Advertisement

Cyclist Ryder Hesjedal walks his talk while making funding appeal for Canadian Olympians

neate sager

Talk about putting his money where his mouth is. Canada's best-known cyclist, Ryder Hesjedal, endeared himself to thousands of people this week by employing some trickle-down economics to help one of his fellow racers.

Cycling tends to be a very tight-knit community and while every rider competes for individual glory, it is a team sport as well. So it's not surprising that Hesjedal, who relied on fundraisers to keep him on the bike before he had his breakout which peaked with his Giro d'Italia jersey, would help along the next generation. Earlier this week, he auctioned off the pink leader's jersey he wore on his way to winning the Giro — which will help first-time Olympian Denise Ramsden pay some bills.

Hesjedal, who'll ride for Canada in the men's road race and time trial, recently put his pink jersey from Stage 7 of the Giro up for auction and it earned $10,300.

He has donated half that money to CAN Fund and half to his own Ryder's Cycling Society of Canada.

CAN Fund then gave the $5,000 to Ramsden.

"Ryder's paying it forward and it's really cool," said Conrad Leinemann, the chief operating officer for CAN Fund, which raises money and then gives out $6,000 cheques to cash-strapped Olympians.

Leinemann said there are about 100 Canadian Olympians who are still on the waiting list for funding. (Vancouver Province)

It goes without saying that this is a bit of an appeal for Canadians who will be dining on the buffet of televised and streamed Olympic entertainment to consider throwing a few bucks toward either myCANFund.ca or Ryder's Cycling Society. Meantime, there's some good karma for Hesjedal, whose got the impossibly daunting task of being the lone Canadian in the pack for the 250-km road race on Saturday, while coming off the hip and leg injuries that took him out the Tour de France.

The media might be underselling how difficult it is, since the Box Hill course is relatively flat and Hesjedal is built to climb at 6-foot-2 and 159 pounds. Plus, Great Britain has a good supporting cast behind Mark Cavendish.

A good scenario for [Hesjedal] is being part of a small group that breaks away from the field early.

"I can ride with a small group and there won't be many guys with teammates at that point," he said. (Globe & Mail)

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.