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Ryder Hesjedal

Ryder Hesjedal at the 2009 Tour Down Under
Personal information
Date of birth	December 9, 1980 (1980-12-09) (age 29)
Country	Canada
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	72 kg (160 lb)
Team information
Current team	Garmin-Transitions
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Major wins
Giro d'Italia, 1 Stage TTT Vuelta a Espana, 1 Stage Mountains classification, Tour de Georgia (2007) National Time Trial Champion (2007)
Medal record Competitor for  Canada Mountain Bike World Championships Silver 2003 Lugano Cross Country
Infobox last updated on:
August 11, 2008

Ryder Hesjedal (born Victoria, British Columbia, 9December 1980) is a Canadian professional racing cyclist for Garmin-Transitions. He is a former mountain biker, winning a silver medal at the 2001 Under-23 world championship. He turned professional with Discovery Channel in 2005 after several years with the Rabobank continental team.

A climber and time trialist, he was selected by Discovery Channel for the 2005 Giro d'Italia and helped Paolo Savoldelli win, although failing to complete the course himself. After 2005 he joined the Swiss team, Phonak. There he had his best results, finishing fourth in the 2006 Volta a Catalunya and second in the 2006 Canadian time trial championship. Later that season he rode the Vuelta a España, although he dropped out near the end to concentrate on the road world championships in Salzburg. He achieved only modest results. The end of the Phonak team led him to Health Net for 2007. For 2008 he joined Garmin-Slipstream and helped Christian Vande Velde to fifth in the Tour de France.

Hesjedal won stage 12 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, first Canadian to have won a stage and first to win a Grand Tour stage since Steve Bauer in the 1988 Tour de France.

Hesjedal was the only Canadian to compete in the Tour de France for both 2008 and 2009. He was the first Canadian to qualify for the daunting race in more than 10 years.

Ryder Hesjedal has been selected as Canadian cyclist of the decade and male Canadian cyclist of the year. The honour was given to him from Canadian Cyclist and the results came from an online poll.

He was also named male international cyclist of the year of 2009 from Cycling BC.

“I always give a whole lot of credit to where I come from.” he said recently in Victoria, BC.

Major results

External links

• Ryder Hesjedal Home Page