London Calling: On the road again

Monika Platek,

CTVOlympics.ca Staff

In the lead up to the 2012 London Games, the CTV Olympic Consortium will be profiling several Olympic hopefuls. The latest are part of the Canadian Road Cycling team and will be competing this weekend in 2011 IMMUNITY-FX Canadian Road Championships from Belfountain, Ontario.

The Olympic Consortium had an opportunity to catch up with three team members to discuss their road to London:

Clara Hughes made a strong return at the 2011 IMMUNITY-FX Canadian Road Championships on Thursday, even though she crashed her bike while training on the same course earlier this week.

Hughes won the 21.6km Elite Women’s Time Trial with a time of 30 minutes 25 seconds. This was her first time competing in the national championships since 2003. While cycling on the route at more than 50 km an hour on Monday, she hit a bump on the road surface and lost control of the handlebar.

“I went down hard. I remember going down and thinking ‘I could be dying right now’. I’m not joking when I say that. It was terrifying. It was a really horrific crash,” said Hughes.

She recalls hitting the ground with her head and skidding along the road. “My Blackberry had fallen out of my pocket and I actually skidded along my Blackberry. I think it saved a lot of the skin on my left side because I actually didn’t get that much road rash,” she added.

With only a few cuts and bruises visible on her arms, Hughes finished the race 21.55 seconds ahead of Tara Whitten. Coming in with the third-best time was Rhae-Christy Shaw, a former triathlon competitor.

Whitten, the two-time world champion of the Omnium (a multi-race event in track cycling) was happy with her time in the race. “I think the level of the time trial and road racing in Canada is just incredible right now and it’s really exciting heading into the Olympics,” said Whitten. “I’ve been really inspired by Clara Hughes. Her longevity in sport is amazing.”

Following her scary incident on the road, Hughes was feeling fortunate that she was able to race in the championships.

“I have some pretty bad whiplash. I could have broken my collar bone. I could have been concussed and out for months and that could have been the end of my athletic career. I’m really lucky.”

The favourite in the 43km Elite Men’s Time Trial was 2008 World silver medalist Svein Tuft and he did not disappoint, racing to first place with a time of 56 minutes 29 seconds, beating his closest competitor by nearly one minute. Tuft, captain of Team SpiderTech (the first Canadian team to earn a UCI Pro Continental license), has won this event seven times at the Canadian championships. He sees it as a stepping stone towards his London 2012 hopes.

“I’m coming in knowing that I’m capable of medaling. It may be my last Olympics and I think the course [in London] really suits a guy like me. I’m putting everything into the Olympics. It’s big.”