Canadian Cycling Team

09/08/08

New Brunswick well represented at 2008 Olympics

Athletes, officials, broadcasters and student delegates are among those who will highlight a strong New Brunswick contingent at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Of course, the athletes are front and centre as a number of NBers will compete at the Olympics and two more will vie for gold at the Paralympics in September, also in Beijing.

Jane Rumball of Fredericton is part of the Canadian women's eights rowing team, a squad with a strong and powerful Olympic tradition and one that could land a medal in this province.

In baseball, Rheal Cormier of St. Andre came out of retirement to pitch for the Canadian men's baseball team while former Fredericton resident Kara Grant is competing in the modern pentathlon, the five-sport event in which she finished 22nd in 2004.

Catharine Pendrel of Harvey Station near Fredericton is a member of the Canadian cycling team. She will race in the mountain bike events in Beijing.

Tennis player Frederic Niemeyer is a Campbellton native and while he lived there for six months, his grandmother still lives there as does his uncle, aunts and cousins.

Canadian swim team member Stephanie Horner was born in Bathurst in 1989 and lived there until her family moved to Montreal four years later.

Horner, who calls Beaconsfield, Que., home, will swim several events in Beijing.

The husband and wife team of Dave Durepos and Sabrina Pettinicchi of Fredericton will compete in the men's and women's wheelchair basketball competition respectively at the Paralympic Games. Each of them owns a pair of gold medals from previous games.

On the airwaves, Fredericton's Marianne Limpert, the 1996 silver medalist in the 200 metres individual medley, is part of CBC's broadcasting team as an expert analyst in the pool.

Joining her in the broadcast arena airwaves is Rothesay's Ed Winchester, who was an alternate on the 2000 Canadian Rowing team. Winchester will cover rowing in Beijing for NBC.

Fredericton's Betty Dermer-Norris is the director of team operations for the Canadian mission staff in Beijing. She's played a major role in the set-up and evaluation of the Beijing site - complete with five pre-Games visits.

When the Games start - her eighth games - she is the man person in charge of all things Canadian in Beijing.

Monique Allain of Fredericton, a former athletic director of the University of New Brunswick Saint John is a team service officer for seven teams - women's soccer, women's softball, synchronized swimming, men's and women's cycling, judo, fencing and taekwondo.

Stephane Hachey of Bathurst is also a member of the Canadian mission staff as he serves as a warehousing officer in the outfitting operations along with Marc Leger of Cocagne, who is an outfitting officer.

Softball umpire Nancy Morrison of Quispamsis will be behind the plate in her sport while Saint John's Fred Horgan, a veteran basketball administrator, will also be in Beijing serving as a jury member/technical commissioner for the International Basketball Federation, the sport's world governing body.

Bob Stanton of Fredericton is also part of the softball umpiring team while Miramichi native Don Ryan, now living in Fredericton is a non-accredited support staff with the Canadian Greco-Roman wrestling team.

St. Leonard born water polo coach - Robert Couillard - lives in Boisbriand, Que. and will serve as the Canadian water polo coach.

In other aspects of the event, Carson Marcoux of Balmoral, an honours student at Dalhousie Regional high school, was of two Canadians who accepted invited to the Olympic Youth camp.

Marcoux, an elite level pianist and accomplished student, is a three-time New Brunswick fencing champion and is rated as high as third nationally in one fencing discipline.

There are other New Brunswick influences as well.

Mike Gallagher of Hampton is the team leader for the Canadian equestrian team, the man in charge of moving everything, including the horses to Honk Kong, sit of the equestrian competitions, and seeing it all runs smoothly from a Canadian perspective.

Another member of the mission staff is Mike Christie of Ottawa. He studied university at both St. Thomas and the University of New Brunswick was prominently included in the 1985 Canada Games in Saint John.

Christie, the performance technology manager for the Canadian sports services division of the mission staff, also coached a pair of N.B. teams at Canada Games competition.

Once the Olympics end, New Brunswick's participation will continue on the international stage at the Paralympic Games.

Luc Arsenault of Dieppe is the head coach of the Canadian cycling teams at the Paralympics while Moncton native Brian Todd, now living in Glen Haven N.S. is the national Paralympic sailing coach.

Another coach with N.B. connections is John Ferguson of Campbellton, now living in Dartmouth. He is the head coach of the Paralympic table tennis team.

Finally, Marie-Claude Holland of Fredericton, now an Ottawa resident, is an athletic therapist for the Paralympic Games in September.

