They keep saying he has the weight of a nation on his shoulders each time he appears on the camera's near the crunch time of a stage and while I can see what they mean, it's only partly true. Hesjedal leading the Giro, or competing for it's victory, isn't quite the headline grabbing news in Canada that I wish it was and that I think it should be. If he were the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, lead them into the Stanley Cup finals then absolutely, one-hundred percent. But he's a cyclist. It's like when Chris Boardman was rolling down the ramp in a Tour prologue in the mid-90's ... it generated news and they talked about the weight of a nation being on his shoulders...it's just the headlines were four of five pages into the sports sections and three or four stories into the sports headlines on the news.
I don't like that at all. You see, aside from hockey, perhaps figure skating, and maybe one or two other winter sports, Canada has very few international sporting hero's. Ryder Hesjedal represents this potential and I don't exaggerate when I say that if Ryder could win the Giro, it would be -- pound for pound -- one of the finest sporting achievements by a Canadian athlete and certainly the finest of this year so far...Summer Olympics pending.
Saturday was a day loaded with excitement for the Canadian cycling fan. Going up the final climb to the summit finish and with just three non-GC contenders ahead of the group of favourites, Hesjedal attacked and none of his rivals could respond. The pink jersey of Joaquim Rodriguez tried to go after him, but couldn't, and Hesjedal time-trialed the final kilometres into a forth place finish and with enough time gained to regain the Pink jersey he had lost to Rodriguez earlier in the Tour.
Unfortunately Hesjedal and his Canadian fan base got a sharp reminder of just how back and forth and just how tight this Giro is likely to be, all the way to Milan, twenty-four hours later when it was Rodriguez who got the jump on him to pull the Pink jersey back his way after two epic mountain stages.
Monday was a rest day that the riders will have welcomed, though I didn't because Monday was also a national holiday in Canada (nothing to do with Hesjedal's efforts) and it would have been nice with the day off work to have plonked myself on the sofa and watched the action. As it is, they're back at it tomorrow and as am I. They're on a slightly flatter stage but heading towards bigger mountains once again and I'm behind a desk for eight hours per day for a week.
The final week of this Giro is going to be epic. There are some huge stages to come and the race will be won and lost in them. For Rodriguez you get the impression he'll continue to try attack Hesjedal to gain more and more time and blow the Canadian away on the steepest and hardest of climbs. For someone like Basso he'll try make a move to get himself right into the mix to win it. For Hesjedal it'll be about surviving on the hard climbs, taking time where he can but mainly maintaining a sensible gap to the mountain goats before giving them a real run for their money next Sunday on the final stage time-trail.
Time to go set the recorder for tomorrow's race...
