Bike-Y Friday

Chrissie 8:31:59!

2009-07-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I posted last week that Chrissie Wellington was racing Challenge Roth in Germany this weekend, but I had no idea that Chrissie would do what she did today. Her 50 minute swim, 4:40 bike, and 2:57 run got her to the finish in 8:31:59. This is simply ridiculous when you realize that until last year the best ever Iron-distance time by a female was Paula Newby-Fraser's 8:50:53 in 1994. Then last year, on this same Challenge Roth course, Yvonne Van Vlerken smashed that record by 5 minutes. Today, though, that record was annhilated by Wellington, who lowered it by 14 minutes!!

Congrats also go out to Rebekah Keat from Australia, who also broke the old record by going 8:39 today. Keat is best known for rescuing Chrissie last year at Kona by handing her a CO2 cartridge when Chrissie was stranded with a flat tire.

More on the Challenge Roth later this week..

101 Things to Catch Up On...

2009-07-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I promise to post after Friday's 1st Mountain Stage at the Tour, where Lance and Alberto and the rest of the peloton finally will hit some big hills. But this post will be all about triathlon, running, swimming, and non-Tour de France stories...and I'll try to keep all the points to 3 sentences or less!

Okay, first off, a young Canadian is becoming the new face of Canadian swimming. Amanda Reason, only 15 years old, broke the 50m breaststroke world record by .08 seconds this week, becoming the first Canadian swimmer in 21 years to break a long-course (50m pool) world record. In doing so, she joins her fellow breaststroker Annamay Pierce (who earlier this year set the world record in the 100m short course) as the new stars of Canadian swimming! Great job Amanda! Did i mention she's only 15?

In other swimming news, Michael Phelps is proving that his little break from swimming this past winter is not really affecting his 2009 season. On Wednesday he won both the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly at the US Swimming Nationals but was disappointed to not better his world records in either event (although he did swim the best time in the world for both events). On Thursday, he finally did break a world record, lowering the world record in the 100m freestyle to 50.22 seconds. Unreal.

Okay, enough swimming talk. Let's move on to some quick Athletics highlights. Watch this video...

Ok, Usain Bolt ran the 4th fastest 200m ever. In the rain. And simply destroyed the field that included 3 Olympic medalists. He is the Chrissie Wellington of sprinting. Can anyone ever push him?

More Athletics news...and it's all bad. First it was Tyler Christopher pulling up lame during the 400m event at Canadian Nationals. Then it was his coach quitting to take a new job with UK Athletics (his first coach also left for UK Athletics last year). That makes at least 4 top-notch Canadian coaches to have left Canada for Great Britain in the past year. Brutal. Tyler Christopher was the 2008 World Indoor Champion in the 400m and is now in tough to even get to the 2009 Worlds.

Oh yeah, congrats to Perdita Felicien for winning the 100m Hurdles title at the Canadian champs in Toronto in June. She finally beat her new rival Priscilla Lopes-Schliep in the final and appears back to the shape that made her world champion way back in 2003. And hopefully Perdita and Priscilla can share the podium in Berlin next month at Worlds.

Some breaking month-and-a-half-old news that I forgot to post. Deriba Merga, who won Boston Marathon in April, came to Ottawa in May to try and challenge the World 10K Record. He missed the record (27:01 for anyone who wants to try it) by 23 seconds. However, he did set a world record for the 8K distance, as he covered it in 21 minutes and 48 seconds (which makes his average km go by in 2 minutes and 43 seconds). I thought it warranted a mention!

Triathlon season is flying by, and so many races to report on. But first, we have one less guy wearing gloves and white tights to cheer on at Kona. Torbjorn Sindballe, the uber-biking Dane, has been forced to retire due to a heart condition. He has a moderate leak of his aortic valve, and the risk of serious injury was too high to continue his racing career. So we say goodbye to "Thunder Bear" and wish him well.

Okay, Ironman races have been happening around the world. The biggest mid-season races occur in Germany every summer, with Ironman Germany having happened last weekend and Challenge Roth coming up this weekend. Ironman Germany had a showdown between Chris McCormack and Eneka Llanos upstaged by Timo Bracht, who broke the course record to beat Llanos by a 50 seconds. On the women's side, it was Sandra Wallenhorst who broke 9 hours and defeated Yvonne Van Vlerken by 4 minutes. Very impressive wins by both Germans! This weekend in Roth we see Chrissie Wellington try to keep her undefeated streak alive (she's at 6 Ironman wins in a row) in Roth against a women's field that includes Belinda Granger and Erika Csomor, while Normann Stadler leads the men's field in his first Iron-distance race since Kona.

The other mid-year Ironman races in Japan, France, and Austria didn't really have super-competitive fields.

This weekend in triathlon features two huge races, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. On Saturday, most of the top North American athletes will be racing at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis. With $20,000 to the winner, the men's field is pretty deep, with Greg Bennett, Andy Potts, Matt Reed, and Craig Alexander all competing in the non-drafting race. Unfortunately, I think Canada is sitting out this race.

The other big race (actually it's much bigger) this weekend takes place in Kitzbuhel, Austria. It's race #4 in the ITU World Championship Series, and most of the global stars are taking part. The men's race goes on Saturday and includes Alistair Brownlee (going for win #3 in a row in the WC Series), Javier Gomez, Jan Frodeno, Brad Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty, etc. The start list also includes Canadian men Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar, who might be making his 2009 ITU debut.

The women's race takes place on Sunday in Kitzbuhel includes Vanessa Fernandes, Hollie Avil, Lauren Groves of Canada, and Emma Moffatt. Vanessa Fernandes started her 2009 season last week at the European Championships, where she finished third. It was the first time in 6 years that she didn't win! The other Emma, Emma Snowsill, has a bit of an injury and is sitting out. Too bad, we have yet to see Snowsill and Fernandes in the same race yet this year. Also notable in the women's race is Edmonton's Paula Findlay racing her first ITU World Championship Event. Good luck to all!

Okay, that's it for today! Enjoy the races!

Lance Turning Back the Clock...

2009-07-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I know that some people might have interests outside of the ongoing Tour de France, but you people are out of luck. Actually, this Friday's Bikey might have something for you. So check back then. But for the rest of you...

This year's Tour is shaping up to be the dogfight that we expected it to be. But rather than the Contador vs Lance vs Cadel vs Schleck vs Sastre Tour that we all thought we might be seeing in the high mountains that start on Friday's Stage 7, the Tour so far has revolved around the question "Who is leading Team Astana?"

Let's recap quickly - rather predictably, Fabian Cancellara won the Stage 1 Time Trial to jump into yellow. Team Astana put four guys into the top 10 (including Contador in second and Lance in 10th) and the Tour settled into its predictable rhythm with a first week full of flat stages where the sprinters make headlines and the race faves settle into the background until the road goes up. Except after Stage 2 where Mark Cavendish easily took the sprint win, Stage 3 turned the race upside down. A freak crosswind broke the peloton apart with 25 km to go, and Lance Armstrong took full advantage. He tucked into the lead group that was driven by Team Columbia (ultimately resulting in another stage win for Cavendish), and gained 40 seconds on the trailing peloton that contained all the top GC riders, including Lance's teammate and Astana's supposed team leader Alberto Contador. This vaulted Lance from 10th into 3rd in the overall , ahead of Contador and the rest of the of the top riders after Stage 3.

This put Astana in the enviable position of having their two top riders near the top of the standings (Contador is 4th overall, 19 seconds back of Lance) but the unenviable position of having to decide which rider might be their true leader. This has been the question since Lance came back from retirement - who is the alpha male for Astana - but finally it appears that it is close to the time where we all find out the answer. This is more than a simple decision - Contador has won 3 straight Grand Tours while Lance won 7 straight Tour de Frances before retiring in 2005. And despite Lance, Alberto, and Johan Bruyneel (the team director for Astana) all trying to say the politically correct things, the fact remains that neither Lance nor Alberto seem to be 100% sold on the idea of sharing the top billing. This story from mid-June shows that Contador was in active talks with at least two teams (Garmin and Caisse d'Epargne) to join them if Astana folded before the Tour started (it was in financial turmoil until days before the Tour started). So obviously Contador is not 100% happy being Lance's teammate, there is bound to be friction. But friction is still a long way from jeopardizing the team's goal of a Yellow Jersey in Paris in two-and-a-half-weeks...

With a time lead over Contador heading into Tuesday's team time trial, Astana was in great position to try and take the Yellow Jersey from Cancellara if they could win the stage by 40 seconds. In a performance reminiscent of the Blue Train that Lance's USPS team of the early 2000's was famous for, Team Astana won the stage by exactly those 40 seconds, and tonight Lance sits in a virtual tie for the race lead. He is not the official leader (Cancellara still leads by less than half a second) but is in the driver's seat to seize the race lead once the mountains begin on Friday. All Lance needs to do is to finish alongside Contador and he will probably go to bed on Friday evening as the race leader. Of course, another twist could switch this up, but right now, Lance might be chuckling to himself at how well this is playing out for him.

What will happen in the days to come? Lance needs a couple more good breaks like the one that happened yesterday to stay ahead of the younger (and potentially stronger) cyclists who are out to dethrone the 7-time champ. I'd still wager that Contador will win the race. But cheering for Lance these last four days is like cheering for a back-from-retirement Michael Jordan in 1996 or watching Jack Nicklaus climb up the leaderboard at the Masters in 1986. It's great to see Lance back being relevant at the Tour. Let's keep hoping...

The Tour is Finally Here...an Official Bikey Preview!

2009-07-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

With the Tour now less than 24 hours away, I wanted to preview what is shaping up as an epic 3-week bike ride around France. It actually starts tomorrow (Saturday) with a fairly technical individual time trial in Monaco. Although only 15.5 km, it is tough enough for the general classification contenders (i'll get to them in a second) to put some time on each other.

So a little background on this year's event. It starts in Monaco, winds its way thru the south of France into Spain, then goes back thru the Alps into Switzerland before finishing (as always) in Paris. The first week includes four fairly flat stages (perfect for sprint finishes), a team time trial (Stage 4) and only on Friday we will see the big mountains become a factor. So week 1 is all about the sprint finishes, although the big names will want to be somewhat competitive on the first individual time trial and the team time trial.

Okay, so who's going to win? Well, if I had to bet my house, I would probably bet on Astana's Alberto Contador. He has had a great year so far, rides for the strongest team, and has won his last 3 Grand Tours. Is he a sure shot? He is also the overwhelming betting favorite, at pretty close to even odds (you would have to bet a dollar to win a dollar), whereas Lance and the rest of the peloton is at least 5 to 1 odds (bet a dollar to win 5).

There are reasons why Contador might not win though. His three Grand Tours victories have all come against lesser fields than this year's Tour. As well, one of his teammates is Lance Armstrong, who may try to make some headlines of his own and possible usurp his own teammate. There are lots of rumblings about Team Astana being split with some riders being pro-Armstrong and some being pro-Contador. Lance has always targeted the Tour de France as his race, and it appears that he is finally in climbing shape to compete with the rest of the GC guys. He has lost weight, has trained at altitude, and appears ready to put his stamp on the 2009 Tour. Lance hasn't not won a Tour de France that he has competed in since 1996, and that was pre-cancer Lance.

So can Lance win? Sure he can. Anyone who counts Lance out right now is a fool, since Lance has made a career out of doing things that people tell him can't be done. Come back from cancer to win the Tour? Impossible. Win it a second time? Win it 5 times in a row? Six? Seven? Check. Lance has always done the impossible in France, and it appears that he will be giving it all he has again this year. Truthfully, a lot of us will be watching his time trial tomorrow to see if "old Lance" makes an appearance....

Ok, if not for the Astana boys (remember, they also have Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer riding with Alberto and Lance too), who else could win? It's a pretty short list in 2009. There are really only 4 other main contenders who have the pedigree to challenge up front...

1. Carlos Sastre - Last year's winner is back. And while he showed amazing climbing fitness during the Giro when he simply left everyone else in his wake, he probably doesn't time trial well enough to stay close to the rest of the contenders. Add in the fact that his team (Cervelo TestTeam) is considerably weaker than his team of 2008 (where he had the Schlecks as helpers), and it's doubtful that Sastre will successfully defend his title. If he can stay close through the first two weeks, he could be a factor in week 3. He does seem to embrace his underdog role in 2009...

2. Andy Schleck - Now that Carlos Sastre has left to Team Cervelo, Andy Schleck is the main guy on Saxo Bank. His brother Frank, who lead the Tour for a few days last year before Carlos Sastre took over on Alpe D'Huez. Frank has not a great year in 2009, but younger brother Andy (who won the white jersey last year as best rider under 26 years old) has had a breakthrough year. He won Liege-Bastogne-Liege this year, and is the winner-in-waiting for La Fleche Wallone this year (where Davide Rebellin won but is now in a doping scandal). Andy proved he could hang with the big boys last year, but now that he is the main man for Saxo Bank, he will be expected to contend and be a key factor in the last week.

3. Cadel Evans - the Aussie who has finished 2nd in 2007 and 2008 is back in 2009 to try and move up to the top spot on the podium. The biggest question with Evans is his team (Silence-Lotto) since they don't have a great rider to stay with Evans near the end of the big mountain stages. Evans might have to do a lot of the work at the front by himself defending against all the rest of the top contenders, which might be tough with all the key helpers from Astana and Saxo Bank that can climb and help out their team leaders. Anyhow, Evans does have the experience, the climbing fitness (he actually beat Contador in the Dauphine Libere) and the time trial consistency to be factor.

Evans and Silence-Lotto also sustained a pretty good body blow this week, when teammate Thomas Dekker was excluded from the Tour after the UCI released the results of his biological passport. A test from December 2007 tested positive for EPO, so he is now suspended (and likely banned for two years). Dekker has been suspected for some time, with his 2008 team Rabobank actually keeping him from the 2008 Tour de France due to some "abnormal blood values". He was never suspended, and joined Rabobank at the end of 2008.

4. Denis Menchov - Just won the Giro by being the fastest time trialist of the real mountain climbers, and stayed near to his closest contenders on every climb to ensure that no one could make up the time gaps. But can he can go back to back? The last man to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same year was Marco Pantani in 1998. Can Menchov do it? I think he could. He's now won three Grand Tours, but he will have to attack way more in the Tour since it's unlikely that he will make up enough time in the time trials. He does have Robert Gesink as his key teammate in this year's Tour, and Menchov himself thinks he can win...

Personally, Contador looks almost unbeatable. But if he slips up once or twice, there will be a large group of contenders ready to take advantage. I'll pick Contador with Menchov and Lance rounding out the podium. Of the big names, I think Sastre might struggle a bit in 2009. I know he can climb, but i think he might lose too much time in the time trials to stay at the top. Here's a preview by VeloNews...

Lots more to come, including a look at possible winners of the Green and Polka-dot jerseys...stay tuned...

A Huge Weekend for Canada...

2009-06-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Last week I talked about the festivities that were to come this weekend at the ITU Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa (the elite race on Saturday and the Team Triathlon World Championships on Sunday). But even I was stunned to see how well our intrepid Canadian triathletes would do...

...it started out with the women's elite race, where for the second week in a row, the two Emma's finished 1-2. And once again, Emma Moffatt beat Emma Snowsill. What made this more noteworthy was the $150,000 extra that she won for finishing first. Moffatt got away from Snowsill on the bike, and hammered the run to win the race by over 90 seconds. Third place, and winner of a cool $25,000 (!!) goes to Canada's own Lauren Groves, who had the third-fastest run in the field. This is Groves highest-ever finish in an ITU race, and is probably her second best ever race result (she did finish 4th at the 2006 Worlds in Lausanne). This comes after two straight tenth -place finishes at the last two World Championship Series races, so she is having the best year of any Canadian female in 2009...congrats Lauren!

However, the biggest story of the day came in the men's race, where an elite group of 6 men broke away on the run, including Simon Whitfield, Javier (i keep calling him Sergio...oops) Gomez, Brad Kahlefeldt, Olympic champ Jan Frodeno, Kris Gemmell from New Zealand and new American hope Jarrad Shoemaker. I'd encourage you to click here and watch the video of the race to do the finish justice...

