Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria will not repeat as the Giro d’Italia champion.
On Friday, Hesjedal made the decision to pull out of the race after falling to 37th place. Hesjedal was 183rd in Thursday’s stage.
It seems that Hesjedal is simply not feeling well. He cited “a deteriorating physical decision”, according to the Canadian Press, as the major reason why he decided to pull out of this marathon cycling race.
Hesjedal actually dropped 34 places in only one week as he was third last week.
Another top cyclist who has pulled out is Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain because of a chest infection. Wiggins is the 2012 Olympic Gold medallist in the time trial and is the 2010 Tour de France champion. Wiggins also has great success in track cycling as he won a Gold medal in the team pursuit at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and won the Gold medal in the individual pursuit at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The 2012 Paralympic Games in London started today with the opening ceremonies.
Between now and September 9, more than a dozen Alberta natives will be representing Canada at the most prestigious international sports event for athletes with a disability.
Archer Kevin Evans of Calgary, might have the best chance of winning a medal. He is the 2007 and 2009 world champion.
Two cyclists meanwhile will also be in definite medal contention. Jaye Milley of Calgary is a World Cup champion and Brayden McDougall of Calgary has finished fourth three times at world championships.
Lance Armstrong will no longer be in the Tour de France record books.
According to ESPN, Armstrong will be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles from 1999-2005 on Friday. Considered one of the top American athletes of the 20th century, Armstrong will now be in the same category as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire instead of Michael Jordan and Jack Nicklaus.
Armstrong also received a lifetime ban in cycling from the United States Anti-Doping Agency and can no longer participate as an athlete, coach or owner in a sport that uses the USADA code. The International Cycling Union has an opportunity to appeal USADA’s decision, but are unlikely to do so because Armstrong is not planning to take the charges against him to arbitration.
Heading into day eight of the 2012 Olympic Games in London Saturday, there were two Edmonton-based athletes I was keeping an eye on– cyclist Tara Whitten and triathlete Paula Findlay.
Their results were on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Whitten, who was born in Toronto and raised in Edmonton, won Olympic bronze in the team cycling pursuit with Jasmin Glaesser of Coquitlam, British Columbia and Gillian Carleton of Scarborough, Ontario. They had a solid semi-final in losing to eventual Gold medal winning Great Britain, but had a fantastic performance in delivering a huge upset to beat Australia for a medal.
For triathlete Paula Findlay, there were a lot of question marks if she would even participate in the Olympic race, having suffered significant injuries to her hip a year ago. She participated, but the five-time World Cup champion over the last two years finished last in her first competitive race in over a year.
Calgary native Monique Sullivan (formerly featured in Prospect Magazine) finished a very respectable sixth in the women’s keirin cycling final at the 2012 Olympic Games in London Friday.
Sullivan was in a remarkable Olympic final that included Australia’s Anna Meares (2004 Olympic Gold medallist in the 500m time trial), France’s Clara Sanchez (two-time World Champion in 2004 and 2005), Great Britain’s Victoria Pendleton (2008 Olympic sprint champion), China’s Guo Shuang, and Hong Kong’s Wai Sze Lee.
Pendleton won Gold, with Guo winning Silver and Lee winning Bronze in the race.
Coached by former three-time Pan American Games Gold medallist Tanya Dubnicoff of Winnipeg, Sullivan struggled in her first heat this morning, only going fifth fastest in heat one and was sent to the repechage.
In the first round, Sullivan improved to third place and qualified for the second round.
It was the second round where Sullivan performed at her mighty best. She finished in second place to advance to the Olympic final, only behind Meares.
The Chinese have made major strides in the sport of swimming. That wasn’t more evident than on day one of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Shiwen Ye, who is only 16 years of age, won the Olympic Gold medal in the women’s 400m individual medley in World Record time of 4:28.43. Meanwhile in the men’s 400m freestyle, Sun Yang won a Gold medal.
China leads the medal standings with six medals overall, one more medal than Italy and the United States.
In Saturday’s other high profile event, Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov, at the age of 38, surprised many by winning Olympic Gold in the men’s cycling road race.
Team Canada’s Olympic roster is set and there are 15 representing the province of Alberta out of the 264 athletes representing our nation.
Does that total seem rather low to you? That is only 5.7% of the total athletes representing Canada are Albertan. Should we be sending more? Possibly, but for now let’s celebrate the Albertans who are going.
Out of the 15, seven are from Calgary.
Kayaker Mark de Jonge has probably the best chance to medal. He finished in sixth place at the 2011 World Championships in the men’s 200m. De Jong will be joined by gymnast Nathan Gafuik, badminton player Grace Gao, track athlete Akeem Haynes, cyclist Monique Sullivan, swimmer Jillian Tyler (women’s 100m breaststroke), and Michael Tayler in kayaking slalom.
Alberto Contador (Felix Arellano, Wikimedia Commons)
The image of professional cycling continues to get worse.
On Monday, the International Cycling Union (UCI) banned one of the top cyclists in the world for two years.
Spain’s Alberto Contador has also been stripped of his 2010 Tour de France Championship for testing positive for clenbuterol in July, 2010. Contador will still be allowed to keep his 2007 and 2009 Tour de France victories.
Contador blamed the positive test on contaminated meat he had consumed.
The new winner of the 2010 Tour de France is Andy Schleck of Luxembourg. Cadel Evans of Australia was the 2011 Tour de France Champion.
According to the Associated Press, the ruling came three days after American great Lance Armstrong was cleared for taking illegal substances. Armstrong was cleared by the United States federal authorities after they dropped an investigation into doping involving his teams.
The World Anti-Doping Agency meanwhile praised the Court of Arbitration for Sport for suspending Contador and continues to support the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s continued investigation of Armstrong.
On May 22, in the most interesting televised interview of the year, cyclist Tyler Hamilton told 60 minutes that the International Cycling Union helped Lance Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, hide a positive test at the 2001 Tour de Suisse.
Armstrong, who has denied ever taking illegal substances, claims he has passed every drug test he has ever taken, and his lawyers have demanded an on-air apology.
But I don’t think 60 Minutes needs to apologize because I believe their report was extremely well done.
The report does however, put Armstrong in a significantly negative light.
In a recent interview for this quarter’s Prospect Magazine, I had a chance to interview Monique Sullivan, a cyclist and newly minted medal winner at the Commonwealth Games in Dehli, India. This week Sullivan earned a bronze medal in the women’s team sprint event and I figured this is as good a time as any to celebrate that by posting the video of our interview.
Read the Montreal Gazette article and then watch the interview, then go pick up the most recent issue of Prospect Magazine and read the profile on Sullivan inside.
Lot’s more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————>
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