Victoria cyclist in eye of storm at Tour de France

Ryder Hesjedal will be the first Canadian to ride in the famous 21-stage race since Gord Fraser in 1997

Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist
Published: Friday, July 04, 2008

Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria describes the scene in Brest, a town on the Brittany coast where the 95th Tour de France begins tomorrow, as being "like the Stanley Cup final crossed with the Super Bowl."

And thrown right into the swirling centre of this surreal sporting cauldron is Hesjedal, who will become the first Canadian to race the Tour since Gord Fraser in 1997.

"The whole town is crazy with people coming in and it's exciting to be a part of," said the Belmont Secondary grad, who will race for the Colorado-based Garmin-Chipotle pro team.

And it's not like Hesjedal is some gee-whiz neophyte. This is a rider who went into the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics as a mountain-biking favourite after winning silver at the 2003 world championships. After the three-week Tour, he will represent Canada again by riding in the road race and time trial at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

"I've been to a lot of events but there's only one Tour de France when it comes to pro stage races. It remains special."

It certainly does, despite the drug stain of recent years. The Garmin-Chipotle team goes out of its way, in all its media releases, to make it known that it has taken a strong stance against drugs.

The allure of the most famous bike race in the world has been fractured in recent years, yet is showing amazing resilience. Hesjedal's team was known as Slipstream-Chipotle as recently as last month in the Giro D'Italia, the second-greatest stage race in the world. But once the squad qualified for the Tour de France, the offers poured in and the team was rebranded when Garmin, a GPS navigation company, became title sponsor.

"They quickly changed the colours and signage on everything -- jerseys, bikes, clothes and vehicles," said Hesjedal, of an event that is a whirlwind of marketing and racing.

"This is how fast things move at this level. This is definitely a big deal. I'm proud of myself that I've gotten to this point. This is only my fourth season on the road after switching from mountain biking. Hopefully, this is the first of many Tours for me."

Hesjedal was one of only four Chipotle riders to finish the Giro, so it was a foregone conclusion he would be named to the pro team's nine-member unit that will contest the Tour de France. The team has 23 riders overall.

Being named to the team for the Tour is only part of the battle. In pro cycling, some team members are invariably asked to sacrifice their individual aspirations to pull along a leading team member.

"We've had team meetings, and coaches are watching all nine riders and we'll come up with a plan and an idea of how we're going to approach the Tour," said Hesjedal.

"We'll look, and see, and then decide who has the best opportunity to go for it [individual glory]."

Regardless of whether he turns into a worker bee or the team leader going for yellow-jersey immorality, the Victorian is racing in the Tour de France.

No Canadian has been able to say that in more than a decade.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008