For the umpteenth time this year, in a finish reminiscent of Beijiing, it came down to a sprint finish, with Simon Whitfield triumphantly hitting the tape first. This race was even closer than Beijing, as the Top 5 all finished within 3 second of each other. It was a bit of sweet revenge for Whitfield to beat Frodeno after Beijing, while Whitfield also more than makes up for his DNF last week in Washington, DC. So Simon gets the $200,000 prize for the first time in his career (he has been .... at this race the last two years). Canada's Brent McMahon was the next finisher after the top group of 6, finishing in 7th place and winning $10,000. Nice job by the Canucks on Saturday.

After the big money day on Saturday by Groves, Whitfield, and McMahon, it was time to compete for country bragging rights on Sunday with the team triathlon competition. With a 4 x (250 m swim, 8k bike, 1.8k run) it is an all-out battle with 16 from 10 countries teams trying to win the world title for 2009. Interestingly enough, it has been suggested that this type of event could be eventually part of the Olympics in 2012, as the country/team concept and short duration may warrant future interest. Anyhow, Sunday's race was won by Team Switzerland, which pulled away from race favorite Team Australia when one of the Swiss females (Daniela Ryf) hammered her bike leg (30 seconds faster than any other female) and the last Swiss athlete held off the Australian (Kahlefeldt, who now finished second two days in a row!). Canada's team of Lauren Groves, Brent McMahon, Kathy Tremblay, and Simon Whitfield held off the US team to finish 3rd. So yet another podium for Canada on the weekend. I should also mention that Canada's second team in this event finished 5th overall (ahead of New Zealand, Russia, Japan, and some other countries first team). So congrats to them too!

Special thanks to Delly Carr (the world's greatest triathlon photographer) for all the wonderful pictures from the races this weekend!!

Oh yeah...one more thing...Canadian Michael Barry did not make Team Columbia High Road's Tour de France team this year. Too bad Michael, you always represent Canada so well...

More to come this week, including recaps of the Canadian Track & Field championships and the Canadian Road Cycling Championships...check back soon....

1001 Things...

2009-06-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Even though we are in the middle of a two week period with zero pro cycling races going on, there is plenty to talk about...I often joke about how long these columns might be, but I'm positive that this one will be legitimitely epic. Buckle up...

Ok, with the Tour de France starting next weekend (prologue is Saturday, July 4th in Monaco), the teams are making their final roster decisions. Most team employ the build-around-a-GC-guy appoach, a go-for-breakaway-wins strategy, or a focus-on-leading-out-our-sprinter scheme. You can see the latest team confirmation lists here. Some big name teams, like Garmin and Columbia High-Road, might have enough good cyclists that they can use a combination of the three. I don't really want to spend a ton of time this week on the Tour (come back next week) but I did want to touch on the Canadians that might or might not be in the race.

After 11 years without a Canadian in the Tour, Ryder Hesjedal raced in 2008 and finished in the Top 50 overall. And now he's back in 2009! He made the cut for 2009 after being skipped in the Giro to rest up for the Tour. This year Ryder is being counted on to help Garmin's top GC rider, Christian Vande Velde, at the end of the tough mountain stages. However, Vande Velde really struggled in his final tune-up (the Tour du Suisse last week, where he finished 81st and 44 minutes back of Fabian Cancellara), so that might mean more chances for Ryder to show his stuff with the big names in the big mountain stages. I can't wait...

Ryder's spot on the Garmin Tour team left one less spot for his teammate and fellow Canuck Svein Tuft. And unfortunately for Tuft, he didn't make the cut this year. He is in his first year on Team Garmin, and was expected to leverage his great time trial skills into valuable contributions for Team Garmin in the Grand Tours. Unfortunately, Tuft has struggled this year, with a bunch of crashes this year that have hurt his preparations and his results in some races. So Tuft was skipped by Garmin, but hopefully he gets 100% healthy and has a chance to compete in his first Grand Tour next year.

Cervelo Test Team's lone Canadian is Dominique Rollin, and unfortunately he got mononucleosis earlier this spring and is not fit enough to compete in the Tour. But he's only 26 and will have many more chance to make the cut...

The other Canadian under consideration is Team Columbia High-Road's Michael Barry. Barry has had a great career, and has been a solid domestique for US Postal, Discovery Channel, T-Mobile and now Columbia. But he has never been chosen to compete in the Tour, and is on the fence to make the team again this year. Columbia might have the best team in the world (they are so strong that they won 6 of the first 8 stages in the Tour de Suisse, with 5 different riders winning a stage!) and Barry must hope that his work helping Mark Cavendish through the tough stages at the Tour of California and in the Giro d'Italia will pay off and get him into the Tour finally. Columbia High Road should announce their team either Friday or Saturday...I'll post it as soon as soon as I find out...

The other big Canadian cycling news story of the week is that Canadian Nationals go this weekend in Quebec. The time trial championships are today (Friday) where Svein Tuft gets to defend his 2008 title (he has won the title 4 times in all). Then Sunday is the elite men's race, where Christian Meier (also on Team Garmin but not really yet a Grand Tour possibility) defends
his Canadian Road Championship title against Tuft and a number of young contenders. Also this weekend the U23 men compete in both events, and the elite women and U23 women do so as well. The big prize is the title of top Canadian and the chance to wear the Red & White champions colours for the whole year. You can read more here...

Okay, enough cycling for this week. The ITU triathletes have taken centre stage both last week and this week with races in Washington, DC and Des Moines, Iowa. The Washington race was the third stop on the ITU World Championship Series, and again the competition was top-notch. The women's field included the Emma's (Snowsill and Moffatt), Madrid winner Andrea Hewitt and runner-up Lisa Norden, 2008 World Champion Helen Jenkins and a boatload of top North Americans including Lauren Groves and Kathy Tremblay. However, on this day, it was Emma Moffatt holding off Emma Snowsill for the win. Top Canadian was Lauren Groves, who actually had the third best run split but only finished 10th.

The men also did their thing in DC, and it appears we have a new King in town. Alistair Brownlee, who is only 21 years old, won his second straight ITU race by outrunning Javier Gomez (again). This kid has tons of ability, and just unreal running speed. His running speed enabled him to cruise to a 13 second victory over Gomez. The race was notable not only for the Brownlee-Gomez duel, but for the carnage that it exacted on the rest of the field. Simon Whitfield, Greg Bennett, Matt Reed, and Bevan Docherty all DNF'ed on this day. Andy Potts actually returned to ITU racing and finished a strong 4th. It's amazing that he still has the ability to compete in ITU races while he is preparing for another shot at Kona in October. Top Canadian was Brent McMahon in 12th place.

As I mentioned, Simon Whitfield just didn't have it in DC but is hoping to use some of the energy he saved from Washington this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, where the big money ITU race will be held. Saturday's Elite Men and Women's race pays a whopping $200,000 to the winner, which easily makes it the richest race in triathlon. It even pays $3000 to the 20th place finisher in both races! Most of the big names from Washington will be in Des Moines, with Sergio Gomez looking for his first big win of the season. 2007 and 2008 Men's Champion Rasmus Henning is not participating this year since he is training for Kona, but 2007 Women's winner Lisa Bennett and 2008 winner Emma Snowsill will both be participating. It should be a great race!

Des Moines also has a fun day planned on Sunday, as the ITU World Team Triathlon Championships will be held. Each country selects 4 athletes (2 women and 2 men) to each complete a 300m swim, a 8k bike, and a 2K run before tagging off to their next teammate. It sounds like an amazingly fun event since this is the first time it has been a co-ed competition, and with country bragging rights on the line, even the tired pros who raced on Saturday should be giving their all. It appears Team Canada will be composed of Whitfield, Groves, McMahon, and Tremblay. Hopefully they can knock off the powerful American and Australian teams for some bragging rights in 2009!

I have been dying to talk about swimming and the ridiculous sham that swimming has become as technology takes over the sport. This was further illustrated this week when a German female swimmer, Britta Steffen, broke the world record in the 100m freestyle and complained that "one swims as if on a air mattress" and "the new suits are ruining the sport". The Speedo LZR that was the hot suit in Beijing just last year has been passed by several manufacturers as they have created 100% polyurethane suits like the Arena X-Glide and the Jaked 01. These new suits have resulted in more world records being set, and despite the sport less credible since the records only last as long as it takes to make a faster suit, FINA (the governing body) has really done nothing to stop the smashing of world records. To be fair, FINA tried to make some rule changes and actually banned some new suits earlier this year, but this week they essentially said that anything goes in 2009 and they will try to fix swimming in 2010. It appears that many groups want to go back to textile-only swimsuits, which will lead us to a future where the 2008-2009 world record times will appear as ludicrously untouchable for the next decade or two. It's similar to baseball and the PR disaster they have faced as a result of the steroid controversy and the home run records it produced.

Anyhow, FINA is taking a huge hit by continuing to allow this "circus" to go on. It has gotten so bad that L'Equipe (that famous French sports newspaper that hates American cyclists) refuses to acknowledge any new swimming world, European, or national records that get broken until this generation of speedsuits get banned. Other blogs discuss how we need to have multiple world record tables now, with different levels for normal suits, for approved (LZR) speedsuits, and now for originally-not-approved-but-now-FINA-stopped-caring-and-approved speedsuits. Anyhow, the World Championships in Rome will undoubtedly have more world records that are ultimately meaningless, and hopefully FINA figures it out before 2010. A great post by the Science of Sport guys on this topic here...

Next week, I will update some Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races that have happened recently, and of course come back on Friday for the Official Tour de France preview...

Canadians Kicking Ass...June edition...

2009-06-16T22:08:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

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.

Bolt and a Bunch of Triathlons!

2009-06-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

It was very odd to turn on the TV and watch live track & field on a Thursday evening. Yep, TSN spent an hour of prime-time coverage last night to broadcast the Festival of Excellence, which was essentially a showcase for the new Toronto Varsity track stadium built around Usain Bolt's first 100 m race of the season. Bolt, who was paid a reported $250,000 for his visit to Toronto, was the main reason that almost 6000 spectators showed up to watch the meet. There were 50 Olympians that participated during the one-day meet, but other than Bolt and Canadian female hurdlers Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, there were not a lot of big names for the casual Canadian fan.

Those three big names did not disappoint, as Bolt cruised to victory in the 100m, and despite a couple of false starts and a very wet track, managed to run 10.00 flat. Here's the best video I could find this morning...

As I mentioned, the women's 100m hurdles featured Perdita vs Priscilla in a showdown between the 2003 World Champion and the 2008 bronze medallist from Beijing. Perdita, who has seemingly been injured since her infamous fall at the Athens Olympics.

Perdita's throne as the Top Canadian hurdler has been grabbed by Priscilla, who has also run the fastest time of the year in 2009 (12.52s). In Thursday's race, the two Canadians beat the rest of the field fairly easily with Priscilla holding off Perdita by .02 seconds (12.86 vs 12.88). Again, the wet track may have slowed them down a bit, but the two Canadians are hoping to stand together on the podium in Berlin later on this summer at the World Championships.

Other Canadians who had great results on Thursday include Nate Brannen in the men's mile, who won in 3:55:07, and Malindi Elmore who was second in the women's mile in 4:30:70. Other big names who won included Americans Brian Clay (easlly won the Pole Vault-110 m hurdles- 400 m triathlon), Khadevis Robinson (800m), Amy Acuff (high jump), and LaShawn Merritt (400m). And despite the terrible weather, the event hopes to develop into an annual event on the North American track calendar. And with last weekend's Prefontaine Classic turning into a Golden League event next year, there will perhaps be many more European and African track stars in North America who might be available to race in Toronto.

As I mentioned, the IAAF Golden League starts this weekend with a meet in Berlin. The Golden League offers a million dollar purse if any athlete sweeps their event in all 6 Golden League meets. So it's all about winning the 6 events. Last year, Pamelo Jelimo from Kenya won all 6 Womens 800m races, so she didn't have to share the million dollars with anyone (compared to 2001, where 6 athlets shared the prize). Of the marquee sprinters (Bolt, Powell, and Gay) only Asafa Powell is running, so the spotlight shifts to longer-distance runners and field athletes. Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and high jumper Blanka Vlasic might be the best bets, since Isinbayeva has won 14 meets in a row, and Vlasic has only lost 3 times in the last two years (although she has lost twice in clinching Golden League events and in the Olympics). Anyhow, I'll post results next week...i don't think any Canadians of note are racing this weekend in Berlin.

Some quick Triathlon snippets - last weekend saw the inaugural Rev3 Triathlon in Connecticut. This was billed as a big money Half-Ironman (but non IM 70.3 brand) race, with a cool $100,000 in prize money. It's nice to see that long-distance triathletes have a chance to make some decent prize money outside of the big races, since they normally don't have the chance to make the prize money that ITU athletes can during a given season. Anyhow, Matt Reed (who is having a great 2009) and MIrinda Carfrae (amen) both claimed $16,000 for their victories, with Carfrae's coming over a great female field that included Leanda Cave, Natascha Badmann, Joanna Zeiger, Joanna Lawn, and Belinda Granger. Canadian Lisa Mensink finished 6th. Nicely done Mirinda, who is peaking for her Kona debut in October...

This weekend there are two big triathlons on top, with Ironman Boise 70.3 and Escape from Alcatraz as well. I'll focus mostly on Alcatraz, since it gets a lot of big names, including defending champions Andy Potts and Leanda Cave. Alcatraz features a non-drafting, close-to-Olympic distance race, with a longer swim and slightly shorter bike and run distances. Potts should repeat easily, as he doesn't have his normal rivals like Matt Reed around this year. The women's race is probably between Cave, 2006 champ Becky Lavelle and multiple winner Michellie Jones, who used to dominate at this distance before moving up to the Ironman in 2006...should be a fun race to follow.

The Giro Wraps Up, and the ITU has another great race...

2009-06-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

First off, last week I didn't have a chance to add pictures and/or video, so I will try and add a few extras this week to make up for it...lots and lots to cover (again), so let's start with the Giro, and go from there.

Let's start with the drama of Stage 21 (the final stage) where it all came down to the final rider, Denis Menchov, who started the time trial only 20 seconds ahead of Danilo Di Luca. Di Luca had publicly announced that he didn't think that he could out-pace Menchov, since Menchov has consistently been a better time trialist. Di Luca started the 14.1 km stage with a furious pace, putting the pressure on Menchov. 20 seconds sure isn't much, especially when a flat tire or something like thing happens...

If you watched the full video, you will see that Menchov did quickly remount a new bike, and actually finished the stage with a faster time than Di Luca. So victory to the 31-year Russian, who has now 3 Grand Tour wins. Despite winning the Vuelta d'Espana in 2005 and 2007 (in 2005, he finished 2nd but was moved up when initial winner Roberto Heras was DQ'ed for doping), this win really puts Menchov into the elite group of Grand Tour riders. He was very good in the Giro, giving up a few seconds here and there in the big mountain finishes, but kept his rivals from getting too much time on him. And despite a huge amount of attacks by Di Luca (who gets full marks for his efforts), Menchov refused to crack. And he never had that one terrible day that proved to be the undoing for riders like Sastre, Basso, and Leipheimer (who finished 4th, 5th, and 6th).

3 more riders to mention:
Congrats should also go to the winner of the White Jersey (Best Young Rider) Quick Step's Kevin Seeldrayers, who finished 14th overall (only 2 spots behind Lance).

Franco Pellizotti, who was supposed to be the top teammate for Ivan Basso but instead finished 3rd overall, only 1:59 behind Menchov. The Liquigas rider had a great stage win in Stage 17 that ended at Blockhaus and was consistently a factor on the tough mountain stages.

The best climber of the Giro was Carlos Sastre, who won two stages that ended with epic climbs, as he showed he could simply ride away from the other two riders. Both times, Stage 16 up Monte Petrano and Stage 19 up Mount Vesuvius, he simply accelerated away from the rest of the field. Ultimately, he was unable to move himself into the Top 3, but Sastre looks as though he could well be a factor again at the Tour. Solo attacks that result in decisive stage wins on hilly stages rarely happen, and for Sastre to do so twice in 4 days speaks to his talent.

