Before the season’s interruption, Guillaume Boivin was the busiest WorldTour rider
Only one male pro had more race days than Israel Start-Up Nation's Canadian
Although the UCI recently stated that the road cycling season could be extended into November, it was mild comfort to a world increasingly socially distanced, tense and hungry for good news. With 15 WorldTour events cancelled–June’s Critérium du Dauphiné is the next scheduled race–it is time, perhaps, to take stock of what happened in those heady, carefree days of January and February before the Great COVID-19 Recess.
With this home confinement, most pro cyclist will start to understand part of the difficulties of becoming a pro cyclist when you’re from Canada ? #Quarantine
— Guillaume Boivin (@Guillaumeboivin) March 18, 2020
What might stand out for Canadians, besides the non-Canadian fact that none of the prongs of Jumbo-Visma’s Trident–Tom Dumoulin, Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk–have started a race this season, is that Guillaume Boivin has the most days raced for a WorldTour rider at 23.
The only male pro who has more days raced is Serbian rider Dušan Rajović of ProTour team Nippo Delko One Provence with 24.
Boivin would have stopped with 27 if he had finished Paris-Nice. But a crash on Stage 3 made rolling the next day’s time trial impossible.
We regretfully announce that our Canadian ?? tough man @Guillaumeboivin is out of #ParisNice. G was involved in a nasty crash yesterday. Still suffering from headaches this morning, the decision was made to take him out of the race. Next: pic.twitter.com/EhQJ2GZhi9
— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@YallaIsraelSUN) March 11, 2020
One of three Canadians at Israel Start-Up Nation, Boivin started his season in Oceania, where he raced 13 days in the Santos Tour Down Under, Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Race Torquay. Ten days after the last stage in Australia, he started the five-stage Volta ao Algarve in Portugal. Boivin didn’t finish Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but placed in 47th in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne before the Race to the Sun in France.
Boivin started 64 days of racing in 2019 and 82 in 2018.
