Tuft, Meier and Parisien to line up for Canada in Florence
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Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) won the highest-placed Canadian award at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec(Image credit: Oran Kelly / PhotoSport International)
Sven Tuft (Orica - Green Edge)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Christian Meier (Canadian National Team) launches one of his many attacks(Image credit: Lyne Lamoureux)
François Parisien (Argos Shimano) sprints to the stage win(Image credit: Pasados de Volta)
Canada will go to the UCI Road World championships starting this weekend without 2012 Giro d'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal. Svein Tuft will ride the time trial, while Christian Meier and Francois Parisien will take part in the road race.
Tuft, who rides for Orica-GreenEdge, won silver in the world championship time trial in 2008. Meier, who is also with Orica-GreenEdge, was third overall in the Tour de Beauce this year. Parisien, 31, is in his first year at the WorldTour level with Argos -Shimano and won stage 5 at Volta a Catalunya earlier this season.
The nation had qualified for three spots in the road race, but Hesjedal decided not to participate, “and it was deemed that there were no other athletes available who would be competitive in this event.”
Hesjedal had already stated prior to Sunday's Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, where he would finish in third place, that he would end his season after the Canadian WorldTour races. When asked about his decision to forgo Worlds after his result in Montreal, Hesjedal simply said that he was tired.
2013 was a taxing season for the 32-year-old Canadian as the 2012 Giro d'Italia champion had to withdraw from this year's edition due to illness and then his Tour de France campaign was hindered by a broken rib suffered on the opening stage.
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