The first Canadian to win one of the Grand Tours (Tour of France, Italy & Spain), Ryder Hesjedal gained over 40 seconds on the final time trial to win the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy).
Come on Ryder for the Tour de France, and the Olympics.
Pink on guys doesn’t usually work. Oh sure some metro-sexual carrying a Starbucks mug with the tea bag string sticking out the side might get away with wearing a pink shirt to go with his suit and tie. It can be done with minimal mocking – but there will be mocking. There is, however, one Canadian boy who looks mighty good in pink.
Going into stage 19 of the 21 stage Giro d’Italia bicycle race, Canadian Ryder Hesjedal is riding 2nd place, having worn the Maglia Rosa – Pink Jersey – as the race leader for 3 days. With todays hard mountain stage ongoing as of this writing, and another tough day in the mountains tomorrow the job for Hesjedal is survive the mountains for a chance to win on the individual time trials Sunday morning. How likely is this? Current leader Joaquin Rodriguez had this to say after Wednesdays stage (note: english is not Spaniard Rodriquez first language):
I think Ryder Hesjedal is the great favourite. Today he was not able to lose any seconds and if the gap stays like this… I won’t have any chance against him in the Milan individual time trial. So, we have to attack him and make him drop, otherwise he will win this competition.
Make no mistake of the significance of this. A Canadian has never won the Giro and, in fact, Hesjedal is the first Canadian to wear the Maglia Rosa in it’s 95 year history. And Hesjedal’s performance at the Giro makes him a serious contender for the Tour de France and to medal at the Olympics in London this summer.
The Gyro d’Italia can be watched via live stream, starting about 7:30 in the mornings. Don’t miss Sunday when a Canadian stands to make history as the first Canadian man to wear pink and not deserve mockery.
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Note: Hesjedal finished second in today’s stage, 13 seconds ahead of third place Rodriguez. With 2 stages to go, and Hesjedal a superior time trial rider, he only has 17 seconds to make up.
One of my favourite summer rites is watching the Tour de France.
A mammoth ride of somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,200 miles over three weeks, these guys are in the saddle for 92 hours or more over that time. The ride takes them up the Alps and the Pyrenees. The sheer effort required to get up some of the mountain passes is exhausting to watch. The next day, they get up and do it again.
Or, the next day may be flat, and they need to push for speed, hoping the legs have some strength in them, and haven’t turned to Jello overnight (it happens).
A single crash, as happened to Lance Armstrong this year, can wipe out your Tour. One bad stage (daily race) and the podium is out of the question.
This years Tour had a real edge, with winner Alberto Contador infamously taking advantage of Andy Schleck’s broken chain last week. It was bad cycling etiquette, but more importantly Contador went into the last day leading by the exact time that Schleck lost to Contador on that day. One and two would have been up for grabs on the final, possibly a photo finish after 3,600km.
The Tour de France is, it must be said, a truly incredible athletic endeavour. Every one of these guys an incredible athlete. To win is astounding, to finish the damn thing a true accomplishment.
To finish seventh? Ask Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. Each team has a goto guy, who is expected to compete. Everyone else’s job is support. For Garmin-Transitions, the go to guy was Christian Vande Velde (*pronounced Vanda-Velt). But Vande Velde broke his ribs in stage two, and the Garmin-Transitions ball fell to Hesjedal. Hesjedal, from Victoria, rode one hell of a race, gaining ground in the last days and finishing seventh, 10 minutes and 15 seconds behind Contador.
So Ryder, what’s it like to finish seventh:
Dreams do come true…
It will keep sinking in…
You could be in the form of your life and still not achieve a top 10 in the Tour de France. I was seventh in the Tour. Nobody will be able to take that away from me. I’ll see what I can do from here. I’m looking for many years yet to come of great racing. I’ll test the limits to see what I can do. Who knows what can happen now? I know now I am capable of riding in the front of any race.
Yea, seventh is a big deal.
Congratulations Ryder, job well done.
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