So what did we learn at the Giro? Here are 5 things...
1) Never pick Cunego to compete at the Giro again. Damiano Cunego was terrible, finishing 19th overall. For someone who plans his whole year around the Giro, this has to be considered a disaster. He is just too inconsistent to be a Grand Tour contender. A decent enough rider who can occasionally make noise on a mountain stage, but not strong enough to ride at the front for 3 weeks. Too bad - Cunego was supposed to be the next great Italian racer after his win in the 2004 Giro, but it looks as though it is not meant to be.

2) Team Astana is still great - despite Levi having one terrible day that cost his a spot in the Top 3 (he finished 6th) and Lance being a bit inconsistent, the team is still strong. They easily won the Team Classification by 24 minutes, and their team often had multiple riders in the final groups. True, they didn't win a stage (Columbia-High Road won 6), but they were the only team with more than 2 riders in the Top 20. Astana had 4 in the Top 20, with Yaroslav Popovych (14th) and Jani Brajkovic (18th) having great tours as well. And more good news for Astana, as it appears they have satisfied the UCI regarding their not-paying-their-staff-and-bills issues and should be competing as a team throughout 2009. A great month for Astana...

3) Mark Cavendish is awesome. 3 stage wins plus the team time trial win for Cavendish, and despite dropping out during the last week of the Giro to prepare for the Tour, Cavendish is THE sprinter to beat. He has already stated that he intends to win the Green Jersey at the Tour in July. We'll see, but I wouldn't pick anyone in the world to beat him in a group sprint right now.

4) What happened to Team Garmin-Slipstream? They lost the Team Time Trial in Stage 1 in a fairly major upset to their rivals (Team Columbia), didn't win a stage (although they did have 3 second place finishes), lost their top GC guy when Christian Vande Velde crashed in week 1, and had their top rider finish in 71st place. Not good. If that's not bad enough, they finished last in the team classification. I'm sure they will be trying a much different strategy in the Tour, which will hopefully include a couple of Canadians...

5) The Giro itself. Although widely acknowledged as the second largest race in the world, the increased media coverage really showcased this great event. It was a great event in 2009, with epic mountains, involvement in a lot of major Italian cities (Milan, Naples, Venice, and Rome), and great vistas throughout. True, there were a few quirks (a very short stage 17 that was only 78 km long and a very long and hilly time trial in stage 12) and a number of safety concerns (lots of dangerous descents in week 1 led to crashes and then a rider protest on stage 9 before a fairly dangerous time trial on bad roads in Rome). But the overall beauty of Italy was shown to the world, and the racing was top-notch.

So what's next? We have about one month to go until Contador, Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers, and perhaps even Tom Boonen join the party in France. And there will be lots of news to come , so stay tuned...

Two more cycling news before I move on. The UCI cycling rankings have been updated after the Giro, and the biggest thing to notice is the depth of some country's riders. In the Top 20 in the rankings, 8 are from Italy and 5 are from Spain. Just to compare, the top American is Levi Leipheimer in 39th place and top Canadian is Ryder Hesjedal wayyyy down in 81st place. So the Italians are strong. Conversely, the French are not. This fiercely proud cycling nation has ONE rider in the Top 75 (Sylvain Chavanel is 30th). Jacques Anquetil must be spinning in his grave. For us Canadians, this would be like if there were no Canadians in the NHL. When you look at overall country rankings, Italy and Spain take the top 2 spots, with the US and France both outside the top 10 right now (Canada is 21st, right between Kazakhstan and Ukraine) Sacre blue...something to follow as the Tour de France takes centre stage next month.

Last thing...Bikey's favorite young rider, Taylor Phinney, has struck again. Only 18, he won the World Championship in the Individual Pursuit earlier in 2009, now won the U23 version of Paris-Roubaix last weekend. Phinney outsprinted the final group of 11 in the Roubaix Velodrome to become the first American winner of this race. Congrats to Taylor and his Trek-Livestrong team.

ITU racing was back last weekend, with the second race in the World Championship Series in Madrid, Spain. And for the seond time this season, the WCS had a great finish. After a photo-finish in the men's race in Tongyeong, the women had their turn. Check out this video...

It turned out that Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand won by outleaning Lisa Norden. The ITU must be thrilled that it is getting so many great finishes, despite having essentially zero media attention in the US and Canada. Personally, I'm still disappointed at not having Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes go head-to-head in Madrid (both did not start) but it is great to have the race go down to the last few metres. Awesome to watch.

The men's race in Madrid also did not go according to plan, with Javier Gomez getting upset (and outrun) by Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain. Brownlee, who won the Junior Worlds title in 2006 and the Under-23 Title last year, ran 30:30 to blow apart the front of the race. And he's only 21. Look out...Gomez could only finish 3rd after getting outkicked by Courney Atkinson for 2nd place. The only Canadian in Madrid was Brent McMahon, who finished 20th. You can see the recap video here...

The ITU WCS now moves to Washington, DC, for a race on June 21. Hopefully the Canadian team will show up and produce some great results. But Kirsten Sweetland will not be part of the team, as she is injured again. According to her blog, she has a fracture in the semihacral region on the left side of her pelvis. So she's out for 6 more weeks or so. Not good.

Speaking of injured female Canadian triathletes, we did get one back from the sick bay. Sam McGlone raced for the first time in almost a year at the Honu (Hawaii) 70.3 race, finishing second to Belinda Granger. But she's back, and ready to take another shot at Chrissie Wellington in Kona. So here's hoping Sam can get fast again! The men's race in Honu featured Craig Alexander running a remarkable 10 minutes faster than Chris Lieto to catch and defeat the American. Alexander, who hasn't raced much in 2009 due to family issues in Australia, is showing that he won't be easily defeated in Kona this year.

Also last weekend was Ironman Brazil, where American Dede Griesbauer posted a very fast 9:10 time to win the women's race while Eduardo Sturla won the men's race. Canada's Sara Gross had a good race, finishing 4th.

Okay, i think i've typed enough for this week, so hope you enjoyed the pics and videos, and next week we will talk more pro cycling, and hopefully get to the brewing swimsuit controversy...Cheers!

Triathlons...and the Giro wraps up this weekend!

2009-05-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I have been planning on discussing some recent results in the triathlon world, but for whatever reason (too engrossed in the Giro? not enough top stars racing against each other?) I keep putting it off. Enough is enough...

The last bunch of races started with Ironman 70.3 Florida. Leanda Cave dominated the women's race, easily winning by several minutes. Two Canadians (Magali Tisseyre in 3rd and Lisa Bentley in 6th) finished near the top of the leaderboard. The men's race was a sprint finish between Dirk Bockel over Luke Bell. As you might have guessed, the pro fields were not real strong.

The next weekend, Ironman 70.3 Austria was held, and the frequent-racer Chris McCormack outsprinted Marino Vanhoenacker by 3 seconds for the win. The women's race was won by Sandra Wallenhorst over Lucie Zelenkova. Erika Csomor only managed to finish 5th...hmmm, that's not too great for the frequent 70.3 winner. I love that Macca has raced about 8 times already this year but we haven't seen anything from Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan, or the rest of the top Europeans.

The Bayliss's (husband and wife) had another good day at Ironman Lanzarote last weekend. Bella easily won the women's race in 9:54, winning by over 21 minutes. She's amazingly consistent in Ironman races, but seems to be more interested in racking up wins rather than peaking for Kona like many of the top ladies. Her husband Stephen finished 5th in the men's race, but could not challenge Bert Jammaer as he repeated as men's winner. Two Ironman veterans who consistently race >5 Ironmans a year, Stephan Vuckovic and Olaf Sabatschus, finished second and third.

So we have had three decent Ironman or 70.3 races the past three weeks, but only 3 of the Top 10 finishers in Kona competed in any of those races (actually, they were all women - Wallenhorst, Bella Comerford-Bayliss, and Erika Csomor). Why don't the guys race more often? It's not the greatest sport to follow since it is pretty easy to go months without racing against other top athletes. Not very Bikey-friendly...

The ITU thought they figured out this by launching the World Championship Series. With well-spaced races around the globe and more prize money than ever before, the ITU thought they could at least get their top athletes to race head-to-head 8 times from May to September. Looked great on paper, but unfortunately, the nicely spaced out schedule does not include enough races to make global travel appealing. So after an event in South Korea that many of the Europeans chose to skip, this weekend's race in Madrid does not include many top athletes from Canada, the US, and Australia. Instead, they are staying home to continue training and will wait for the Series to come to Washington, DC on June 21. So we will be into at least the third race of the year before we see Emma Snowsill racing against Vanessa Fernandes or to see Javier Gomez race against the three men that knocked him off the podium in Beijing. Grrr.

In Madrid this weekend we do get to see the first race of the season for Javier Gomez, but he is coming off a foot injury that he says has impacted his run fitness. Since he wins by hammering the run, it will be interesting to see what happens on Sunday. Olympic Gold Medallist Jan Frodeno is also starting his season in Madrid. He has never won an ITU race, but will have to beat Brad Kahlefeldt, Tim Don, Courtney Atkinson and Canadian Brent McMahon to do it. McMahon didn't have a great race in Korea, but as Canada's only racer in Madrid, I'm hoping he can pull out a Top 5 result in Madrid. The women's race is missing Snowsill, the Canadian girls, and even Vanessa Fernandes is sitting out due to her broken collarbone, so it good be anyone's race. Perhaps Juri Ide will win again? Or Annabel Luxford? Or one of the many British athletes? I can't even guess...

One last triathlon note that I found this weekend is that triathlons may be hazardous to your health. Yep, participating in a triathlon is twice as dangerous as running a marathon, at least according to this recent study. They found that among almost 1 million athletes in triathlons, there were 14 deaths. However, 13 of the 14 were during the swim leg (ummm, that doesn't make us poor swimmers feel any better) but most of them were due to suspected heart rhythm problems that only really showed up during the adrenaline-fueled swim leg. I would like to add that the chances of dying while driving to a triathlon are probably much higher than the risk of dying during one, but if your ticker hasn't been checked lately, it might not be a bad idea for some of the elder triathletes out there.

Okay, the Giro. I won't spend too much time on it this week, instead I will wrap it up on Monday next week after I know who will win the race. This week has featured an amazing head-to-head competition between Denis Menchov (current leader by 29 seconds) and Danilo Diluca (currently second and the overwhelming local fave). I doubt they have been separated by more than a few feet all week long. During the mountain top finishes, they watch each other, counter every move, and look to add or subtract every second they can off their rival. It's been awesome racing. For those of you who haven't been paying attention at www.universalsports.com, please get over there and catch up. They have great commentary, no commercials (amazing!), and video is available either live or on-demand. Versus and OLN Canada should be paying attention. Great work Universal!

The other big story outside of the top few riders is the resurgence of Lance Armstrong. He suffered mightily in the first week, losing 3 minutes on one stage and 2 more on another steep finish. But this week, he has been more like the old Lance, with a few more surges late in stages. He actually attacked and caught up to a group of 6 on Monday that included Carlos Sastre, Danilo Diluca, Stefano Garzelli, Ivan Basso, and Denis Menchov during the last climb, but got called back to help out teammate Levi Leipheimer, who was still in the Top 3 until he faded during that stage. Then he made a late surge during Wednesday's epic climb to the Blockhaus, where he tried to bridge across to eventual stage winner Franco Pellizotti. It's nice to see him back at the front of the peloton. That's not to say he's ready to win the Tour (he's still lost over 5 minutes to Denis Menchov this week and only sits in 12th overall) but he's a lot closer than he appeared in Week 1.
With one more big mountain stage on Friday, and the final time trial on Sunday, I'm sure Lance will try to add his name to the headlines once more. Good luck...

Okay, that might be it for this week...enjoy the last three days of the Giro!

Catching up with the Giro!

2009-05-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

If you're not watching the Giro this year, you have missed out on a great bike race. Lots of breakaways full of big names, some epic climbs, and some great sprint finishes. Lucky for you, there are still 8 stages left (in which 5 are mountain stages)! So jump over to universalsports.com and check it out every morning. Here's a bit of a recap, built around a 5 key points...

1. Lance and Team Astana - this race has seen it's global popularity soar this year with Lance's comeback, and despite Lance not being in peak shape, he has made a ton of headlines. With Levi being the team leader and Chris Horner and Lance as his top helpers on the first week of mountain stages, Levi was able to stay with the top leaders and consistently stay in the Top 5 without too much difficulty. Lance did struggle in the first week, losing almost 3 minutes on one stage to drop quickly out of the Top 10. But Lance appears to be gaining fitness and confidence, and he has often lead the peloton up tough stretches, and pulled away on a daring descent with Danilo Diluca earlier this week. He has that snap back in his legs, and now appears to be rounding into shape for a better attempt at a win in France. He is still talking about the desire for a stage win, so we'll see what happens...

The other Astana news concerns their ongoing sponsorship issues. The team did receive some of their money that is owed to them by some of their sponsors, but is facing a May 31st deadline by the UCI. If not, Lance and the boys could be wearing different jerseys in France. They did break out modified Astana jerseys this week where most of their sponsors names wear faded out, as a kind of protest. Anyhow, nothing will impact the last week of the Giro, but it bears watching...

2. The race for the Maglia Rosa - this year, the pink jersey that signifies the race leader has already been shared by 5 guys, including the sprinters Mark Cavendish and Allessandro Petacchi. Later, team leaders such as Thomas Lovkvist, Danilo Diluca, and Denis Menchov have worn it. And with 5 big mountain stages left, there is still a chance that others in the Top 5 such as Levi Leipheimer, Franco Pellizotti, and Carlos Sastre can change the leader board with a great mountain stage or two...

3. Team Columbia-Highroad - All they do is win. After their win in the Team Time Trial that put Mark Cavendish into pink, they kept the pressure on and got Thomas Lovkvist into pink after Stage 4. Although Lovkvist lost it the next day, he still holds the white jersey as best young rider for the past 10 days (the only other rider who was worn white for more than one day during the Giro is Mark Cavendish). Then they got back to winning, with Kanstantin Siutsou winning Stage 8, Cavendish winning both Stage 9 and 11 and teammate Edvald Boassen Hagen winning Stage 7 and coming in second in both Stage 6 and Stage 8. Keep your eye on Boassen Hagen as he's a star and future grand tour contender. High Road is killing the Giro, and despite their two main overall guys (Lovkvist and Michael Rogers) both struggling in yesterday's time trial, they still have the best overall team in the Giro.

4. Americans Crashing Out- First it was Christian Vande Velde (Team Garmin) who crashed in Stage 3 and fractured vertebrae, ribs, and pelvis. Then it was Chris Horner from Team Astana who tore a calf muscle and hurt a shoulder in a Stage 10 crash. And with Team Garmin's inability to win a stage or generate a Giro contender, this has not been a great visit to Italy for the American team either. Can Tyler Farrar win a stage in the last week to salvage their race?

5. Yesterday's Time Trial. Everyone knew it was going to be tough, being 60 km long and including multiple tough uphills and downhills. So tough, that most riders skipped the TT bikes and aerobars and competed on their normal road bikes. Very few even bothered with aero helmets. Even TT specialists, like US Champion Dave Zabriskie and World Champion, struggled mightily, finishing 118th! Among the top contenders, only Thomas Lovkvist finished outside the Top 25. The surprise winner (and now the race leader) was Rabobank's Denis Menchov, who beat Levi Leipheimer by 20 seconds to win his second stage of this Giro. Leipheimer, who had won his first 3 time trials this year, looked strong but just came up short. Lance finished 13th (2:26 back), just behind Basso and Sastre. The average speed by Menchov was only 38 km/h, and the general classification didn't really expand as expected. Some thought huge time gaps would occur due to the difficulty, but with 22 riders finishing within 4 minutes of Menchov, that didn't occur. Lots more racing to come!

