Written by Gary Kingston and published in the Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Sydor in thick of competition before her induction.

Most of the athletes in the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2008 have long ago called it a career, but Allison Sydor just keeps on pedalling. And pedalling, and pedalling …

The Hall announced its latest inductees on Tuesday, but Sydor wasn’t able to make it. The three-time mountain-biking world champion, now 41, had just got back to her Victoria-area home after competing in Portland, Ore., on the weekend in fast-growing cyclo-cross.

Former NHL sniper Danny Gare hung up his skates 20 years ago at age 32, in part because of injury, and Gareth Rees was just a year older when he packed away his rugby boots a decade ago. Soccer star Domenic Mobilio sadly passed away three years ago at 35 and feisty Helen Kelesi had her tennis career cut short by a brain tumor at age 25.

Sydor just keeps finding new outlets for her cycling passion. This past season, instead of racing the World Cup mountain bike cross-country circuit, she turned to stage racing and marathon events in Europe and cyclo-cross.

She won the eight-day Trans Germany stage race with partner Carsten Bresser of Germany and finished second overall in the U.S. Grand Prix cyclo-cross tour this fall.

“It was a nice surprise,” she said of the cyclo-cross, in which riders on street bikes with nobby tires race on dirt, mud, pavement and grass and dismount to lift their bikes over obstacles. “I was just doing it for fun.”

She says “good luck and good genetics” are part of what keeps her going.

“And when I came into mountain biking [from road cycling], there was a real excitement being part of a young sport that was changing all the time,” said Sydor, who grew up in Calgary but moved to B.C. at age 17.

“I’ve seen significant changes over the years. It’s not just same old, same old all the time. It’s a sport of revolution, not just evolution.”

Sydor says she sees a lot of riders in their 30s looking at her and “they’re excited thinking they’ve got a few years left. I guess I’m kind of a role model now.”

Sydor won the silver medal when mountain biking made its Olympic debut at Atlanta in 1996, was fifth in Sydney four years later and fourth in Athens in 2004. In addition to her three world championship titles in 1994, ‘95 and ‘96, she’s finished on the podium 10 other times at worlds.

“Winning an Olympic medal is the best thing you can do for sport and your country. It’s the one time where the athletes who aren’t in a big mainstream media sport get their sport and accomplishments recognized.

“But from an athlete’s perspective it’s world championships. That’s when there’s a full field. Winning my first world championship [in Vail, Colo.] was one of the best days. One of the cool things in our sport is that when you win a world championship, you get to wear a special jersey the whole year.”

Sydor missed out on the world championships this summer due to a “disappointing political situation.” She was excluded from the Canadian team after missing the national championships because of European commitments with her pro team.

Canada has two spots for women in the 2008 Olympics at Beijing, but Sydor is non-committal about trying to qualify.

“I have to get a few things straightened out, sit down and see if that’s what I want to do. For sure, whether I’m looking at the Olympics or not, I do want to do more stage racing. Everything is still possible.”

That’s something the other inductees can no longer say.

“You can’t take [playing] for granted,” said Rees, the only one of the athlete inductees to make the news conference on Tuesday. “That’s something as Canadian rugby guys, we never took it for granted. Every chance to go play out there, you relished it.”

Sydor said she is delighted to be inducted into the hall, especially given that she is the first mountain biker to be honored.

“This isn’t something one works towards or thinks about, you have other goals you set for yourself, but when it happens … it’s nice to know somebody else feels you’ve made a significant mark in your sport.”

The athletes, team, builders and pioneers will be formally inducted at a banquet May 29. Tickets are available through www.bcsportshalloffame.com.