Canadians in Europe
Andrew talks about Canadians succeeding in races across the world and the need for the cycling community at large to get behind them.
One of the reasons I decided to contribute to a blog was to try and raise awareness amongst the broader cycling community about Canadians racing professionally overseas. There is a real disconnect between our professional sport and the general cycling community: many people don’t even know that Canadians are performing brilliantly over in Europe!
There has been a real progression in results on the men’s side over the years. In 2007 Symmetrics, a Canadian team based in BC of which I was a part, won the UCI team classification for the Americas Tour. Svein Tuft, a member of the team, won the individual classification that year as well. These were achievements that were unheard of in Canadian cycling at the time – and yet they got little in the way of press.
Now we have Team SpiderTech p/b C10 racing a full European campaign, and within that team are a number of talented young riders. Last year David Boily finished 2nd at the Tour de l’Avenir (Tour of the Future), the Tour de France for young riders. 2nd! losing the jersey on the last day by only seconds. Where was the press coverage of such an incredible performance? A major part of the 10 days defense of that jersey? Another young SpiderTech rider Hugo Houle, our current U23 National Champ. Canada is bubbling with talent.
And this year we have seen the return to form of Guillaume Boivin, bronze medalist at the U23 Worlds in 2010 who struggled last year with a bum knee. Last week he was second in a semi-classic in Holland, and then this week sprinted to 4th against some of the best sprinters in the world while racing in Belgium. All this on top of his great performances at the Tour of the Med (see photo).
Beyond SpiderTech there are more Canadians overseas on the best teams in the world:
- Svein Tuft and Christian Meier are racing with one of the new super-teams GreenEdge. Svein has been getting kudos for the impressive efforts he has been putting out in support of his teammates.
- Dominique Rollin is racing with FDJ-BigMat out of France. Dominique is a constant presence in the classics, a powerhouse.
- Michael Barry with Team Sky out of the UK. Michael broke his elbow and femur at the Tour of Qatar, one of the opening races of the season, but is well on the way to racing again. He will be a contender for an Olympic spot having finished 7th in the Beijing road race.
- David Veilleux races with Europcar. Last year David was in the major break-away at Paris-Roubaix, the Queen of the classics that passes through many cobbled sections of road. Just getting in that break-away was impressive, but then he was there at the finish with a strong attacking ride.
- Ryder Hesjedal with Garmin-Barracuda was 7th at the Tour de France in 2010. 7th! and that with an attacking ride that pitted him against the favourites.
All that and I’ve only touched on the men’s road side of the sport. On the women’s side we have Catherine Pendrel who is the current World Mountain Bike Champion. World Champion! Emily Batty was 2nd in the opening mountain bike World Cup of the season, Pendrel was 3rd. Clara Hughes has come back to the sport to have another shot at the Olympics. Canada recently won two silver medals at the Pan Am Championships with Rhae Shaw in the time trial and Leah Kirchmann in a photo finish in the road race. And the women’s national team is enroute to the Tour of Flanders in Europe for the beginning of a five-week European race schedule.
These are all amazing performances and impressive athletes. Cycling is becoming a popular sport with a wide range of participants. Let’s start connecting the dots between great Canadian professional cyclists and the Canadian cycling community at large so that we can keep the momentum in the sport moving forward. Everyone likes it when they have the home crowd cheering for them, time to give these athletes our support.
With input from Denise Kelly.
Recently retired from professional cycling, Andrew Randell has taken up a management/rider development role with the Jet Fuel/La Bicicletta team for 2012 and opened up his coaching services to the public. Reach him at arcoaching@gmail.com.