Moving out of Pro Cycling and into the world of Marathoning, there are a couple of updates...Paula Radcliffe still has her eye on returning from her plethora of injuries to compete in Berlin at the Worlds in August. She claims that if she can't get her fitness back by August she will race a fall marathon (maybe another trip to New York). Meanwhile, one of the few women to beat Paula during a road race, Kara Goucher, confirms that she too will toe the start line in Berlin this August, deciding to not miss a chance to compete at a World Championships.

The "other" Berlin Marathon, held annually in September, will be almost as popular since it will include another WR attempt by Haile Gebrselassie. The last 3 men's World Records (and 6 since 1997) have been set on this very fast course. Geb thinks he has one more sub 2:04 marathon in him, and would solidify his legacy as the fastest long distance runner of all-time with another world record.

Other running news...Usain Bolt is still fast. Even after crashing his car in Jamaica earlier this year and being criticized for his constant partying in London, Bolt is still the Man. He set another World Record, this time in the rarely run 150m event last weekend in Manchester. Actually, Donovan Bailey held the WR (14.99s)in this event until Bolt obliterated it (14.35s). The video is below, and shows Bolt absolutely destroying the field, reaching 100m in 9.90 seconds (remember, this is Bolt's first big race of the year).

Up next for Bolt is his trip to Toronto on June 11 for the Festival of Excellence, which is the name for the opening meet at Toronto's new Varsity Centre track stadium. Bolt, who is reportedly getting $250,000 in appearance fees for this event, will be the main attraction of the one day event, along with the two Canadian hurdlers Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien. Yay, Perdita is back! Anyhow, tickets for the event start at $75 (and go to $250!), so dig deep if you want to see Bolt in action. Chances are pretty good he'll run hard for 60m and cruise to a decisive victory.

Lots more that I didn't get to, including the return of Michael Phelps, the latest uproar over swim suits, and lots of triathlon news (including Ironman Lanzarote this weekend). I'll update everything next Friday...

The long awaited Dopey Wednesday!

2009-05-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

With so many dumb athletes cheating and getting caught for doping violations, it appears to be time for a new edition of Dopey Monday. The odd thing is although the 7 athletes that I'll cover in this edition are all superstars in their respective sports, there has been very little media attention around their violations. Perhaps it has to due with the fact that none of them are Canadians or Americans...

The Cyclists

Not surprisingly, 6 of the 7 doping headliners are cyclists. And how sad is it that no one really gets surprised anymore? Anyhow, let's look at some of some of the accomplishments of some of these athletes.

* Overall winner, Paris-Nice
* Overall winner, Tirreno-Adriatico
* Bronze Medal, 2000 Olympics Road Race
* 2-time 2nd place overall, Tour de France
* German National Road Race Champion
* Spanish National Road Race Champion
* Twice second and once third in World Championship Road Race
* Twice UCI ProTour Champion
* Twice Winner, Liege-Bastogne-Liege
* Second place (and third place), Vuelta d'Espana
* Winner, Fleche Wallone
* Overall Winner, Dauphine Libere
* 3 stage wins, Tour de France

Ok, I tricked you, those are only the notable accomplishments of 2 cyclists; Alejandro Valverde and Andreas Kloden. The list would be simply unreadable if we included the accomplishments of the other 4.

Anyhow, let's begin with Kloden. Like many of the cyclists who have been embroiled in doping controversies, his problems stem from years ago. Way back in 2006, after the first stage of the Tour de France, it is alleged that Kloden and two of his T-mobile teammates (Matthias Kessler and Patrik Sinkewitz) went to a doping clinic at Freiburg University where they received blood transfusions. With three teammates involved (allegedly), it does raise the question whether all the T-mobile riders were involved in some team-wide doping (other team members include Jan Ullrich...oops). Anyhow, this report just broke at the end of April, and since then, Team Astana decided to not have Kloden start in the Giro this week. It is unclear what his status is currently, but it appears he could be in for the ole 2-year ban!

Okay, Tom Boonen is a not really a doper, just more of a general dope. For the second time in less than a year, Boonen has failed an out-of-competition drug test for cocaine. Whoops. The first time he avoided a lengthy UCI or WADA suspension (since it was not competition-related) but his team punished him by not letting him compete in the 2008 Tour de France. Last year, he claimed that someone spiked his drink at a cafe. This year, he claims he doesn't remember but may have taken something when he was out drinking on a night that he ultimately blacked out. Life was good for Tom Boonen! Unfortunately for him, this time he will not get off with a severe warning. Just today, the UCI has announced that Boonen will be suspended "for one to six months for unacceptable behavior that could harm the reputation of cycling or UCI". Ha. Methinks the UCI has bigger problems than him. The Tour de France also announced today that Boonen will not be welcome in 2009...

A new name to the Dopey ranks is Austrian Christian Pfannberger. A rider on Team Katusha, he was supposed to start the Giro when news broke last Friday that he failed a doping test for EPO in March. He is obviously suspended indefinitely while they wait for the B sample result. Pfannberger has already served one 2-year ban for a EPO positive test back in 2004, which means this positive could result in a lifetime ban. Of course, he denies any wrongdoing. Righhht.Another one bites the dust...

Alejandro Valverde has seen his name surrounded by doping allegations all the way back to the first days of Operation Puerto. Just this week, the Italian Olympic Committee announced that they will not allow the Spaniard Valverde to race on Italian soil for 2 years. This goes back to a test that was taken during last year's Tour de France when the Tour came into Italy for a brief stop. Apparently, Valverde's blood sample matched a suspicious Italian sample, blah blah blah...I'm getting very tired of the politicking of these two cycling organizations. Anyhow, right now Valverde can't legally race in Italy (which includes this summer Tour which once again comes into Italy). However, Valverde might have some legal recourse (appeals, etc) which has already started as he has sued the Italian head anti-doping prosecutor. Sigh...I'll let you know if he Valverde is going to race the Tour the day before it begins...until then, who knows? In case you wondered, Valverde also wore the Yellow Jersey in the 2008 Tour.

Next up on the hit list is Stefan Schumacher. Yep, he has also been a very consistent contributor to the Dopey posts, but this one takes the cake. Schumacher first tested positive for EPO during the 2008 Tour de France (where he won two time trials and wore the yellow jersey for a few days) but the test results didn't come in until October. He then started a lawsuit against the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) in December that claimed "blood contamination and other mixups could have distorted the results". Really Stefan? He also filed an appeal with the Court for Arbitration in Sport in April 2009, claiming that he has never doped. Well, now the IOC has announced that Schumacher failed a test during the Beijing Olympics by testing positive to CERA. Oops. Can't blame this one on the AFLD. Anyhow, regardless of what happens with this last report, the German Cycling Federation is ready to throw the book at the 27-year-old Schumacher, even going as far as to say "his career is over". Awesome news!

When the IOC announced that Schumacher had failed the re-test for CERA, his name was not alone. Davide Rebellin, who awed us all this spring with his triumphant climb at the end of Fleche Wallone, might have done so with some extra juice in his veins. The IOC announced the positive results and then allowed the athlete to have their B-sample tested. Not surprisingly, Rebellin "denies every accusation". That is not exactly unexpected. What makes this a big deal is that Rebellin was the Silver Medalist in the Beijing Road Race! Yep, take away his medal and Fabian Cancellara moves up to the Silver, with Russian Alexandr Kolobnev now getting the bronze medal. (Canadian Michael Barry would now be 8th overall!) Interestingly, Kolobnev just got the 4th spot (now 3rd) in a close finish with Andy Schleck. Schleck is also directly involved since Rebellin beat him at this years Fleche Wallone, and if Rebellin gets suspended as expected, Schleck will have two huge wins in late April to his credit (he also won Liege-Bastogne-Liege). Too bad he only got to celebrate one of them...

The non-Cyclist

Back to that good old IOC re-testing of Beijing samples...they found a cheater in the most unlikely of places. The freaking Gold Medalist in the men's 1500m race, Rashid Ramzi, also tested positive for CERA. Ramzi, who was born in Morocco but raced for Bahrain, was the country's only medalist in Beijing. Ramzi had previously been criticized for not racing very often outside major championships (which some say raised suspicions). Again, we have to wait for the B sample to come back, but if it is positive, Kenya wins another gold medal (Asbel Kiprop) while Mehdi Baala from France would get the bronze and Nick Willis would be upgraded to the silver.

Okay, as i press the "publish post" button i'm not aware of any new doping positives...I'll keep looking though!

Talk to you on Friday!

Canucks = Maglia Rosa!

2009-05-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I watched the team time trial on Saturday morning that kicked the 100th Edition of the Giro d'Italia, and once it was half over, I thought, of course Team Columbia HighRoad could win this stage. After all, between Mark Cavendish (8 wins already in 2009 including Milan-San Remo)and the rest of the teammates (including the Norwegian Hagen who surprisingly won Gent Wevelgem), this team seems to win at will. After dodging the final Astana bullet, the race lead belonged to the 9 members of Columbia, including our own Michael Barry. Sweet! For the second year in a row, a Canadian has helped a teammate win the first maglia rosa (pink leader's jersey) of the Giro. You might remember that last year Team Garmin won the Team Time Trial with Ryder Hesjedal as one of the 9. This year, Hesjedal was passed over, and despite being the fave, they came up 6 seconds short. Astana finished 3rd, only 13 seconds back.

What makes this more amazing is that Mark Cavendish, who crossed the line first and now is the official leader of the Giro, got into it with Team Garmin before the Giro started. He took a couple of shots at Garmin's fixation on winning the time trial, criticizing them repeatedly and calling them "disrespectful" for only concentrating on one of the 21 stages of the Giro.

Anyhow, despite a very nice effort today, Cavendish got beaten at the line by Alessandro Petacchi, who once held Cavendish's current belt as the best sprinter in the peloton. Today's Stage 2 was actually fairly boring as anticipated, with a lone getaway being the only effort of note until a late crash cost a few of the top contenders (including Leipheimer and Basso) 13 seconds at the end of the race. It's not a lot, but could make a difference down the road. It's also interesting (and fortunate) that Lance missed the crash, and now ends up in 10th overall, with the only other real contender ahead of him being Christian Vande Velde. Could Lance end up in pink this week? It's possible, since Tuesday's and Wednesday have uphill finishes that should get rid of the non-climbers. I still think Lance is a to win the Giro, but a solid start doesn't hurt.

Okay, tomorrow's Stage 2 should be fairly routine(I'll predict Cav will keep the pink jersey), and I'll try to be back with a report after Tuesday or Wednesday. Look for a Dopey Monday to be published late tomorrow night...

Vive le Giro...and cheering for Canadians!

2009-05-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Crazy week behind us, and crazy weeks ahead, but the majority of this week’s post will be about the gigantic Giro d’Italia, which begins on Saturday. So if you don’t care about Pro Cycling, scroll to the bottom where I’ll recap a whole bunch of triathlons, make another promise about a Dopey Monday to come, and maybe show a fun video or two…

Ok, the Giro. The second biggest cycling race in the world starts this weekend with an epic Team Time Trial in Venice. How cool is that? More on that in a bit, but there are lots of stories about this race, including Lance’s first Grand Tour in 4 years. Lance is indeed back, and after pacing his buddy Levi Leipheimer to the overall win at the Tour of the Gila (a minor pro cycling event in New Mexico) where Lance, Levi, and Chris Horner competed as Team Mellow Johnny’s. Lance finished second overall (after finishing second behind Levi in the time trial) and showed decent fitness in his first race in a month. His comeback (from both retirement and his broken collarbone) continues in Italy, where he will probably not challenge for the race lead, but he has stated that he wants to win one stage. Lance is so far 0-for-2009 and probably wants to break the goose egg before Le Tour.

So if Lance is not going to win the Giro, who will? I think most cycling pundits would agree that the two main contenders will be Astana’s Levi Leipheimer and Liquigas’s Ivan Basso. Basso has NEVER won his home country’s race, and is out to make his claim as one of the very best stage riders in the world. Basso vs. Leipheimer will come down to Levi’s time trialing advantages to Basso’s excellent finishing kick at the end of mountain stages. But add in Levi’s uber-domestique Lance Armstrong to help him in the mountains, and I think Levi might have enough to pull it out and be the first American winner since Andy Hampsten in 1988. For those of you who want to read about an epic stage win, you can read about the unbelievable decisive stage in the 1988 Giro, where Hampsten rode away from the peloton through a blizzard here!

There is a pretty deep field in place this year. Besides Lance, Levi, and Basso, big-time cyclists like Damiano Cunego, Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov, and Gilbero Simoni are all competing. For Cunego (the 2004 winner), this is the biggest race on his calendar, and he would love to upstage the Americans and his compatriot Basso. Sastre is using the race to get into race shape to defend his title in the Tour, so probably won’t be a top contender. You can get an official start list here...

So my predictions for 2009: Leipheimer, Cunego, and Basso, with Lance ending up in 4th. Anybody else want to make a guess? Please be aware that my predictions are never right...

One more pro cycling note. This could actually be the last time that Team Astana starts a race. Why? Because they’re broke. Yep, those crazy Kazakhs that own Team Astana have been having some money issues, and the riders have not been paid for some time (this isn’t an issue for Lance, since he’s riding for zero salary). But the UCI is paying close attention, and could be close to pulling the team’s license. If this happens, the team might compete under a new banner in France, and Lance has even recently mentioned the possibility of starting his own team. I doubt that the Kazakhstan government will allow the team to outright fold (the cycling team is a national treasure, despite the doping issues related to Vinokourov and ….) but I’ll be paying attention.

Speaking of my favorite ex-Astana racer Vinokourov, he is coming back this year! His suspension from 2007 ends in mid-July, and he is planning on gunning for the 2009 World Championships, where a victory there would let him wear the rainbow jersey for the entire 2010 season. His other goals include winning the King of The Mountains competition in the 2010 Tour. Somebody will probably take a chance on the ultra-agressive Vinokourov later this year, and I'm hoping he can come back, stay clean, and win a couple of races in his typical swashbuckling fashion.

For the second year in a row, Team Garmin is aiming to win the opening TTT of the Giro and get the maglia rosa for one of their cyclists. Last year, the team put Christian Vande Velde into the leader’s jersey, and kept him there for (a couple of days). This week they picked their team for 2009, and ridiculously did not pick a Canadian to rally all 500 pro cycling fans in Canada. Ok, earlier this year, it was widely assumed that both Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft would be part of the Argyle Armada (love that nickname) in the Giro. Both riders were sent to Italy early in the season to prepare (remember Hesjedal skipped the Tour of California for this reason). Hesjedal had a pretty amazing 2008, with his participation in both the Giro and the Tour, and seemed set up to improve on both performances in 2009. Tuft, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Worlds after his amazing performance in the Olympics (finished 7th), seemed to be a perfect addition for the Garmin time trial squad. Apparently, the news came as a shock to Hesjedal, since in an interview from 2 days before the team was announced, he mentions how “excited he is to be a part of the Giro blah bl;ah blah”. I have no idea what happened with Tuft, except that I haven’t been overly impressed with his 2009 results. Apparently Jonathan Vaughters and Team Garmin are not either. Some good news though – Hesjedal is apparently going to be the right-hand man for Christian Vande Velde at the Tour. So Hesjedal is skipping Italy in order to be well-rested for a trip around France in July. But Vande Velde is not. I’m confused. Team Garmin is still my fave team (cmon, they have 3 Canadians on their roster!) but they are starting to stretch my loyalty.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. The Team Garmin website actually sells beautiful autographed posters of the 3 Canadians on the team (Hesjedal, Tuft, and our Road Race National Champ Christian Meier). You can check out the posters here, but I’m not buying until they start adding some more Canadian to their Grand Tour rosters.

Canada will have a presense in Italy. Michael Barry from Columbia-Highroad will be competing, and his job will be as an experienced domestique and do-it-all as he tried to keep teammates Michael Rogers, Thomas Lokvist, and Kanstantin Siutsou in the Top 10 and help Mark Cavendish win some sprint finishes. The other big Canadian, Dominique Rollin, will not be in Italy because of his extensive racing schedule this spring. I have no idea if they have any plans for Rollin in France, but because of his great work in setting up Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd for big wins, I think he has a decent shot. Here’s hoping! Good luck to Michael Barry as he represents the Maple Leaf Nation in Italy!

