CanadianCyclist.com has announced the results of the first-ever poll on Canadian cycling achievements. After two weeks of voting, thousands of readers chose the top-10 individual achievements of Canadian cyclists, from a list of 25 significant athletic accomplishments.
"We began this project after Forbes.com released a list of the top-20 athletic achievements," explained CanadianCyclist.com editor Rob Jones. "After compiling a list of nearly 50 significant achievements by Canadian cyclists, we pared it down to 25 and let our readers decide. When you read through the list, there are some incredible accomplishments for a so-called 'non-cycling' nation."
Leading the list were Alison Sydor and Steve Bauer, who took four of the top five spots between them, and seven of the top-10. Also on the top-10 list were Lori-Ann Muenzer (4th) for her Olympic gold medal in Athens (the first Canadian cyclist to win an Olympic gold medal), Roland Green (tied for 7th) for his incredible 2001 season, and Curt Harnett (9th), for his world record in the flying 200 metre time trial, a record that has not been broken after more than 10 years.
The full top-10 list is:
1. Alison Sydor's three consecutive world titles (1994-96)
2. Steve Bauer's 1990 Tour de France, when he spent 10 days in the Yellow Jersey
3. Steve Bauer's 1988 Tour, when he won a stage, finished 4th overall and spent 5 days in Yellow
4. Lori-Ann Muenzer's Olympic gold medal in the sprint at the 2004 Olympics, Canada's first Olympic gold medal in cycling
5. Alison Sydor's 17 World Cup victories (mountain bike cross-country)
6. Alison Sydor's 13 consecutive years of top-5 finishes (cross-country, 1992-2004) at the World Championships, including 3 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals
7. Roland Green's 2001 season, when he was World Champion, World Cup Champion, World Team Relay Champion, National Champion and won two U.S. national (NORBA) series titles
7. Steve Bauer wins the silver medal at the 1984 Olympics as an amateur, immediately turns professional and wins a bronze medal one week later at the Professional World Championships
9. Curt Harnett's world record in the flying 200 metre time trial (9.865 seconds) at the 1995 World Championships, a record that still stands
10. Alison Sydor's silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in the inaugural Olympic mountain bike event
A full list of the achievements that were voted on can be found in the Daily News section of CanadianCyclist.com
