09.27.07 - Road cycling – World championships - Wet conditions disadvantage Hesjedal and Tuft

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September 27, 2007 - Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria and Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., placed 24th and 30th respectively in the men’s elite time trial on Thursday at the world championships in road cycling being held in Stuttgart, Germany.

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland successfully defended his title clocking the 44.9 kilometre course in 55 minutes and 41.35 seconds. Laszlo Bodrogi of Hungary was second 52.06 seconds behind the winner and Stef Clement of the Netherlands third 57.71 out of top spot.

Hesjedal was 3:38.88 off Cancellara’s pace while Tuft was 3:45.93 back.

‘’It’s not an improvement on last year’s showing but still I feel the guys had a good race,’’ said Kris Westwood, high performance director for the Canadian Cycling Association. ‘’They rode early when the road was very wet. They were often forced to brake on turns and were disadvantaged because of that.’’

Hesjedal was 22nd last year at the worlds in Salzburg, Austria while Tuft was 28th.

Hesjedal was pleased with his effort and also said the conditions affected his result. ‘’I’m happy with how I raced. My result could have been better but one needs to look at the riders ahead of me and certain race circumstances.’’

‘’Last year I finished 22nd but I was four minutes behind Cancellara,’’ said Hesjedal, 26, a former mountain bike racer. ‘’This year I’m 24th three minutes back. You have to look at those facts. I came close to cracking the top-10. I’ll have a chance to improve my time.’’

‘’There are a lot of little things that could have gone better for me. So I look at those little things along with my result. I look at the way I rode in comparison to my other races this season and I’m pleased with how I felt. That’s what is most important.’’

Hesjedal was 13th at the halfway point and posted the 33rd fastest time in the second half which may explain why the last riders to start did so well. ‘’But that’s competition. Not everybody can race under the same conditions,’’ he said.

‘’We didn’t reach our goals in terms of results but we started a step behind because of the changing weather conditions. We couldn’t have asked for better than that,’’ said Westwood.

Canadians scheduled to race in Saturday’s women’s elite road race are Leigh Hobson, Anne Samplonius, Erinne Willock and Alex Wrubleski. Canadians on the start list for men’s under-23 road race, also on Saturday, are Ryan Anderson, Brad Fairall, Keven Lacombe, Christian Meier and David Veilleux.