This could be the last great chance for awhile for an American to win the Giro. Why? Because next year most top American cyclists will be staying home in California. The Tour of California, which has prospered the last couple of years despite terrible weather, is moving from February into May for 2010. This means that Lance, Levi, Vande Velde, and the rest of the boys will probably skip the Giro next year to compete in front of the fans in the biggest American cycling race. I guess my travel plans for February have changed…

Moving to triathlon world, the Canadian women did us proud last week in Korea, where in the first ITU World Championships Series race, Kathy Tremblay and Kirsten Sweetland fought at the front of the race before succumbing to finish 4th and 5th in the race. The top spot went to Emma Snowsill(she wins about 90% of her races) who passed her teammate Emma Moffatt in the last few minutes. Japanese star Juri Ide outsprinted the Canadian girls in the last 200m to get third, with Tremblay 2 seconds and Sweetland 9 seconds back. Fellow Canadian Lauren Groves finished 10th, which makes Canada the best team in the world (at least after one event). So Canadian to the girls, who did us proud and are now getting prepped for the next race in Madrid.

The Canadian boys did not do as well. Simon Whitfield, despite being in great shape, could not find another gear on the run and ended up 14th. This put him in well ahead of teammates Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones. McMahon, who won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans about three weeks ago, was racing an ITU race for the first time in a long while, so can be excused a bit. I do have high expectations for him later on this year…

Whoops, haven't even mentioned the outstanding finish in the men's race. Just watch the first 30 seconds of this video!

A photofinish in triathlon? Yep, and despite an appeal by Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty did get the win. Pretty cool race indeed. If the rest of the races in the series come anywhere close to this one, we are in for a treat in 2009.

The other two races last weekend included a bunch of surprise winners and a only one favorite coming thru. Andy Potts used an amazing bike and an equally amazing run split to destroy the field at Wildflower. He won by over 3 minutes over Eneko Llanos. In the women's race, Virginia Beratasegui won going away (over 5 minutes) ahead of Leanda Cave of Great Britain. The women's field was supposed to be very competitive, but late scratches (McGlone, Dibens, Corbin, Macel, and Lavelle) left very few top contenders out in the California desert.

Moving to the Carribean, Catriona Morrison passed Mirinda Carfrae very late on the run to win the 70.3 St Croix event. Her 1:23 run split was enough to win the race by 3 minutes. The men's winner was Tim O'Donnell, who beat equally unknown pro Igor Amorelli by over a minute. The bigger names (Bryan Rhodes, Michael Lovato, etc) were well back.

What happened to Sam McGlone? I was very excited last week about the supposed impending return to racing at the Wildflower Triathlon. Alas, it was not to be. She didn’t start the race (still not ready to race) and thus continues my rare talent of reporting incorrect news (cyclingnews is infamous for having wrong start lists, which is why I often report that Canadians are going to start races but don’t eventually make it to the start line). Anyhow, Sam is hoping to begin her 2009 season in June at the Honu 70.3 race in Hawaii.

What else is happening out there? The spring marathon season (Rotterdam, Paris, Boston, and London) is over, the IAAF Golden League hasn’t begun yet (not UNTIL) and I think the triathletes are off until mid-May (ITU and Ironman). So enjoy the Giro (cyclingfans.com is the only way for us Canadians), I will try and keep close tabs on what happens here!

Next week, lots on our favorite runners (Bolt, Radcliffe, Goucher) and lots on the Giro!

Have a good weekend…

Another Giant Bikey Week!

2009-05-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Where do we start this busy Friday? With news about dopers, plus triathlon, cycling, and marathon news, it's going to be a busy one, so grab your Starbucks and settle in...I will leave the doping stuff for a Dopey Monday so as not to poison the whole column...so come back Monday for that!

I'm going to lead off with triathlon, since this weekend is a huge one (finally). The long-course guys and gals are busy in St Croix and in Wildflower, but finally we should see a top flight ITU race. This week's race in Tongyeong, South Korea, is the first in the new-for-2009 World Championship Series, which is a series of 7 races from now until September that will ultimately decide the 2009 World Champion. This race has a great field, and although some top Europeans like Javier Gomez and Vanessa Fernandes (injured) are sitting out, it will feature a great field. The men's race will feature Simon Whitfield's first race since Beijing, with lots of great competitors like Brad Kahlefaldt, Bevan Docherty, Courtney Atkinson, Tim Don, and Frederic Belaubre all in the race. The women's race is also stacked with Emma Snowsill taking on World Champion Helen Jenkins (Tucker) from Great Britain, with Emma Moffatt, Sam Warriner, Kate Allen, and Canadian star Kirsten Sweetland. The Canadian team also includes Kyle Jones and Brent McMahon on the guys side, and Kathy Tremblay and Lauren Groves on the female team. The ITU also did a nice interview with Simon Whitfield where he states his 2009 goal of winning the ITU World Championship for the first time. Good luck Canada!

As I mentioned last week, the ITU did have a World Cup race last week in Ishigaki, Japan. And as expected, the extremely weak fields lead to predictable results, with Courtney Atkinson winning his 5th career race in Ishigaki, outrunning the Russian brothers Ivan and Denis Vasiliev. Canadian Kyle Jones could only manage 9th place. On the women's side, Kathy Tremblay had a great race, finishing second (by only 5 seconds) to pre-race fave and hometown fave Juri Ide. That is a great result for Tremblay, since Ide is a solid ITU race. Hopefully Tremblay can follow up this result this weekend in Korea. The other Canadian, Lauren Groves, had a decent race but finished over a minute back in 5th place.

Last weekend also included the big race in St Anthony's. Despite brutal swim conditions that turned the age group race into a duathlon, the pro race did produce some surprising results which almost included a huge upset. Sara Mclarty, who might be the best swimmer to ever compete in Olympic distance racing (i don't remember her ever being beaten out of the water) almost held on to her lead thru the whole race. She got passed in the final half-mile by Rebecca Wassner and by Sara Groff but still won $4000 for third place. Wassner won $10000! Ridiculous money. It was another great race for Sarah Groff, who also finished second at Oceanside...Joanna Zeiger, Joanna Lawn, Nina Kraft, and Becky Lavelle finished well back. The men's race had co-favorite Matt Reed flat with a 90 second lead on the bike, so then the other fave Andy Potts took advantage with a 31:38 10km to easily defeat Terrenzo Bozzone. Too bad the Canadians weren't there to shake up the American domination...

There are two big half Ironmans this weekend, with Wildflower on Saturday and St Croix 70.3 on Sunday. Wildflower has a great field, including the return of Sam McGlone to racing. McGlone has been out since August with Achilles tendonitis, but here's hoping she can return to her dominating form. She'll be challenged by Leanda Cave, Erika Csomor, and Becky Lavelle. McGlone has a great chance to win in her return to racing. The men's race is super-deep, with Bozzone looking for revenge on Potts while facing some top Ironman pros in Chris Lieto, Luke Bell, Torbjorn Sindballe, and Eneko Llanos.

Sunday is St Croix, which is known for its bike course and the hill known as The Beast. I love watching video of pros going up this hill (which averages 14 percent over a hellish kilometer), always makes me feel better about my cycling! The women's race will be between Joanna Lawn and the last two 70.3 World Champs, Joanna Zeiger and Mirinda Carfrae. The men's race will feature Cam Brown and a group of secondary pros. And everyone's favorite nun, Sister Madonna Buder, will even be racing! Good luck to her...

Have we been talking about triathlon for this whole time? Wow, triathletes who don't swim and run (ie. cyclists) have been busy as well. Last Sunday was the big race in Belgium, as Liege-Bastogne-Liege was held for the 95th time. Andy Schleck finally broke through and won a huge race, which came just days after losing out to Davide Rebellin at Fleche Wallone. Schleck made a huge move in the last 20 kilometers, and ended up winning by almost 90 seconds over the field. A huge win for Schleck, and he now moves back to the top of the list of non-Astana Tour contenders! Canadian Ryder Hesjedal had a great day, with an 11th place finish. Hesjedal is now getting ready for the Giro (and hopefully the Tour). Lots more on the Giro next week...

The other big news in cycling is Lance Armstrong's return to racing. And not with Astana! Well, not really. Lance and Astana teammates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner have formed Team Mellow Johnny's (named after Lance's bike shop in Austin) and are competing in the New Mexico stage race Tour of the Gila. Not surprisingly, Levi won the first stage and still holds the race leaders jersey. But Lance is using this race to ride hard and get ready for the Giro. He probably won't be among the faves at the Giro, but knowing Lance he won't be far from the Top 5. I would suspect Levi and Ivan Basso would be the faves, but again, lots more next week...

A pretty good week for predictions for me last week, as I nailed both the men's and women's winners of the London Marathon. Well, the men's race got much easier to predict by raceday, since Martin Lel pulled out with a hip injury that he had been downplaying all week. This left Sammy Wanjiru as the clear fave. He didn't disappoint, but the big story was that the men's lead pack of 6 hit the halfway pack at 61:30 or so, well below world record pace. Ultimately, the pace slowed (the two graphs below show it very clearly) but Wanjiru took the race into his own hands, breaking the pack and soloing the last 8 miles to win in a course record 2:05:10. Afterward, Wanjiru blamed the pacemakers for eliminating his chance for a world record due to the uneven pace. Ethiopian Tsegay Kebede tried to stay close but finished 10 seconds back, good enough for a place on the top 10 all time list. Ridiculous. The women's race was good too, as Irina Mikitenko dropped the hammer at mile 20 and won by a minute in 2:22:11. Amazingly, 12 women broke 2:30 (versus none in Boston) which tells you how strong the elite field in London really is.

Ok, check out these two groups, courtesy of the sports geniuses Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas at sportsscientists.com These graphs show that the men's race was anything but even paced, with huge discrepancies early on, leading to Wanjiru having a 51 second edge over Geb's world record pace at 15K. But the quick early cost them later, as they quickly lost speed later on...the world record will probably fall again this year, but this graph does show how important even pacing probably will be in breaking it. And it shows how perfect Geb's run in Berlin (with unbelievable even pacing).

Okay, lots to come on Monday, with the Giro preview on Friday. Enjoy the weekend...

The AFLD Blinks...and Triathlon Updates

2009-04-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

A very rare Bike-Y 2-parter this week, and I did want to touch on a few triathlon stories that have slipped through the crack lately. But Lance once again makes headlines...

Yep, that whole Lance-disappears-during-a-doping-test fiasco is apparently over. Early this morning, Lance was notified that the investigation was being dropped and that the AFLD would not be pursuing sanctions or penalties against Lance. Apparently, Lance's explanation for his actions during the visit were enough to convince the French to not continue the witch hunt. I will predict that Lance gets tested by the AFLD before he clears French customs when he arrives for the Tour in early July...

Speaking of doping, I haven't yet mentioned Tyler Hamilton's latest doping snafu and his subsequent decision to retire. Why? Well, first, Tyler Hamilton stopped being relevant in pro cycling a long time ago (although I will note that he won the US Road Race Champs last year) and second, can anyone really be terribly surprised? Hamilton tested positive for DHEA, a steroid that he knew was in a herbal supplement that he took for depression. Yep, Hamilton admitted that he knew what he was taking was illegal but did it anyway. It's almost like he wanted to get caught...what a dummy. This is a guy who was a folk hero for his performance in the 2003 Tour when he rode the whole way with a broken collarbone and then in 2004 he won the gold medal in the Olympic time trial. This despite being banned and warmed for having high-normal hematocrit levels a few times in 2004...he then got caught later in 2004 during the Vuelta d'Espana. Given a second chance in 2006, Tyler never regained his status as a top cyclist, and ended up on Rock Racing the last two seasons. Good old Bob Roll even suggests that Tyler Hamilton should get a lifetime ban from cycling for his ridiculous actions over the last 5 years. I tend to agree, but would love to read a tell-all book by Tyler someday...

Okay, triathlon schtuff...last weekend was Ironman China and Ironman China 70.3. It is the only event where both half and full Ironman events are held in the same venue on the same day. And what a day it was! With race course temperatures at 113 degrees (45 Celsius), it quickly became a survival test first and a race second. Chris McCormack, who competed in the 70.3 race (there was no pro event, he just competed against two Australian pros as a challenge on a glorified training day) called it "the toughest triathlon day of my career". He continued by saying that by mile 4 on the run, he knew he had the race won, but that it might be impossible to make it to the finish line. And he was only doing the half!!

The men's Ironman race was won by Rasmus Henning, who is better known as the 2007 and 2008 winner of the Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon (which is known for its huge payday). In those two events, Henning collected $400,000! And a Hummer! He's among the large number of ITU athletes trying their hand at long-distance triathlons. And he proved he can compete at Ironman, with a 40 minute swim and 4:29 bike which gave him a huge lead into T2. After missing his special needs food on the run, he ended up cramping and walked most of the last 10 km, resulting in a 3:38 run split. And still won the race by 29 minutes! It was also the slowest men's run split for an Ironman winner in the past 25 years...to be honest, not too many top pro men did the race (i haven't heard of the guys who finished 2nd or 3rd, while consistent pros like Petr Vabrousek, Jozsef Major, and Byung Hoon Park finished well back). Anyhow, Henning is now right at the top of the list for Kona rookies this fall...and a definite podium contender.

The women's race actually contains the fastest runner in the race, with Charlotte Paul of Australia running a 3:35 run split to easily win the women's race by 13 minutes. She was the only woman to break 10 hours, but the two Canadians (or a Czech who lives in Canada and a Canadian) Tereza Macel Donna Phelan in 3rd and 4th place. Pre-race fave Hillary Biscay (who won Ironman Wisconsin last year) could only manage a 4:17 run split!

This weekend of racing brings ITU racing back to Ishigaki, Japan. But unfortunately, with the World Championship Series only one week away, almost no top contenders are in Japan this weekend. It is seriously among the weakest fields I have ever seen for an ITU World Cup race! I think only Australia's Courtney Atkinson and Russia's Ivan Vasiliev have ever been on a World Cup podium before. Canadian Kyle Jones (who actually got race number 2, so he's the second highest rated athlete in the field), didn't even make Canada's Olympic Team. Hopefully Jones can use his recent training with his buddy Simon Whitfield and get on the podium. The women's race is no better when it comes to quality of field, with 9 Japanese among the 22 expected starters. The top rated athlete is Japan's own Juri Ide, who was 5th at the Olympics, while Canadian Olympians Lauren Groves and Kathy Tremblay will look for their first ever World Cup win! And they will never have as good a shot as they do this weekend.

The American triathletes and a ton of elite 70.3 racers are in St. Petersburg, Florida for the St. Anthony's Triathlon. This race has been around for 26 years, which makes it one of the oldest races in the US. I think this race has 20 times more well-known triathletes than the race in Japan. Matt Reed, Andy Potts, Terrenzo Bozzone, and Greg Bennett on the guy's side, with Lisa Bennett, Mirinda Carfrae, Becky Lavelle, Joanna Zeiger are some of the stars on the women's side.

Okay, now I think I'm done until next week!

Marathon Mania and the End of Cycling Classics...

2009-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We are knee-deep busy with marathon, triathlons, and bike races here in late April, so this might take a bit...

If you haven't read Monday's post which was 100% Boston Marathon you should scroll down and read it, but there are a few little updates that have happened since Monday. The biggest criticism of the women's race was that it was so slow, and apparently Kara Goucher agrees with that. As of Wednesday night, Goucher was still trying to convince her coach, Alberto Salazar, to let her run in the London Marathon this Sunday. She says that she feels as if she "went for a jog followed by a hard 10k". She ultimately has decided not to race, but perhaps Goucher will run another race or two in the near future as she is feeling quite good. Ryan Hall, on the other hand, claims that he won't run for 2 weeks since he is so beat up after his 3rd place finish.

