O'Donnell continued his amazing 2009 with a dominant 7 minute win (he now has two wins, a second, and a third in his four 70.3 races this year). He will go to Clearwater as a definite favorite to win the 70.3 World title. As dominant as O'Donnell was on the men's side, Aussie Mirinda Carfrae was more so in the women's race, as she beat a great field by a full 10 minutes. Her run split of 1:19 was only 2 minutes slower than O'Donnell's! Canada's rising star Magali Tisseyre held off the very fast Catriona Morrison by 20 seconds for second place. Overall, it was a great race, even if Craig Alexander was a late no-show for the event, claiming he had to "focus on his training".
Two more races to report on from last weekend - Tim O'Donnell continued to dominate, breaking the course record at the 5430 Triathlon in Boulder. He didn't really beat anybody, but the race is noteworthy for the women's race. Chrissie Wellington actually got beat by another female, as Julie Dibens beat her by 75 seconds over the half-Ironman distance. This is her first loss in a half-Ironman since September 2007, and perhaps takes a wee bit of her invincibility heading into Kona. She's still the overwhelming fave, but perhaps the other girls will take notice and not settle for second place. The other race that made headlines was Ironman UK, where a 20-year old Brit, Philip Graves, became the youngest Ironman winner ever. He did defeat defending champion Stephen Bayliss, so it's not like there was no one else in the field. Graves won with a blistering 4:57 bike split, and mentions in this Slowtwitch interview that he perhaps might be interested in a career in pro cycling down the road. I guess that you can dream when you are already an Ironman champion at the age of 20!
7. Chrissie Wellington also made news last week when she and her 2009 coach, Simon Lessing, decided to part ways. This makes three ex-coaches for Chrissie since her Kona victory last October. She says that she will be "coaching herself for the foreseeable future". Is this another potential problem for Chrissie, or will she continue her undefeated Iron-streak by herself?
8. Okay, changing gears to swimming. Although FINA has now decided to ban the fancy polyurethane suits on January 1, 2010 (after a threat of a boycott by Michael Phelps), the records continue to fall. Good news for Canada, since the Canadians are having perhaps their best year in the pool since the 1996 Olympics (three medals). After the World Championships that resulted in three medals (two by Ryan Cochrane, one by Annamay Pierce - to go with her World Record in the 200m breaststroke) and 13 Canadians making various finals, Canada then moved on to the short-course pool in Great Britain where they set 4 more short-course world records (3 by relay teams, one by Annamay Pierce). Canada has now set 5 short-course world records in 2009, more than any other country. Annamay Pierce has 3 world records this year (out of 87 set this year), and is most definitely the greatest Canadian swimmer of 2009.
9. Speaking of setting world records, Michael Phelps has now set 5 more this year. He ended the Rome World Championships by defeating his trash-talking rival Milos Cavic in the final of the 100m butterfly. Their rivalry reached epic proportions when Phelps out-touched Cavic by 1/100th of a second during the Beijing final.
Then came the swimsuit controversy, when Cavic volunteered to provide Phelps with a "fast" suit before their final in the 100m butterfly to even the playing field. Here's the link to the video from the final. It is an amazing race to watch
As you can see, Phelps had the last laugh, winning the final (after being behind for 90+m) and becoming the first man ever to finish under 50 seconds (although Cavic also went sub-50 in defeat). Phelps leaves Rome with 5 gold medals and a silver, and is now aiming squarely at the London Olympics in less than 3 years!
10. For every great Phelps success story, there seems to be some minor (or major) controversy. This week he was in a minor traffic accident and got cited for driving without a license. This follows up on his DUI from 2004 and his college party/bong controversy that resulted in his 6 month vacation last winter. He is a very rich young man and occasionally gets a bit too hung up on his "unwinding" from his ridiculous training schedule. Anyhow, perhaps this makes him more likable as he does have some warts to go with his Greatest Swimmer Ever title.
11. Okay, no more swimming stories for a while. I promise. From Michael Phelps, American Superstar, to Lance Armstrong, American Superstar. Lance today showed his strength by returning to the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race and easily winning and breaking the course record. Lance, second to the legendary Dave Wiens in 2008, grabbed control of the race about mid-way through and solo'd for almost 60 miles to win by a half-hour! He also broke the course record by almost 17 minutes! Obviously, Lance is still planning to compete at the 2010 Tour, and it's nice to see that he enters the winter this season so far ahead of where he was last year.
12. Lance made news of a different type this week, when details of a new Outside Magazine interview came out. Just read the following quote:
Are you going back to triathlon? Should we look for you at Kona?
I trained at Kona before the Tour Down Under. I was there. I’d like to go back and try some Ironman events. Not just Kona.
What? Multiple Ironmans? Lance, we need more information! Can you imagine how cool it would be for us amateur athletes to toe the start line against Lance?
Oops, these Saturday posts have some advantages...not only can I report on Saturday's races (ITU, Leadville, and the IAAF Saturday events), but sometimes you luck into other stuff. Here's Lance talking about swimming and running to go with his biking in the near future. Video is from a post-Leadville press conference.
13. The Vuelta is still 2 weeks ago, but the provisional start list for the third and final Grand Tour of 2009 was released this week. And great news for Canada, as we have 3 riders on the provisional start list for the Vuelta d'Espana, including first time Grand Tour riders Svein Tuft (Team Garmin) and Dominique Rollin (Team Cervelo). Ryder Hesjedal is also expected to start, and he is aiming at a high GC ranking in this race. He has also signed a 2-year extension with Team Garmin thru 2011, and will be representing Canada at the World Championships in late September. A busy year for Ryder!
The main contenders for this year's Vuelta include Alejandro Valverde, the Schleck brothers, Ivan Basso, Samuel Sanchez, Roman Kreuziger, and even Andreas Kloden.
14. Speaking of Canadians on pro teams, 2008 Canadian Road Champion Christian Meier has also been busy as a domestique for Team Garmin in 2009. This 24-year old from New Brunswick is even being considered for Garmin's Vuelta roster, but regardless of his participation, it has been an eye-opening year for Meier in Europe this year. Here is a great interview with Meier, and you can also check out his website that he shares with fellow Garminite and Canadian Svein Tuft...www.bikingbros.com
15. September 1st is the official start of the silly season for cycling, when riders and teams can announce their 2010 contracts. The new RadioShack team is awash in rumours (Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie are rumoured to have already signed, Chris Horner is still thought to be deciding) but the biggest name in play is obviously Alberto Contador. This week, Contador spoke openly about his desire to join Caisse D'Epargne, although it is expected that Quick Step, Garmin, and some other teams may attempt to sign Contador. However, he is still under contract to Astana in 2010, and today Astana confirms that Contador will remain on their roster for 2010. Of course, contracts are written to be broken, and perhaps some new team could financially induce Astana to release Contador. However, this bears watching...and who wants a rider who doesn't want to ride for them? Even if he is the best rider of his generation? Time will tell...
Next week, lots on the IAAF World Champs, and maybe some news about Alexander Vinokourov...
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