15 juillet 2000

By Randy Starkman
Toronto Star Sports Reporter

PETERBOROUGH - Two supremely talented Canadian cyclists found themselves on a collision course not of their own making.

Double Olympic bronze medalist Clara Hughes, in her last hurrah on the road before chasing other sporting dreams. Double junior world champ Genevieve Jeanson, an 18-year-old phenom expected one day to be queen of the road.

Both are poised to be named to Canada's team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics tomorrow, but Thursday's debacle in the women's individual time trial at the National Road Championships could have meant they'd be teammates in name only.

There was so much tension in that moment when Jeanson considered rejecting her silver medal. Her coach, Andre Aubut, had filed a protest against Hughes after a mixup on the final turn saw her race the final kilometre on the wrong side of the steel barriers lining the course.

Hughes took it as a personal affront. A gentle spirit, whose current reading is a Buddhist book Beyond The Sky And The Earth: A Journey Into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa, she was hurt at the suggestion she'd cut corners to win.

But the situation had nothing to do with Hughes. It was the latest flare-up in a battle between the Jeanson camp and the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA).

A brilliant young talent, Jeanson is on the cusp of professional stardom and the feeling of her support team is she has got there in spite of the CCA. Aubut believes the association has tried at times to undermine Jeanson and at other times to take credit for her success.

The Jeanson camp is worried the association will do everything possible to leave her off the Olympic squad.

Hence the strong emotions. Aubut railed against the decision to start and finish the race in front of a Tim Hortons outlet at a main intersection.

«You know why they started here is because Tim Hortons is a sponsor of the CCA (Canadian Cycling Association), so we've got to start at a Tim Hortons,» he said. «Bull----. Excuse me. Bull----. What can I say ? Bull----.

«Go three kilometres farther and you're in the country and you don't have the cars. . . . I've seen bad things in cycling, but this is the worst I've ever seen in cycling. The organization here stinks.»

The histrionics aside, the guy had a point. Children volunteers were acting as race marshals and police were letting traffic intermingle with the riders. Hughes narrowly avoided a head-on collision with another cyclist, zig-zagged around a car and truck and in front of her and then went off course.

That chaos ignited the volatile situation. The scene was not unfamiliar to anyone who closely follows amateur sport : Well-meaning volunteers in over their heads in trying to pull off a big event.

But that was of no solace to Aubut, who with Jeanson has poured everything into trying to get her qualified for the Sydney Olympics.

What was lost amid the controversy, though, is that Jeanson greatly improved her chances of an Olympic berth with Thursday's showing because she was only six seconds behind Hughes, one of the world's best in the individual time trial. They were two minutes ahead of their next rival.

Right now, it looks like the women's road team for Sydney will be Hughes, Jeanson, and Lyne Bessette, winner last year of the Tour de L'Aude.

In battling with her own association, Jeanson is following a path that has already been tread by the likes of kayaking great Caroline Brunet and double Olympic gold medalist Myriam Bedard, unique athletes who felt they had to go against the grain to become the world's best.

The unfortunate thing was Thursday's situation pitted Jeanson against Hughes, who happens to be a big admirer of the young gun and is eager to share her experience.

«I have a lot of respect for what she's done and, also in some ways, the way she's done it,» Hughes said. «She's got a strong drive and I really respect that. I like that. I like that fighting spirit in a person.»

Jeanson's decision to step up to the podium defused what could have been an explosive situation. It was the right move by a very special young athlete.

But the problems don't end there. The bad blood between the Jeanson camp and the CCA remains, despite claims from both sides everything was hunky dory. A longtime cycling insider doesn't believe the differences are unsolvable, but says the problem is that so much between the two sides has been left unspoken. Somebody had better start doing some talking before the Sydney Olympics.

une page mise à jour le 15 juillet 2000 par SVP