As was mentioned on Monday, the top Canadian runners did stay home from Boston this week (Top Canadian male in Boston was Stephen Drew who ran 2:22, with the top female being Denise Robson who ran 2:48) This was likely due to the fact that Athletics Canada is basing its teams for this summer's World Championship Marathon in Berlin on times and Boston being a fairly tough course to run really fast. So many Canadians are going to be running Ottawa Marathon in May, which is the last chance to run the qualifying times. A lot of fast Canadians also ran in the Montreal 21K last weekend which was the qualifying race for Canada's Half Marathon team, which will compete in October in England at the Worlds. Matt Loiselle ran 1:04 and was Top Canadian to get the men's slot, while Andrew Smith and Steve Osadiuk got the other 2 spots. The bigger story was in the women's race, where Tara Quinn-Smith won and set a National Record by running 1:12:08! Awesome run from Quinn-Smith, who won the race by 3 minutes. Second place went to top Canadian female marathoner Lioudmila Kortchaguina (2:30 marathon this year) while the third spot went to Paula Wiltse.

Special congrats go to Brooks Canada and their sponsorship of Loiselle, Smith, and Quinn-Smith in the Brooks Canada Marathon Project. Brooks has donated $1.5 million over 6 years to provide housing and training for elite Canadian runners, with the goal of developing world-class Canadian marathoners who can compete for Canada. Although last weekend's results are for a half-marathon race, it does show that the project is starting to show some solid results. Many of these same results are also in the selection pool for the Marathon team, which as i stated before, will be decided after the Ottawa Marathon.

While the names Zhou, Dita, Goumri, Ramaala, Mikitenko, and Gharib sound like possible victims of Jack Bauer in the many seasons of 24 (Quick, Mikitenko is getting away with the nuclear device!He's trying to sell weapons to General Ramaala!), these are just some of the names in this Sunday's London Marathon. Both the men's and women's race have several potential winners, and the race could see a new World Record set.

The men's race features the 3-time winner Martin Lel, who might not even be the favorite despite his 2:05 personal best. Sammy Wanjiru, the 22-year old Kenyan who has the Olympic title from Beijing with a remarkable run in the smog AND the current World Record in the half-marathon (58:33), is aiming at the London title and a shot at the World Record. The race organizers have hired two pacesetters who are hopefully going to take the lead pack to 20 miles at 2:04 pace. Then the real race will begin. The two top Kenyans will be challenged by a ridiculously deep field that includes Abderrahim Goumri, who has twice run under 2:06 but has never won a marathon! The field also includes the Silver and Bronze medallists from Beijing marathon (Morocco's Gharib and Ethiopian Kebede) with several new marathoners (highlighted by Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese, who has won both World XC titles and the World Half Marathon titles) expecting to challenge as well. Lel is the odds-on fave, followed by Wanjiru and Kebede, but I'll go out and pick Wanjiru to win but just miss the world record by 30 seconds or so...

The women's race is just as deep. We have the Olympic champ (Constantina Dita), 2 top Ethiopians (Geta Wami and Berhane Adere), a bunch of top Asians (Chunxiu Zhou, 3rd at Olympics, won 2007 London), two very fast Russians (Petrova and Zakharova), plus the consistently great Catherine Ndereba (aka Catherine the Great), who is 36 but won the Silver medal in Beijing. Then of course we have last year's winner Irina Mikitenko, who blew away the field last year and then ran sub 2:20 in Berlin last fall. So she's the fave, but there are 5 or 6 fast women who can break 2:25 (remember, no one broke 2:32 in Boston) and potentially steal the win.

Of course, the big name missing is Paula Radcliffe. Radcliffe, who has battled injuries the last couple of years, finally had bunion surgery this spring to fix her right foot. She fractured a toe while training this year, and it seems like her bunion problem was the cause of her stress fracture from last year as well. So she should be fixed soon, and is still hoping to take a shot at the Worlds in August. All of London hopes she'll get better for another shot at a world record on this very fast course!

In honour of Paula and Kara and their connections to Nike, I have added a Bikey Three-Pack of very good Nike running commercials. Check them out, and then we have real Bike-Y news after the third video.

A big week of cycling concludes with Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege. This is unofficially the last race of the spring classics season, and the last chance for many riders to get that big victory that has been eluding them so far. This race comes on the heels of last Sunday's Amstel Gold Race and Wednesday's Fleche Wallone. Amstel Gold was won by Sergei Ivanov, who outsprinted Karsten Kroon and Robert Gesink for the win, with a favorite-heavy pack only 8 seconds back. The much better race was Wednesday's Fleche Wallone, which ends with an epic 1.2 climb that averages over 9 percent and has one section that reaches 25 percent. As expected, a large peloton reached the bottom of the final hill together, with all the faves at the front. Here's the video (only 3 minutes).

As you can see, despite the game efforts of Cadel Evans, the race was won by Italian Davide Rebellin, who has now won the race 3 times. Rebellin won by 2 seconds over Andy Schleck and Damiano Cunego, with big names like Sanchez, Evans, Lovkvist, and Valverde in the 4-7 spots! Ridiculous how one climb can eliminate everyone but the big names! Ryder Hesjedal was top Canuck in 25th place (34 seconds back).

Before I take off (and yes, I need to recap some triathlons...maybe later today?), I wanted to include the video of a skinny Texan on that final climb of Fleche Wallone way back in 1996. Enjoy!

Boston Marathon Live Blog

2009-04-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Sat down very early this morning on the couch, and wanted to post thoughts during today's running of the elite women and elite men's race...could be a very big day for American running!

Again, the list of top contenders in today's race was nicely summarized by letsrun.com. The women's list is here, with the odds-on fave being Dire Tune followed by Bezunesh Bekele and Kara Goucher. The men's list is here, with them picking Robert Cheruiyot to win his 4th title in a row, followed by Hall and Ethiopian Deriba Merga.

Elite Women are about to begin - Interviewing Kara Goucher with 30 seconds before the start. Says she wants to hold on and then sprint at the end. Ha. Wish marathoning was that easy.

Someone forgot to tell the women that this is a race. First mile was a very very very pedestrian 6:26. If every mile took that long it would take them 2:50+ to finish. Since we expect 2:25, they will need to pick it up considerably! Second mile was 6:02, third mile they got under 6 minutes barely, with them going through 5K in 18:59, which puts them on 2:40 pace...there are still 15-20 women all together thru the first half hour.

Elite men should be starting soon. Question asked to Ryan Hall at the start line - What will be the hardest part of the race? His answer ="I'm not anticipating it to be very tough. I'm going for a smooth ride into Boston!" Sounds confident! And he compared today's weather in Boston (cool and windy) and says that it is much nicer than his normal training grounds in Mammoth, California.

Stupid announcers are talking to Brian Sell (probably the second fastest American) with 20 seconds until the gun. Sell is not at all interested in doing the interview. Says he will try and run his own race, go out slow, and try and finish fast. We'll see...

Gun goes off. Men are not repeating the women's start. Ryan Hall starts like he's a rabbit! He's on a dead sprint for the first km, really trying to put some pressure on the men's field. The men's lead pack is under 15 runners by mile 1 (4:39 or so). Ridiculous...but I do like the fact that he's taking the race by storm!

The weather is cool (mid 40's, which is about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius) but probably great for running fast. The announcers say there is a decent headwind which might slow the field a bit...the majority of elite women are wearing gloves and/or arm warmers. Mary Akor(another American), who won the Vancouver Marathon last year, is wearing tights, a windbreaker, and a hat! The men are much less over-dressed, with only Ryan Hall wearing arm warmers and gloves. All the Africans are just wearing singlets...interesting...

Women just went though 10K in 37:06. Speeding up (almost a minute faster than first 5K) but there are still a huge pack of women in the lead pack. On pace for a 2:36 finish, but all the top women are still there. No one has even tried to stretch out the field yet...

Men hit 5K in 14:33 (which is world record pace - just under 2:03) but the chances of a world record on this course are zero. Hall just trying to cut the pack as quickly as possible. I think all the big names are still there. There are actually three Cheruiyot's in the field, including two guys named Robert Cheruiyot (the defending champ is Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, with a 20-year old Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot also a top contender). Evans Cheruiyot is also a big-time contender...when in doubt, bet on a Cheruiyot...

Ryan Hall continues to push the pace, happy to run from the front and string out the pack. The defending champ is right on his shoulder - seemingly letting Hall know that any pace would be fine with him. Can Hall keep it up? Kara Goucher is alternating between running at the front of the pack (still 15 deep) and tucking into the pack. The announcer just said that Goucher and her speedy husband Adam are going to try and get pregnant following this race, which would then give her lots of time to get back into race shape for the 2012 Olympics.

Men go thru 10K in 29:27...still on 2:04 pace. 13 men in the lead pack, which is still being lead by Hall. Ryan Hall does have the fastest PR in the field, so maybe he's trying to wean out the 2:09 guys by setting the pace so high. Men's record in Boston is only 2:07:14. Ryan Hall finally sheds his arm warmers and gloves. All the women are still wearing their warm clothes...I'm surprised that only four or five women in the top 15 are not wearing gloves or arm warmers. Women hit 15K in 55:41 which is still 2:36 pace. Very slow...someone will make a move soon...

Men just got to 15K in 44:45 (sub 2:06 pace) which is about right. Men's pack is down to 11 or 12 guys...Ryan Hall is not leading right now and is tucked into the pack. One white guy and a whole big group of Africans.

Okay, women got to 20K in 1:14 and half-way in 1:18:12 (which is still 2:36 pace). To put that into perspective, the winner of the women's race has been sub 2:30 every year since 1985, which is also the last time an American won the race. Might be good karma for Goucher...they just flashed a graphic that the women are already 8 minutes off the course record at half way. I doubt that the fast runners want to keep the lead pack so large since it would allow anyone in the top 12-15 to win in a late sprint. Too bad that Canada's Lioudmila Kortchaguina isn't running, since she has already ran a 2:30 marathon in 2009 (Houston Marathon in January) and could be in this pack for sure.

Men finally got to half way in 63:40 (2:07 pace) with 12 guys still in the lead pack. Ryan Hall still tucked into the back of the men's pack, and all the men are starting to look around and see who will make the next move.

Women are thru 25K and finally down to 10 women in 1:32. They finally broke 18 minutes for a 5K interval. However, they are still only on 2:35 pace. The Kenyan archrivals Tune and Bekele (keep reading the next paragraph for the amazing story) both have taken turns at the front. American Colleen DeReuck is giving Goucher some a teammate at the front of the women's pack. DeReuck is a masters runner who has competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics (both marathon and 10,000m) for South Africa. But this slow pace is keeping her in the lead group with less than 10 miles to go...

Dire Tune is only 24, but has already run 10 elite marathons, including her win in Boston in 2008. That win was worth $150,000 to her, and made all her training worth it (she says she runs twice a day, 7 days a week, but takes Sunday PM off!). She also was the only Ethiopian finisher in the Olympic Marathon, but the story is very interesting. Ethiopia had 5 women in the running for the 3 spots, but despite winning Boston last spring, she was only the 4th -highest rated runner going into the last training camp. However, her performance in camp lead the coaches to pick her for the last spot over Bezunesh Bekele. This lead to a fight on a bus after Bekele accused Tune of not being deserving of the Olympic spot. This wasn't the last bit of drama. A couple of days later, Bekele's husband pulled a gun on Tune, her husband, and their training partner Deriba Merga (who is running today at the front of the men's race). Bekele's husband never was charged but this illustrates how much of a contentious situation it was. Tune considered quitting the team, but did stay mentally focused and finished 15th in Beijing. It will be interesting to see if Tune and Bekele go shoulder-to-shoulder until the finish line. And we better watch Bekele's husband if things don't go well for Bekele...

The men's race has picked up finally. Stephen Kiogora (a Kenyan who trains in Colorado) took off and tried to stretch the pace. But the group was able to reel him in, and Robert Cheruiyot and Ethiopian Deriba Merga countered and it looks like the men's pack is gone. Ryan Hall is at the back at the group and can't respond. It's now 2 Ethiopians and a Kenyan in the top 3 (Merga and Molla are Ethiopians at the front, and Daniel Rono is now the only Kenyan with them. The rest of the men are all stretched out...the guys had just passed 25k in 76 minutes (2:08 pace) before this latest surge.

The womens race is still pedestrian by elite standards. Another slow 5K (almost 19 minutes) put them thru 30K in 1:50 (still 2:36 pace). The group is still all together and Goucher is at the front of the pack and controlling the race nicely. The women's pace is so slow that they could conceivably be caught by the elite men despite their 30 minute headstart.

Merga now has open road ahead. He has shed his teammate Molla and Kenyan Rono and has a decent lead (5 seconds over Rono, 15 seconds over Hall who is now in a group in 4th). A nice recovery for Hall, who still a shot if Merga slows at all.

Women got to Heartbreak Hill with a lead group of 7 or so...Goucher is leading the group and looks strong. I actually don't like her chances since some of the Kenyans might be better sprinters. She's having a great run so far with 5 miles to go!

Merga's break has him thru 30K in 1:31 with a big lead. Now has 10 seconds over Rono and 18 seconds over Ryan Hall. He's now in third place but Merga is looking super-strong. Hall is trying to close the gap and is making a good push on second place Daniel Rono.

35K for the women in 2:08:47 which is still 2:35 pace but only 7 women to go. Goucher is still leading the group (as she has most of the last 10K). Awesome effort...

Another fast 5K for Merga has him thru 35K in 1:46 and he now has a comfortable 36 second lead over...Ryan Hall! Hall has recovered and if Merga slows at all (the commentators love telling stories how Merga has slowed at the end of most of his marathons), Hall might be able to catch him.

Goucher and Tune and Bekele are still 1-2-3 but the women's pack is still 6 deep with 5K to go. The last mile was 5:18 so the women have really turned it on! They just lost another women so now is down to 5...Goucher still at the front! She still has the Ethiopians on her shoulder (Tune and Bekele) and the two Kenyans (Kosgei and Kiprop) right behind them.

Merag looks comfortable in the mens race as he flies up the hills. He has only 12 minutes or so to go, and looks great. You can't even see Hall in the long camera shots, so it looks like Merga has the race tied up unless he slows considerably...just announced he's 50 seconds back...and defending champion Robert Cheruiyot has just dropped out.

Women's race is epic! Goucher, Tune, and Kosgei are now top 3 thru 40K. Interestingly, Goucher skipped the water station whereas Tune and Kosgei both took water. Goucher still at the front and looks amazing! Another 5:11 mile! With about a mile to go, Dire Tune and Salina Kosgei finally took the lead from Goucher but they are still all together...Goucher starting to show some tightness while Tune still looks smooth...2:30 and they still are all together!

Tune and Kosgei have gotten a gap on Goucher...epic finish with less than a mile to go! Can Goucher get back on? Tune, Kosgei side-by-side! A sprint finish! Kosgei wins!! By one second. Tune collapses at finish line! Goucher third...9 seconds back. Closest finish ever! Remarkable, the women, who were on 2:35 pace at 35K, managed to finish in 2:32! A ridiculous closing pace by the 3 women who were there at the end. Easily the biggest win ever for Kosgei, who was 4th in London last year and 10th at the Olympics.

Merga couldn't catch the women but will easily win the men's race in just over 2:08. It appears Daniel Rono and Ryan Hall will finish 2-3 about a minute later.

Overall, a great day of racing, with two third place finishers for Americans. And Ryan Hall is being interviewed at the finish and even admitted that the course "was harder than i expected". Ha...final results are now available here...

See you Friday for a more typical Bikey!

Boston Marathon Ahead and Rollin on the Podium!

2009-04-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

We will get to the Boston Marathon and some triathlon news, but let's lead off with a busy recap of the Pro Cycling World...

