What if G7 leaders competed in the race their summit cancelled?
The meeting in the Charlevoix region lead to the cancellation of the four-stage Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay. We speculate on what would happen if Trudeau, Trump, Macron and the other leaders clipped in for that race.
After the G7 economic summit forced the cancellation of the 2018 edition of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay for security reasons, we started to wonder how the world leaders would fair against one-another in another setting than diplomatic talks.
Since they were responsible for forcing a well-established UCI race off the calendar, we thought it would only be fair if the world leaders had to go up against one another in a bike race to calm their competitive egos before they get down to business.
The competitors are Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, United Kingdoms Prime Minister Theresa May and U.S. President Donald Trump.
After careful analysis, here are how the seven world leaders stacked up against one another in the four-stage race:
1) Justin Trudeau (Canada)
An avid runner and recreational cyclist, Justin Trudeau would win the race overall and take at least one stage win. Trudeau has been pictured numerous times on the bike, most recently in Gatineau Park perhaps doing some secret training with his wife Sophie ahead of the G7 meetings. The only knock on his chances are if he’s too polite and he lets the next leader on this list take the win. Or if he gets distracted taking selfies with spectators.
2) Emanuel Macron (France)
The French President would be Trudeau’s stiffest competition on the bike. As the two also seem to get along quite well, we would expect them to breakaway together working to distance the other world leaders who would be too busy squabbling to form a cohesive chase. At last years Tour de France, Macron made an appearance on Stage 17. During his visit to the Tour he exchanged words with Chris Froome, Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil. Macron would win the king of the mountains classification and take a stage win in a bike race against his fellow world leaders.
3) Giuseppe Conte (Italy)
The new Italian Prime Minister has surely been exposed to cycling but due to his recent rise to the head of the Italian government, we’d be questioning his form ahead of the G7 bike race. That wouldn’t deter him from riding aggressively and hoping the other leaders fail to bring him back. With that in mind, we predict Cote to win a stage in a solo breakaway showing the daring to risk it all many of his fellow compatriots have in the past bike races.
4) Angela Merkel (Germany)
In June 2013, Merkel was at the opening of Eurobike where she showed a savvy curiosity for the tools of the trade suggesting to us that she may have more experience on a bike than many of the other world leaders at the G7 summit. Merkel, as the leader of Europe’s biggest economy would be a force in this race. We’d suggest she would even be in a position to sprint to victory gaining inspiration by the exploits of her compatriots like Marcel Kittel, and track sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Christina Vogel.
5) Shinzō Abe (Japan)
Abe-san, Prime Minister of Japan, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Unoura-san, President and CEO of NTT at the CeBIT expo this week pic.twitter.com/gBx5CNO7Nm
— Marco Cantamessi (@mcantamessi) March 23, 2017
At last years CeBit expo that is a European business festival celebrating innovation and digitization, Shinzō Abe and Merkel were pictured admiring a Dimension Data individual time trial bike. The Two leaders may have been more focused on discussions of innovative businesses in both of their countries but perhaps they also chatted a bit about bikes.
6) Theresa May (Great Britain)
After the UK Parliamentary Investigation into British Cycling and Team Sky, Theresa May was advised by her parliament to not participate in the Saguenay bike race. The other world leaders agreed, especially due to the uncertainty around Great Britain’s Brexit process. Despite the wishes of the other world leaders, May never-the-less raced.
7) Donald Trump (United States)
There was a time when Donald Trump owned a bike race he thought he could build into a legitimate rival to the Tour de France. The Tour de Trump was a short-lived endeavour and now Trump’s exposure to the sport is being flipped off by cyclists when his motorcade rolls by. Trump would fair no better than his race against the other leaders.
Final Classification winners
Overall winner – Justin Trudeau (Canada)
Points leader – Angela Merkel (Germany)
KOM – Emmanuel Macron (France)
