Tag: tour de france

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Sports

What can we expect from this year’s Tour de France?

Favourites and Canadians to watch at this year’s Tour de France

With the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) 2021 World Tour now underway, many are wondering who will have the chance of bringing the famous Tour de France yellow jersey home. Can the Ineos Grenadiers come back from the dead as they try to restore their name and reputation, and will there be any Canadian riders competing?

Race favourites

All eyes are on the single greatest race of the calendar, the Tour de France (TDF). Out of the three grand tours, the TDF is the oldest and most prestigious cycling competition in the world. Last year, the young Slovene Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) surprisingly won the French Grand Tour by beating Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) on the last time trial of the race.

This year, though, competition should shift up a few gears as many racers who were absent last year are expected to make a comeback. Among those competitors are Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation), who won the TDF four times during his days with the former Team Sky, but missed last year’s edition due to a severe injury.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), who has never competed on the biggest road cycling stage, is expected to make his TDF debut in 2021. Van der Poel is a four-time cyclocross world champion and started 2021 with an impressive first place at Strade Bianche. Time will tell if he will be able to apply the skills he has learned in the mud to road.

Roglič is one of the main candidates battling for the yellow jersey. Last year, he won the Vuelta a España and finished second in the TDF. He is expected to give absolutely everything to win the title, as this will be his fourth time at the event.

Geraint Thomas is expected to lead the Ineos Grenadiers. He already won the Tour in 2018 and finished second in 2019. He will hope to bring his team back on top after a very difficult tour in 2020.

The end of the Ineos Grenadiers’ outrageous domination

Ineos Grenadiers was founded in 2010 by British Cycling, first called Team Sky, then Team Ineos, before finally becoming Ineos Grenadiers. The team was founded to “produc[e] the first British winner of the Tour de France.” It took them only two years to do so, and they repeated the accomplishment seven times in 11 years.

In 2019, the English industrialist and billionaire Jim Ratcliffe bought Team Sky and renamed it after his chemical firm, Ineos. Ratcliffe bought the richest and the most prestigious team on the circuit, which, at the time, was led by Froome. At the time of the transaction, the team had won six of the last seven TDF. Those years were dominated by Froome, who seemed to fly up French mountains. According to The Hustle, Ratcliffe has invested approximately US $47 million every year in his victorious team. When you realize that World Tour teams have an average $20 million yearly budget, you understand why Ineos has dominated Grand Tours for the last few years. Those numbers bring not only huge possibilities but also huge pressure on cyclists and trainers to always win.

At the end of last year’s TDF, when Ineos’ race leader Richard Carapaz finished 13th, the team faced a lot of criticism. This year, there is a huge amount of pressure on the team’s riders to perform at the highest level and put a cross on last year’s failure. As competition from other teams increases, the British formation has to reinvent itself to go back to its glory days.

Canadian cyclists in the competition

Two of Canada’s greatest road cyclists, Hugo Houle (Astana-Premier Tech) and Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), are expected to be on the starting line on June 26.

Last year, Houle, who was born and raised in a small village just outside Drummondville, Quebec, was the only Canadian on the tour. His team director has not yet confirmed his presence at the competition, but based on his excellent results last year, where he finished 47th, he is very likely to be on the starting line this summer.

Last year, Woods left his old teammates from the newly-named EF Education-Nippo and joined new, promising formation Israel Start-Up Nation. The 2021 TDF will be Woods’ second appearance at the race.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

Categories
Opinions

The road from hero to zero

Lance Armstrong / Image via Flickr
Lance Armstrong / Image via Flickr

What do athletes Tiger Woods, Michael Vick and Mike Tyson have in common? Well, they were all the kings of their games; golf, football and boxing, respectively. Then, as is common when dubbed a ‘celebrity,’ a scandal erupts. Their once top-notch reputations have been broken to pieces.

Now, Lance Armstrong has joined this list.

It makes me sad to see such a pillar of the sports world brought down to his knees. He was once an inspiration to all cyclists and athletes alike. An inspiration to the millions suffering from cancer, watching him day after day recover from his sickness and creating the company Livestrong, that offers free services to help anyone suffering from cancer. After fighting cancer he went on to win one of the most prestigious cycling tournaments, the Tour De France, seven times.

The drama started months ago when he was first accused of using performance-enhancing drugs during his long career, something he was quick to deny. In the meantime, however, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency had accused Armstrong of leading “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” They had testimonies from his former teammates, accusing him of using steroids, the blood booster EPO and blood transfusions.