Last weekend's Paris-Roubaix race lived up to its title as "Queen of the Classics" with an epic race on Easter Sunday. Actually, for a large chunk of the riders, it also lived up to its title as a "Sunday in Hell" and the "Hell of the North". The 26 segments of cobblestones, frequent mechanical problems, and constant crashes just destroy the peloton, and only the very strongest riders survive. The race came down to an elite pack including Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd, Fillippo Pozzato, Juan Antonio Flecha, and Lotto teammates Leif Hoste and Johan Van Summeren. The group worked hard to keep the rest of the chasing groups (including Cancellara and Hincapie) at bay, and maintained their lead into the last 15km. Then a crash by Flecha took down Van Summeren and forced Hoste to come to a complete stop. Soon thereafter, a crash by Hushovd gave Boonen a ten-second lead over Pozzato. And while a 10-second lead might not seem like a lot with 15 km to go, it was all that Boonen needed, as he powered away from the now split-up chasers, and cruised to a 70-second win in the Roubaix velodrome. It is also Boonen's third win in this epic race, furthering his reputation as one of the best classic riders of all time. Check out the video below of all the crashes, including Hushovd's race-deciding crash and a race motorbike crashing into the crowd. This video also illustrates how crappy the roads are and how close the spectators are along some of the cobblestone sections.

The motorcycle crash did result in 15 injuries, and I'm surprised that more spectators don't get hurt by bikes, motorcycles, or team cars along some of these roads. Columbia's Michael Barry was the lone Canuck, finishing in 90th place.

Very interestingly, the road conditions in Paris-Roubaix are so bad that many teams (including Caisse D'Epargne, Milram
, and Katusha) actually used modified aluminum cyclocross bikes during the race. They just switched out the wheels to regular aluminum clinchers! Some teams even had the handlebar cyclocross brakes on some of their bikes. Crazy...but after seeing the carnage from Sunday I guess the teams made the right call...

However, on Wednesday Canada got it's first great finish of the season. During Wednesday's race, Belgium's Scheldeprijs, Cervelo's Dominique Rollin managed a third place finish! This race, while not a "classic" race, is known as the last race on cobblestones before the peloton returns to more traditional road racing. Rollin did take advantage of an awesome crash (don't worry, i have the video below) to take his first European podium of the year. The race was won by Alessandro Petacchi, who has already won 7 time in 2009. Both Tom Boonen and Robbie McEwen were involved in the crash (actually McEwen is being blamed for it), but both are expected to be okay. Congrats to Dom!

The week ahead includes the grand trio of Ardennes races, including Sunday's Amstel Gold Race in Holland, followed by the Fleche-Wallone on Wednesday and Liege-Bastogne-Liege next Sunday. The big names are all here, with Valverde, Cunego, the Schlecks, Olympic champ Samuel Sanchez, and lots of others trying for the big win. A trio of Canadians, including Hesjedal, Rollin, and Barry, will all start. Can we get a second podium in one week?

Monday is the 113th edition of the Boston Marathon, which is probably the most historically important marathon on the planet. It isn't lightning fast like London, Berlin, or Rotterdam, which means that many elite runners don't race here (Radcliffe and Gebrselassie have never raced it). But it is still a crown jewel race, and a victory here is a career achievement. It is especially important for Americans, who haven't won since 1985 (women) or 1983 (men). Kenya men have won 16 of the last 18 years, and 4-time winner (and course record holder) Robert K Cheruiyot is back to defend his title. Americans have some hope though in 2009, with Ryan Hall competing against the world for the first time on US soil. He has taken it on himself to return marathoning to the front pages in the USA, and it is already working (front page of today's USA Today sports!, bumping the NBA playoffs). But a victory over Cheruiyot would be really a big step. Is it possible? Perhaps...Hall's coach claims he is the best shape of his career, and the oddsmakers have him as a close second behind Cheruiyot. I'll go out and say he will do it!

The women's race is also interesting, as American Kara Goucher is here to run her second marathon (after a great debut in New York last year). She too is in great shape, but with last year's champ Dire Tune back for another title, it might be too early for Goucher to win Boston. But the presence of Goucher and Hall will most definitely draw more American spectators to the television and the web on Monday afternoon. Here's hoping they can both do well.

More to come...maybe Monday. Oh yeah, Ironman China on the weekend too (no big names, but I'll report on it next week...).

A Bike-Y Good Friday!

2009-04-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Of course, after a whole post on Monday discussing all things doping, there comes news that Lance vs the French is once again front and center, so we'll start with that, then move on to race results, a look-ahead, and a shout-out to the Canadians making news (good and bad) around the world...

Ok, this latest Lance-story began on March 17, when Lance was doing some riding in France. According to Lance and Johan Bruyneel, Lance had just finished a ride when a unknown tester showed up at his door. He identified himself as being from a French lab (not a cycling authority) and while Johan called to verify the tester's credentials, Lance asked to shower. 20 minutes later, Lance returned, found out that the tester's credentials checked out, then had his urine, blood, and hair samples taken. The tester's version of the story is that Johan and Lance would not let him in the house, only relented when he threatened to call the police, then Lance took a shower and "disappeared" for 20 minutes, then put up a fuss about the hair samples. He claims that Lance violated a testing rule by going out-of-sight after the tester identified himself (which is a no-no according to WADA). Now the French anti-doping Federation (AFLD) has asked the UCI if it can proceed with a hearing against Lance that could lead to sanctions and suspensions that could prevent Lance from racing in France...

Ok, there is something very odd about this story. A story from March 18 had Lance complaining about his hair "getting butchered" during this test, and that the tester was a "total gentleman". Fast forward to April 6th, and word leaks (the French always seem to have leaks) that the AFLD has sent a report to the UCI about Lance's "behavior" during the test. By yesterday, the AFLD announce they will proceed with a hearing, and perhaps have a decision made in May. This story blew up nationally, making headlines on CNN, ESPN, and every other sports site on the web. Today, the head of the UCI (Pat McQuaid) said that the AFLD was being "unprofessional" and that they shouldn't be leaking information to the media as it is supposed to be kept confidential until any decisions are made. He also said that he wasn't aware that Lance violated any WADA or UCI rules during this test.

Ok, this is turning into a "he said vs he said" argument. I anticipate that there seems to be fault on both sides (Lance knows better than to disappear and according to Lance, the tester checked the box on the form that nothing irregular happened during the testing process). So whether this is simply the AFLD trying to stir things up or a vindictive tester trying to make Lance look guilty, Lance is once again in the media highlights. Now, I really don't think that Lance used 20 minutes to flush some drugs out of his system but he is once again being villified. In any event, there will be plenty more news on this story to come....

Ok, last week's big race was the Tour of Flanders. Amazingly, for the second year in a row, QuickStep's Stijn Devolder delighted the Belgium faithful by pulling away to win the race. This year, he was in a 4-man breakaway with about 15 km to go in the race, when he absolutely hammered during a section of the final hill when the grade reaches 20%! The video below illustrates how absolutely crazy the Belgians fans are, and how Devolder turned a group of 4 into a group of 1 pretty quickly. He credits his teammate Tom Boonen (the pre-race fave) for attracting all the attention, allowing Devolder into the winning break. Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) continued his great season by outsprinting the peloton for second place. Canada's Svein Tuft got an "HD" next to his name in the official results, which might stand for Had Difficulty, as he finished over 22 minutes back.

Wednesday had another big cycling race, as Gent-Wevelgem was contested. Again, Columbia-Highroad wins, with 21-year old Norwegian Edvald Boassan Hagen winning the race. Cervelo and Columbia-Highroad controlled the race, and despite trying to get Mark Cavendish in position for the win (he flatted and missed the break), Columbia-Highroad did manage to get Hagen into position for easily the biggest win of his career. Dominique Rollin from Canada had a great day, doing a lot of work for his teammates and still finished in 18th place.

Quick note on Rollin - for his first season in Europe he is doing great, managing great results in the one-day results while working hard for teammates such as Thor Hushovd. It is increasingly possible that he gets an invite to one of the Grand Tours this year. Other Canadians in Europe are doing less well, with Michael Barry (Columbia-HighRoad) having not raced a lot so far in 2009. Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft have done less well, with a number of DNFs and back-of-the-pack finishes lately. Hesjedal is currently in 64th place during the Tour of Basque Country, a Spanish 6-day stage race that (surprise) Alberto Contador leads. Actually, this race deserves some attention, as lots of Tour faves are riding here, including Cadel Evans, Damiano Cunego, Samuel Sanchez, the Schlecks, Cadel Evans, Christian Vande Velde, etc...the race will be decided on Saturday's time trial. Not surprisingly, Columbia-Highroad has won the last two stages here too...they are the team to beat in 2009 again...

Last cycling story, Sunday is Paris-Roubaix! The "hell of the north" event is being held for the 107th time, and is expected to be a battle between Columbia-Highroad (George Hincapie), Team Cervelo (Heinrich Haussler) and QuickStep (Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder going for the double!) over the 259 km, which includes 27 cobblestone sections that total 52 km!! A ridiculous endurance test, only the strongest rider will be around at the end, which ends in a outdoor velodrome. Canadians Michael Barry and Dominique Rollin are probable starters, and will be helping teammates through the race...you can find the race online at cyclingfans.comSunday morning.

Speaking of races, last week's big marathon weekend was indeed monumental. Both Paris and Rotterdam produced amazing results, with 11 men breaking 2:09 in Paris (the most ever in a race), and a race to the finish in Rotterdam. Watch this.

You might have noticed the time these two guys ran (and the unbelievable crowds along the finishing stretch!!). 2:04:27! That puts the two of them in 3rd place all-time (only Haile Geb has run faster with a 2:04:26 and his 2:03:59 World Record). The world of marathoning has suddenly gotten ridiculous fast. In fact, 13 different Kenyans broke 2:09 last Sunday (only 6 Americans and 0 Canadians have ever done it) with one of them being the 18-year old runner-up in Paris. It's obvious that the world record will keep dropping, perhaps as soon as this month at the London Marathon. I'll talk more about it and the Boston Marathon next week...

5 triathlons last weekend (4 of which I previewed last week) to report on. The one i forgot to mention was an ITU race in New Zealand that Canada's Kirsten Sweetland won! Actually, it was only a Continental Cup race, so the field wasn't as deep as the week before. But Sweetland again outran the field, and looks to be in great form going into next Month's World Championship Series kickoff in Korea. Congrats to Kirsten...keep it up!

This week Triathlon Canada named Philippe Bertrand as the replacement for Joel Filliol (who left to go to Great Britain) as National Senior Team Head Coach. Bertrand was previously Filliol's assistant coach, and has helped develop Kathy Tremblay as her personal coach over the last few years. It should make for a nice transition as Bertrand has extensive experience with all the team members.

The big Ironman weekend produced a ton of great results. Canadians had a very up-and-down weekend, highlighted with Brent McMahon's very impressive win at Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. McMahon ran past Chris McCormack to win by over 2 minutes. McMahon now has proven he can compete at Xterra races, at non-drafting Olympic races distances, and over the 70.3 distance. He is also part of the Canadian ITU team this year, and has a chance to become the next big Canadian male triathlon star.

Also in New Orleans was the comeback of Natascha Badmann after 18 months of dealing with injuries from her bike crash at Kona 2007. Her bike leg was 8 minutes faster than any of the other top women, and she held on to win by a minute over Catriona Morrison and a very solid women's field (Joanna Zeiger, Nina Kraft, Lisa Bentley, Linsey Corbin, and Kate Major were also in the Top 10). A very impressive performance by the 42-year old Badmann, who may be able to take another shot at Kona glory in October.

Of course, for Badmann to win Kona, she'll have to do something about Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie won her 6th straight Ironman in Australia last weekend, with a ho-hum 2:59 marathon allowing her to break 9 hours (only 12 men beat her) to stay undefeated in Ironman races. She won by 24 minutes over Rebekah Keat, and only one other woman finished within an hour of Wellington. Michellie Jones did not start the race due to a leg injury. On the men's side, Patrick Vernay faced a stiff challenge from Pete Jacobs before pulling away for a 4 minute victory and his third straight Ironman Australia title. Tim Deboom managed to run a 3:00 marathon to finish 6th in his comeback race. He'll need to get a bit faster, since Vernay ran 2:45 to pace the men's field.

The other big race last weekend was Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside, where fast run splits led to wins by Matt Reed and Mirinda Carfrae. On the men's side, Matt Reed ran a race-record 1:11 to pull away from Andy Potts by 2 minutes. Up-and-coming Swiss star Ronnie Schildknecht (4th at Kona) was 3rd. The women's race was led by American Sara Groff throughout the run, but a late surge by Carfrae allowed her to pass both Leanda Cave and Sara Groff in the last half-mile. She won by only 21 seconds, having run a race-record 1:20 half-marathon to win the $5000 first place purse.

Oh yeah, in South Africa they competed in Ironman South Africa. Marino Vanhoenacker and Brett Sutton's new female star Lucie Zelenkova won there, both setting course records. Zelenkova's teammate and previous winner Bella Bayliss had to drop out on the run but Zelenkova was already well down the road to victory. I guess Team TBB isn't dead after losing Chrissie Wellington and Belinda Granger this winter..

I try to keep on top of Canadian results, and should mention that Paul Tichelaar, Sara Gross, Heather Wurtele and Jonathan Caron all had rough races last week. Tichelaar, Wurtele and Gross all were in Oceanside but were never factors in the race and both finished outside the Top 20, while Caron dropped out of Ironman Australia. After doing Oceanside last year, I know how difficult it can be to race early on in the season, but all those results were probably well below expectations. Here's hoping they can get improve as 2009 continues...

The global recession is forcing athletes everywhere to look for alternate sources of revenue by advertising in unconventional methods. But I have never seen a video like this before...this guy won the Silver Medal at the World Championships!

Sorry guys, couldn't find any female pole vaulters doing similar videos...

This weekend is very slow for races...enjoy Easter and Paris-Roubaix! And NBC is showing the 70.3 Worlds on Sunday (from last November) if you want to set your PVRs...

DopeY Monday is Back!

2009-04-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

As you may have noticed, I haven't been including a whole lot of stories about dopers and doping violations lately during the normal Friday posts. And no, it's not because athletes have stopped doping. So here goes...

Let's start with pro cyclists...last summer's surprise Yellow Jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher has indeed been banned for 2 years for his positive test for CERA (3rd generation EPO). But as of yet, he has still refused to admit to doping, and claims he will appeal his suspension. Just what we need, more pro cyclists tying up court rooms and generating headlines. This from a guy who 1) tested positive for an amphetamine in 2005 but was later cleared; 2) was arrested for drunken driving in 2007; and 3) also tested positive for amphetamines during his arrest but was again cleared by German cycling because it was an out-of-competition test. But we are supposed to believe him regarding CERA. Not likely.

His Gerolsteiner teammate, and fellow Tour de France star, Bernhard Kohl, also made news lately. He admitted to taking CERA and to undergoing blood doping "3-to-4 times a week". He also provided authorities with information that led to his manager Stefan Matschiner's arrest last week. Austria has actually passed a new law in late 2008 that allows for up to 5 years in prison for doping offenses, so both Kohl and Matschiner are potentially in bigger trouble than simply sitting out for a couple of years. Interesting....

Austria kept its promise. On March 23 a cycling doctor (who also coaches nordic skiers) was arrested in Vienna for providing an unnamed cyclist with EPO. The cyclist, who wasn't named at the time but is now believed to be Christof Kirschbaum. The two of them, plus a pharmacist, were arrested for "trafficking doping products". Sweet...I like it.

But that's not it...4 days later, Austria released more information regarding a triathlete and doping. A third-tier female ITU triathlete named Lisa Hutthaler tested positive for EPO last fall. In late March, she came clean (previously had refused to admit the offenses) and has implicated a doctor and a coach (the previously mentioned Matschiner, Kohl's coach). She admits to taking EPO six times before getting caught in the fall. Oh yeah, this doctor in question is an Ironman triathlete who has qualified for Kona 2009.

The dominoes just kept falling. Matschiner also has been a manager for a top track athlete in Bulgaria. The 2008 Athlete of the Year in Bulgaria in fact. Ivet Lalova, a sprinter, has predictably denied any "doping" links with Matschiner, claiming that he was only her manager for business dealings. Now a sprinter would not really benefit from Matschiner's normal "blood doping + EPO" cocktail, but who knows now? Austria also arrested 5 more people with connections to doping violations last week, and there are reports that former pro cyclist Georg Totschnig and Olympic Cross-Country skiing gold medallist Christian Hoffmann are being implicated in this scandal. In an ironic twist, Hoffmann was awarded this gold medal after the Spanish winner was disqualified for using EPO. Wow...this story is unbelievable...