(c) 2008 CanadaEast Interactive, Brunswick News Inc. All rights reserved

06/07/08

Three selected to compete in Beijing

The trio of track cyclists who will represent Canada at this summer's Beijing Games have a realistic chance of finishing top eight in the world, "and on a good day, medal," Sean O'Donnell, high-performance manager with the Canadian Cycling Association, said yesterday.

The velodrome squad is made up of Gina Grain of Burnaby, B.C., in the points race, Zach Bell of Watson Lake, Yukon, in the points race, and Martin Gilbert of Chateauguay, Que., who will partner with Bell in the Madison event.

28/05/08

Canada fields 11-member team for BMX cycling world championships

OTTAWA - Olympic medal hopeful Samantha Cools of Airdrie, Alta., headlines an 11-member Canadian team for the BMX cycling world championships set for May 31 in Taiyuan, China.

The competition is the last Olympic qualifying event and Cools is favoured to earn a nomination to the Canadian Olympic team. She earned the country a spot by accumulating points in the nation's rankings with her past performances.

The 22-year-old, currently ranked fourth in the world, is already a world championship and world junior championship medallist and is building towards adding an Olympic medal to that collection later this summer in Beijing where BMX makes its debut as a full medal sport. She will be joined on the women's team by Canadian champion Christine Miller of Airdrie, Kaila Sweeney of Calgary, Danielle Brisson of Chilliwack, B.C., and junior Brookelyn Wilkinson of Abbotsford, B.C.

Scott Erwood of Abbotsford, fresh from his Canadian title, leads the men's squad with Jim Brown of Airdrie, Patrick Lebel of Calgary, Alex Sailor also of Calgary and juniors Michael Irwin of Surrey, B.C., and Joey Trudeau of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

Brown, Lebel and Irwin had been pre-selected to the team prior to nationals but Erwood, who broke his wrist last August and missed five months of racing, and needed to win at nationals because he hadn't acquired enough points to secure a berth.

Erwood was the top Canadian at last year's worlds in Victoria, reaching the quarter-finals and finishing 27th overall.

The Canadian men will battle for one of six berths available at worlds for the 32-rider Olympic field. Twenty-four have already qualified and two more will be selected as wild cards by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

National team BMX coach Tanya Dubnicoff admits it's a long trip for a short event but she says her troops will benefit from the experience.

''Most of our team are experienced travellers," said Dubnicoff. ''This is certainly another big step. This year we've seen our riders rise to a new level and the timing is right for them to head to one of the biggest events of their careers. It is an important building block towards the next stages of their careers."

All the junior and elite racing events take place on Saturday May 31.

22/05/08

CSF's Dall'Antonia comes close

Team CSF Group Navigare's Tiziano Dall'Antonia survived the climbs of San Marino, Monte Carpegna, Petricara and Sorrivoli, in addition to heavy rain showers, but fell shy of making it to the final with his escape companions in Giro d'Italia's stage 11 to Cesena. The 24 year-old Italian from Vittorio Veneto lost contact with only seven kilometres remaining, at the start of the Cippo Pantani.

Dall'Antonia, who helped form the day's move at kilometre 42, was left behind by three riders - eventual stage winner Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni), Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne) and team-mate Fortunato Baliani.

"I did not think to enter into an escape today, but from the start I was pedaling well and I thought there would be less fatigue in the escape than in the gruppo because you can have a more regulated rhythm," he explained to Cyclingnews after crossing the line in fourth.

"Up until the last kick it went well for me, but then the light was turned off," he remarked bluntly. "I am sorry, I put all the effort into the move and I really believed in victory."

Baliani crashed in the final 650 metres and left the door open for Bertolini's win; in addition, the team's climbing ace and leader of the mountain's competition, Emanuele Sella, crashed twice during the stage. Dall'Antonia's day was also marked with a crash. On the descent of the Monte Arena, midway through the race, his bike slid out from under him. He had scrapes on his left elbow as a result.

"It went this way today, but tomorrow we will have another day," Dall'Antonia declared in an upbeat tone. The team is bolstered by the win of Matteo Priamo in stage six.

08/05/08

Rodriguez part of three-pronged Caisse team

Joaquim Rodriguez of Caisse d'Epargne assured to arrive at the Giro, which starts this Saturday, "in perfect condition, physically as well as mentally". He added that "the only fear I have is the last week. I am in form since March, and depending how things develop I could pay for that. But we'll see, with the desire to race that I have, I hope to finish well."

The Spanish team can rely on multiple strong players, with Rodríguez being joined by team-mates Jose Rujano and Vladimir Karpets in a shared leader's role. The reigning Spanish road champion explained that "This Giro is very tough and logically we don't have a clear leader for the overall, like Valverde or Pereiro. I think we each need to ride with liberty in our terrain and hope for the last week, which is hardest, to see how we are going."