It was all downhill from there for Armstrong. He was stripped of his Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005, stripped of his bronze medal in the Sydney Olympic games in 2000 and was banned from cycling competitively. He also stepped down as chairman of Livestrong. For the U.S. Anti-doping Agency, this closes “one of the most sordid chapters in sports history,” as they wrote in their 200-page report detailing Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs.

Surprisingly, this isn’t what has most people utterly furious at Armstrong. Many were still ready to support him, arguing that he was still an exceptional human being, overcoming cancer and starting a foundation that helps cancer patients. Although this part of his reputation remains somewhat intact, he lost a large amount of credibility after finally admitting to using performance enhancing drugs in an exclusive interview with Oprah.

Come on, Lance. After denying it for so long, you finally come out and admit it, after we all knew it was true, on an interview with Oprah? Before this, most of us were mad at Armstrong. Now, we’re all extremely disappointed.

Livestrong issued this statement after that interview aired: “We at the Livestrong Foundation are disappointed by the news that Lance Armstrong misled people during and after his cycling career, including us.” This interview was nothing more than a plea, a last act to try and save his name and it completely backfired—most people saying that it was the worst acting they had ever seen.

“It kind of reminded me of Tiger Woods coming clean,” said Scott Allison to the Los Angeles Times, a psychology professor at the University of Richmond who has studied fallen heroes in American society. “For people like Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong, it’s so foreign to admit wrongdoing that they are out of their element … It can come across as robotic.”

Lance Armstrong had achieved a lot, there’s no doubt about it. He was one of the greatest athletes of all time, an inspiration to sports enthusiasts and a great human being. There’s no doubt in my mind that he could have achieved greatness without the use of performance enhancing drugs.

In the next few weeks, we hope to see some light shed on the cycling world to determine how deep this drug use goes in the sport and if the cycling system is as corrupt as some people have called it since Armstrong’s fall.

Categories
Student Life

My run with Lance Armstrong

Photo via PoweriPics on Flickr
Photo via PoweriPics on Flickr

Lance Armstrong was in town last week to speak at the World Cancer Congress, when out of the blue, he decided to invite the whole Island to join him for a run on Wednesday evening. When I heard of Armstrong’s invitation on Twitter, my first thought as a journalism student was to bring my camera and recorder.

I was very gung ho at the notion considering he’s recently been all over the news. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency had just banned Armstrong from further competition and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles due to allegations of using performance-enhancing drugs. It was heavy stuff.

It was only as I was leaving for the park that I realized hauling my equipment would keep me from actually running. How often would I get the chance to do my cardio work- out with the most famous cyclist in the world? So I left my gear at home and told myself, ‘don’t worry about the story. Just run.’

The congregation waiting for Armstrong at the foot of the George-Étienne Cartier monument was impressive. By 6 p.m., hundreds of people in various states of readiness were shuffling about.

Finally, the man of the hour made his way through the throng and hopped on a bench. He quickly greeted the crowd before taking off up the gravel path, flanked by what seemed like every runner in Montreal.

I followed. It was an odd feeling knowing somewhere in the crowd before me was a world-class athlete setting the pace and I was keeping up. I was going to keep step with this paragon of fitness and live to tell the tale!

Yeah right!

I’d been running a few times a week all summer, so I was by no means unfit. Yet despite my best efforts, after about half-an-hour, I found myself slowing down and had to reason with myself. Don’t worry about keeping up with the world-class athlete. Keep your own pace. Just run.

We were already near the top, and most of the trail was downhill from there. I took my time and tried to appreciate the scenery around me. Everything was beautiful up there, and I don’t just mean the foliage. A run like that attracted a lot of very fit people. My social survival instincts kicked in. I thought to myself, “Whatever you do, try to look as good as them. Be impressive!”

Again: Yeah right.

I was a mess—a scraggly- haired, red-faced, sweaty mess. I quickly silenced whatever idiotic part of me thought this would be a good opportunity to meet people. Just power through and finish. That was all I had to do. Just run.

By the time I got to the finish, I had no idea where Armstrong was. There were still news crews doing interviews, but they looked like they were about to leave. I found a soft patch of grass on the hill and just laid there, catching my breath.

Reflecting back, I realized the run wasn’t about prestige or looking good or even getting in shape. Lance Armstrong, Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, didn’t need any of that. He just felt like running. At the very least, I’d like to think I kept pace with him on that.

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