Okay, finally done with the dirty Austrians. Let's see what the Spanish are up to...the Operation Puerto scandal refuses to end. Ok, try to follow this. Operation Puerto started in May 2006, and continued through 2006 and 2007, ensnaring a ridiculous number of cyclists, including Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, and Marco Pantani. Alejandro Valverde has been often associated with Operation Puerto, but has had his name cleared by Spanish authorities (as has Alberto Contador and many others), but now the Italian Olympic organization (CONI) is seeking a two-year ban for Valverde (a Spaniard) due to CONI trying to connect blood samples taken from Valverde during last year's Tour de France when the Tour dipped into Italy. Now many are saying the Italians are simply targeting Valverde as payback for Puerto ensnaring top Italian cyclists like Pantani and Basso. Regardless, there will be lots more to come on this story, since CONI's ban (even it if only applies to Italian soil) would keep Valverde out of the 2009 Tour (again, the Tour enters Italy). Let the lawyers at it and I'll keep you posted...and for those of you who want a glimpse into Operation Puerto, cyclingnews.com has a complete list of articles (250+) listed here...

Ok, not all cheaters are European. Some are Canadian...and outside of Ben Johnson, I doubt any Canadian athlete has been embroiled in a bigger drug scandal than Genevieve Jeanson. For those of you who don't Jeanson, she was supposed to be Canada's female cycling star. She was both 1999 World Junior Road Race Champion AND the Time Trial Champion. She then graduated to Women's Cycling, where she dominated at times (once won 4 stages of a 5-stage race in Californian in 2002). She represented Canada at the Sydney Olympics (finished 11th) and participated in UCI events from 2000-2005. In July 2005, she failed a test for EPO, proclaimed her innocence and threatened to appeal (novel idea), but ultimately retired from pro cycling in early 2006. In 2007, she sat down with a reporter and told her story, admitted to everything (taking EPO since age 15!) and that she hated living the lie. Anyhow, Jeanson's coach and her physician both received lifetime bans this week by Canada's Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES). The lifetime bans are because Jeanson was a minor when the doping began. Due to her co-operation with the investigation, Jeanson only received a 10-year ban! Jeanson has repeatedly said she has no interest in ever competing again, so her suspension is meaningless. Also, since her coach and physician are both out of sport anyhow, I do wonder why the CCES spent 12 months (and god knows how much money) on this case...

Some good news on the horizon though...the biological passport system that cycling is using is working well and is making it much easier to detect abnormalities in the doping tests of a particular athlete. For now, until the coaches, doctors, scientists, and managers figure out how to beat it...

See you Friday!

All Triathlon for the First Time in 2009....and April Fool's Tomfoolery...

2009-04-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Well, the title could be a wee misleading, since I have a wee bit of pro cycling and running news to get to as well, but the majority of today's post will be tri-related as the 2009 season really gets its groove on...as well, I will be back Monday with a special Dopey Monday edition to cover some new happenings...

Okay, I already posted on Kirsten Sweetland's amazing win last Sunday in Australia. She won the first ITU World Cup race of the year (remember that World Cup events are now second-tier since the World Championship Series races are the primary set of races) with a race-best run split. And defeating Emma Moffatt must have been sweet since Moffatt beat Sweetland in a sprint finish in Edmonton in 2007. So a little bit of payback over her friend and training partner must have been nice. The men's race was a battle between mainly Aussies and Kiwis with Courtney Atkinson beating Kris Gemmell and Brad Kahlefeldt. But I want to see Gomez and Whitfield start their 2009 season too...

It's finally a huge week in the Ironman world. 4 separate events on 3 continents mean that the majority of big names are going to be competing this weekend. I'll break them down starting with the biggest 70.3 event in the United States with Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside. This race gets top billing due to its history (an Ironman or 70.3 has been held there for ~20 years), it's top-notch field, and the fact that I did the race last year. This year the men's field is full of top names, with returning champ Andy Potts back to battle Matt Reed (pretty fast dude), Richie Cunningham & Fraser Cartmell (70.3 guys) , David Thompson & Bjorn Andersson (uber-cyclists), and other big names like Michael Lovato, Rutger Beke, and Jordan Rapp. Add in some Canadian content with Trevor Wurtele and the 70.3 debut of Edmonton's Paul Tichelaar (Go Tich!) and this race could be epic. In a post-Olympic year, you will see a lot of Olympic triathletes stretch out to 70.3 races, and with Matt Reed and Tich you get speed guys who have to prove they can bike 90 km without a peloton to help out. Personally, i think both Reed and Tichelaar are strong cyclists and should both challenge for Top 5 spots on Saturday.

The women's race is also strong. Erika Csomor will be back to defend as well, but will be hard-pressed to hold off Mirinda Carfrae, Leanda Cave, or Sam Warriner. Canada has 7 pro women in the race, highlighted by Sara Gross, Heather Wurtele, and Calgary's Catherine Brown in her first pro race. I expect Wurtele to be top Canadian since the bike course can be really tough...

Another US 70.3 race takes place on Sunday in the inaugural 70.3 New Orleans. And to make a splash, the race has brought in big names this year. Chris McCormack (racing for the 3rd week in a row) will highlight the men's field but will be challenged by Chris Lieto, American short-course guys like Brian Fleischmann and Joe Umphenour, and Canadians Sean Bechtel and Brent McMahon (who has proven he can race any distance). I like Lieto to win over McMahon and McCormack...the women's race will be even more competitive, as Natasha Badmann is supposed to highlight a women's field featuring Kate Major, Joanna Zeiger (70.3 World Champ), Desiree Ficker, Catriona Morrison, Linsey Corbin, Yvonne Von Vlerken, and Heather Gollnick. Add in Canada's Lisa Bentley and you have an amazing field. I think that's 9 women who have been top 5 in Kona or at 70.3 worlds.

Of course, the woman who Bentley/Corbin/Von Vlerken/Badmann/Major are all chasing is Chrissie Wellington. And she is back for her first race of 2009 during Sunday's Ironman Australia. Wellington is going for her 6th straight Ironman win (Korea, Kona, Australia, Frankfurt, Kona again) to start her career. She's a ridiculous talent who will be pushed by 2006 Kona winner Michellie Jones, who is racing an Ironman event in her home country for the first time. Aussie Rebekah Keat will be trying to derail the Kona champs. The men's race will also feature a Kona champion in Tim Deboom, with last year's Oz winner Patrick Vernay back to defend. Add in Canadian Jonathan Caron and veterans like Mathias Hecht and Jason Shortis and the men's race should be fun to follow as well. Of course, Wellington and Vernay are my picks...

The last race this weekend will be in Nelson Mandela Bay where Ironman South Africa occurs for the 6th year in a row. Last year's winning couple of Stephen Bayliss and Bella Comerford Bayliss are back...but i think Marino Vanhoenacker might win the men's race this year. Bella won 5 Ironman races last year and I think she'll win again...

Phew....if you need a break right now, head over to the ITU's website and check out their excellent 20th anniversary video...some great names and wonderful finishes...

Okay, back to BikeY...two big marathons this weekend....Rotterdam (which calls itself the 6th most important marathon in the world even though the Marathon Masters includes only 5 races) is this weekend, and features two runners who ran 2:05 last year and the second-fastest half-marathoner in history (Kipsang, Kwambia, and Makau). This course is fast (3 WR have been set here) and will be worth watching if anyone can set another WR this year...maybe....also Paris marathon is this weekend, and while not a race for the super-elite (with Boston, London, and Rotterdam also in April), it is the 5th largest marathon in the world in terms of number of finishers (behind NYC, Berlin, London, and Chicago) with 28000+ finishers last year.

More running recaps...I touched on the World XC champs last week, and Kenya once again failed to win the top prize (senior men's race) which was won by an Ethiopian. Ethiopia also won both Junior races, so while Kenya won all the team classifications, they didn't have those winning performances they were hoping for. Tough to feel sorry for a country that had 10 athletes in the Top 5 in the 4 races....Canada did well too with our top finish being 37th in the Senior Women's race by Catherine Cormier. Edmonton's Chelsea Graham was 41st and top Canadian in the Junior Women race. Congrats to all...

Okay, finally to the cycling world. Sunday is the Tour of Flanders, which is the biggest race of the year for Belgium. Known for it's cobblestone hills (18 hills last year!) and length (260 km), it is probably Tom Boonen's race to lose. It means a lot to him, and he has won it twice before, although his teammate Stijn Devolder won last year. Add in big names like Cancellara, Hincapie, Haussler, and Pozzato, and you should have a good race in store tomorrow. You can watch it live on cyclingfans.com too! Canada's Dominique Rollin is waving the maple leaf tomorrow for Team Cervelo...

Also wanted to recap last week's Track Cycling Worlds, where Canada actually kicked some ass on Saturday and Sunday. In a new race called the Omnium, where riders compete in 5 events in one day (flying 200m time trial, scratch race, individual pursuit, points race, and 1 km time trial) and get points depending on their finish. Add em all up, and you get a Cycling Pentathlon champion. Edmonton's Tara Whitten lost the women's gold medal by one point on Saturday, and Whitehorse's Zach Bell surprised with another silver medal in the men's Omnium on Sunday. Awesome results for both of them.

Finally, a product worthy of product of the week status...the new Garmin 310XT is coming soon. 20 hour battery life, Mac compatible, waterproof, wireless data transfer...sweetness!

Okay, some fun things...April Fool's was this week, and lots of sites had some fun. Some of my favorites included letsrun.com, which published a great story on the IAAF having a White Pride Parade after the World XC races ("30th place is 2nd Non-African!"). Velonews.com published a story on the UCI banning sunglasses in races and another one saying Lance has decided to become a sprinter while Trek put out a press release that Lance's collarbone is being healed by a novel carbon prototype by Bontrager called CarbonClavicle...hilarious...even funnier when people forget it's April 1 and write letters or editorials about these stories...

Anyhow, that's it for now...see you Monday for a special doping issue....

Sweetness for Sweetland...

2009-03-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Okay okay, I know I said that no "big" ITU races happen until the World Championship Series starts in May, but today (tonight? tomorrow?- i always get confused with Australia time zones), Canada's Kirsten Sweetland won the ITU race in Mooloolaba. She actually beat a decent field, with Australia's Olympic bronze medallist Emma Moffatt in 2nd, with several other Olympians farther down the final standings.

Sweetland first burst onto the ITU scene in 2007, before an injury-plagued year in 2008. But it appears she's back and hopefully ready to take on Snowsill and Fernandes at the front of the ITU pack.

The whole story is here...

Lance's Fallout, the Worlds are now, and other tidbits...

2009-03-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Unless you've been living under a rock that doesn't have wireless access, you've probably heard that Lance crashed hard on Monday of this week. He broke his collarbone into 4 pieces, and put his immediate future into question. He is now back in Austin, had surgery on Wednesday ( you can see the 12 screws that are holding his collarbone together below), and is hoping to be back on the bike early next week. He probably won't be back into a bike race until late-April at the earliest, and with the Giro D'Italia starting on May 9th, there has been consideration discussion as to whether Lance would be ready to compete. All indications from Team Astana and Lance are pretty optimistic that Lance will be healthy enough to start the Giro. Whether or not he is in good enough shape to be "Lance" is another question.

Personally, I think that Lance will be using this as yet another rallying point. He has always stated that the Tour is his first priority this year, so if he decides to use the Giro as a 3-week training camp to get himself into race shape. Lance loves adversity and people telling him he can't do something. Surprisingly, Lance has never broken his collarbone in 17 years of bike racing. That underlines how his strategy of riding in the front of the peloton surrounded by his teammates has been so successful over the years. Anyhow, Lance will be back...you can see his post-operation video statement here...

Tons of cycling going on around the world. First off, Mark Cavendish did what many didn't think possible when he pulled out a sprint victory in last weekend's Milan-San Remo race. After almost 300 km and a few tricky hills in the last hour, Cavendish pulled it out at the line from Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler. The video below shows the action and the awesome acceleration of Cavendish. He is the cyclist to beat in any sprint finish today!

The other big cycling event this week was the Castilla Y Leon, which was the race in which Lance broke his collarbone on Monday. The race did have lots of big names, and had been won in back-to-back years by Alberto Contador. This year was supposed to be a battle between Lance and Alberto, but Lance's absence precluded any team issues. However, Contador was beaten by his other American teammate, Levi Leipheimer during Tuesday's time trial. Contador then helped protect Levi's lead during the last 3 stages of the race, and today the 5-day race ended with a Levi overall victory. Contador finished 2nd, while Garmin's Dave Zabriskie ended up 3rd. The race was essentially decided during the time trial as those 3 guys finished 1-2-3 in the time trial. Alejandro Valverde won two stages this week that ended with uphill sprint finishes but finished only 9th overall.

One last cycling note...American 18-year old Taylor Phinney won the world title in Individual Pursuit at the World Indoor Track Championships yesterday. This kid is unbelievable and could become an indoor cycling superstar while getting better on the outdoor circuit as well. As I have discussed before, both of his parents won Olympics medals in cycling in the 1984 Olympics, so an Olympic gold is 2012 is still Taylor's main priority. But since his father won a stage at the Tour de France as well, hopefully Taylor can get outside and become the next great American road cyclist when Lance-Levi-Tyler-Floyd-Zabriskie all retire in the next couple of years...Canadians also are competing in these World Championships, with Tara Whitten finishing 7th in the Women's Individual Pursuit and Zach Bell finishing 9th in the Men's Point Race. I have no idea what all these events actually include but I promise to try and figure it out over the next year or so...there are still lots of events this weekend (Keirin, Omnium, Madison, Time Trials, etc) and if anything exciting happens, I'll let you know next week...

Triathlon - not much to report on yet. The 70.3 series got started last week when Craig Alexander ran a ridiculous 1:12:46 to beat Chris McCormack by 3 minutes in Ironman 70.3 Malaysia. Wow. The women's race was won by Great Britain's Jodie Swallow in 4:19. She won the race by 11 minutes! Yet another crazy fast Brit. Hmmm....they seem to have this triathlon thing mastered....Wellington, Swallow, Dibens, Cave, Avil, Tucker - one of these week's I will have to look into Great Britain's Triathlon factory and figure out their secrets...

Next week the triathlon season really kicks off in the US with Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside and Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. I will preview both of them next week...

What else? Oh yeah...I forgot to mention an uber-fast Canadian last week. At the big half-marathon in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago (the one that Haile was trying to run a world record but got beaten at the line), Regina native Simon Bairu finished 10th overall with a 1:03:10 half marathon. Very fast...I have no idea when Bairu will attempt the marathon distance for the first time, but he now holds the fastest half-marathon time for a Canadian in at least the last 5 years, and he has a decent chance at breaking Jerome Drayton's 1975 Canadian marathon record of 2:10:09...

More running news as the World XC Championships are being held this weekend in Jordan. Canada has sent 21 athletes (including Chantell Widney and Chelse Graham of Edmonton!) to compete in the 4 events (senior men's/women's, junior men's/women's) to be held tomorrow. Remarkably, the Kenyans have not won the senior men's race since 1999 and are trying to "sweep the board" during Saturday's races. Good luck to all the Canadians...and to Bikey fave Steph Twell from Great Britain!

I also found a fun race for 2010...check out this ESPN story on the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Run 4 miles and eat 12 donuts and try to get it done in one hour. The video below is a promo video done by the race organizers but for comic relief, check out the ESPN video that I can't embed but you can find it here! Classic...

See you next week...

Bad news Bikey fans!

2009-03-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Lance Armstrong has crashed today in Spain in the first stage of the Castilla Y Leon. And he is in an ambulance, so his first race with teammate Alberto Contador appears to be for naught.

Edit: It is now confirmed that Lance has broken his collarbone and is out of action "indefinitely". His participation in the Giro that starts May 9th is up in the air.