His personal objectives are a stage victory and a good result in the general classification, but he made it clear that if having to choose, he would prefer to take an individual win over a decent GC ranking. "I would not change a stage against a place in the top five of the GC... This [a stage win] is what motivates the most at least that's my belief. Logically, if you win a stage, it is comparable to get a great result in GC, like being in the top 10. But if you'd let me choose..."

Rodriguez will participate for the third time in the Giro, after 2001 with ONCE, in his first year as a professional, and he returned to the Corsa Rosa in 2005, with Saunier Duval. Both times he finished 80th in GC, but the GC wasn't an objective on either occasion. "I went into breaks and the intention was to win a stage," the Spaniard clarified his objectives at the time. First and foremost he wanted to "learn how to look after myself and how to recover [in a Grand Tour]."

This time, things are different, starting with the most obvious, his age. "During the Giro I will celebrate my 29th birthday, and I think I have changed a lot in those years. I consider myself a rider who knows himself much better than before and I know what I can achieve."

Going into the race he is not hiding his objectives and has already singled out some stages. And of course the pink jersey is an objective. "Let's not forget we have a good team and if we win or don't lose much time in the [team] time trial, I can fight in those finales [of the first stages] to wear pink."

05/05/08

COC staff gets glimpse of Beijing

John MacKinnon, The Edmonton Journal

Published: Sunday, May 04

"It (costs) $200,000 easily, to do something like this, it's not a decision we took lightly," Assalian said. "We really debated what was the best option for everyone, knowing that for every dollar you spend, it's a dollar you take away from someone elses's pocket."

The returns seem mostly favorable.

Jim Baba, executive-director of Baseball Canada, visited the ball diamonds and was concerned to find the fields had been largely untended since a pair of major-league baseball exhibition games held there in March.

He also met with International Baseball Federation representatives there and was assured the fields will be fine by the time the Olympic tournament opens on Aug. 13.

"Rather than put $100 worth of water on the grass, they'll truck in a whole new field," Baba said. "It will be back to being immaculate by the time the Games open."

Baba was also reassured to learn that a staggering 900,000 people will be involved in Olympic security in Beijing and the various satellite cities playing host to competitions.

Dr. Connie Lebrun, the Edmonton-based assistant chief medical officer for Canada's team in Beijing, said the air quality in Beijing was better than she feared.

"It wasn't that bad," Lebrun said. "Now, whether that was the time of year, or the fact that it had just rained (the day before the Canadian contingent arrived) or the fact that the things they are doing are working, I don't know."

Still, the medical team is being proactive in encouaging athletes who might be susceptible to exercise-induced asthma and other respiratory conditions, to get tested well before they leave Canada so they can jump through the bureaucratic hoops to get IOC permission to use an inhaler, or specific medications, or what have you.

"Rather than get there and have people get their asthma precipitated," Lebrun said. "We're trying to encourage as many of the athletes in the outdoor, high ventilations sports (rowing, road cycling, triathlon, marathon, etc.) or people who have a history of allergy or asthma to get this test done so that we know if they will or will not have problems."

Unlike many Games organizing committees, BOCOG has hired only a handful of veteran international experts to fill key roles, which has had an impact.

"With BOCOG, you're making best-laid plans," said former Olympic rower Marnie McBean, now an athlete mentor with the COC. "We know exactly what we want and sometimes getting that happens a little slower.

All of which reinforced the value of the trip for McBean, who toured Canadian delegates around Shunyi, the venue for rowing, kayaking and open-water swimming.

"Why is the first day of school or the first day in a new job so nerve-wracking? Because you don't know the environment you're going into," McBean said. "This is all about making sure people go into it with a sense of swagger and confidence."

jmackinnon@thejournal.canwest.com

Check out my blog at: www.edmontonjournal.com

02/05/08

Caisse d'Epargne sends climbers to Italy

Spanish team Caisse d'Epargne is looking to its climbers to bring back the honours from the upcoming Giro d'Italia, starting May 10 in Palermo, Sicily. Venezuelan rider Jose Rujano as well as Russian Vladimir Karpets, who finished third and seventh in the 2005 Giro respectively, have been announced to race. Spaniards David Arroyo (10th in 2007) and Joaquim Rodriguez will be additional assets for Caisse d'Epargne, as well as Joan Horrach and Pablo Lastras, who both won stages in the Giro in the past.

The full line-up will be: David Arroyo, Joan Horrach, Vladimir Karpets, Pablo Lastras, Luis Pasamontes, Fran Perez, Marlon Perez, Joaquim Rodriguez and Jose Rujano.