Dwayne1

I must pay more attention. Going through the final standings I found out a fellow Canadian finished 47th! Way to go Ryder Hesjedal!! I didnt even know there was a Canuck in the race...LOL I'll be watching for him at the Olympics!

BananaTugger

He isn't the next Steve Bauer, but he is a great rider all the same.

jefferee

Thought for sure this was going to be about Cervelo--I thought that they were the only Canadian content in the TdF.

crash66

If you are Dwayne DeRosario, you rock man!

Dwayne1

Sorry dude not me, never played soccer, just a shlep who gets up everyday and goes to work and rides my bike, but nice to share my name with him!

Barnaby

I don't consider myself an ultra-natiionalist, but Canada is just pathetic in the present tense with respect to cycling and athletics in general. What we need is an injection of Jocelyn Lovell hormone. Lovell was a ferocious competitor until being mowed over by a dump truck-I think the year was 1983. He always reminded me of the swimmer Victor Davis who had the same take-no-prisoners attitude to his competitors. Ironically Davis as well died from a car impact (it was after a night at a bar, and the assailant was believed to be someone that he had a dispute with in the bar earlier.) Currently I was reading about the demise of Brian Budd, the Canadian who won the ABC Superstars cometition for 3 years running until ABC passed the Brian Budd rule that prohibited a competitor from competing after a third win. Budd was once challenged to run up 30 flights of stairs in under 8 minutes to win a $1000 wager. Budd said he could do it in under 3. He did it in 2:38. Where is the reference to Alex Stieda, the first North American (before the great Davis Phinney) to ever lead the TDF? Where are the Steve Bauers and the Gord Singleton's and Curt Harnett's? I know we had Dave Barry lately in the TDF, but outside of the Ryder reference above, Canada is asleep at the wheel and sucks badly as a nation as far as our athletic prowess, especially in cycling. We need a revival of the type of personality epitomised by Torchy Peden of the '20's, with the attitude of Jocely Lovell who wanted nothing more than to "break some legs" ( of his competitors of course.)

Dwayne1

We are trying!
https://www.symmetricscycling.com/

BananaTugger

I don't know where you have been for the last 10 years, but Svein Tuft is about as kick ass as they come.

Prodigy4299

Yeah, I dunno how far they've gone, but I know that Symmetrics is trying to be the first all-Canadian team at the TdF in the next few years. Go Svein (and Zach and Cam and Andrew,...)

merlinextraligh

When you have to play the Superstars card, you really are stretching.

I hear there are some pretty good curlers up there too.

Little Darwin

I assume you must be ignoring hockey players here...

marin1

Just for the record Symetrics is done at the end of this year unless they find a new sponsor.

Barnaby

I'm making the assumption that the comment was depracating towards The Superstars competition by putting it in the same category as curling. I'll leave it to others to defend curling, although there is much to be said for it, most would agree that it is largely non-athletic. But Budgie Budd should not be disregarded by winning the Superstars event for 3 years in a row. The event itself had a great format in my opinion. It answers the question that always has popped up, namely "cross disciplines, who is the fittest athlete." The ironman tries to address this question, as does the decalthon at the Olympics. It is natural to wonder who would win if the athlete were taken out of the comfortable waters of their own discipline and were forced to compete in areas out of their norm. All single sport events are to some degree artificial; there is nothing in life to mimic an event that requries something like 20 days of intense effort in 21 days on a 16 pound bike while wearing plastic clothing. The Superstar competition, was aired Friday nights and was seen and very popular in Britian as well as North America. I just viewed the video of Budd coming from behind to win the obstacle course event one year, and it was very exciting to say the least. It is much cheaper for the networks to air programs like Celebrity Rehab, and cator to the publics appetite for voyeurism. These type of competitions were much more popular in the later 1800's and early 1900's. They captured the imagination of the public. Torchy Peden's victories in the team six-day bicycle team competitions helped establish him as one of the top athletes of his day, so this type of competition should not be seen only as a modern contrivance.

Brian Budd was a competitive soccer player in both North America and Europe. He competed in the World Cup. He started as a competitive swimmer, and trained in figure skating. The spirit that he epitomised that I find lacking today, and that was so evident in Lovell and Davis was uber-competitiveness, and a ferocious desire to compete and win. Lance had it in spades, and it is interesting to note Lance's history in Triathlons and his New York City marathon entries as a testament to something other than a single-minded dedication to cycling.

I guess what I was attempting to do was to voice displeasure at what I perceive as the vacuousness of Canadian sport compared to the eighties, especially in cycling. The Aussies have the more condusive climate for all-year training in cycling, but they are getting way ahead of us in all respects in this sport. It wasn't always this way. Our tight-a**ed business comunity should get the wallets out and follow through on some hard-core support. As a public, for the love of Christ, we should stop this over- reliance on government to nanny us from cradle to grave.

merlinextraligh

Dude, they road Sears Free Spirits around a running track wearing tennis shoes.

It was made for TV silliness.

Barnaby

I guess it would not appeal to the cycling purists today. Certainly the things they wore, the fact that they were not "clipped in" would be derided. That notwithstanding, I know that if someone with the physical attributes of a Greg Pruitt etc. were ahead of him in the obstacle course or rowing or cycling on a running track with goofy shoes, that he would cough up a lung to win. With respect to "silliness"-it is in the eyes of the beholder, and being a practiacl joker, Budgie would be the first one to appreciate it. In contrast one does not have to look far to see the "seriousness" of some poseur on a 3K. bike, with more unfunded advertising on every tube, deep rim, and every available surface of his less than utopian lycrad body getting passed on a hill by a modern day Budgie on a Free Spirit with the chain falling off.