{"id":772184,"date":"2026-07-01T13:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:52:15","slug":"which-canadian-team-came-closest-to-racing-the-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772184\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Canadian team came closest to racing the Tour?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Tour de France is around the corner. There have been many notable Canadians who have ridden the men\u2019s Tour de France over the years. Steve Bauer, arguably Canada\u2019s finest, finished fourth and won a stage in 1988, and he held the yellow jersey for 10 days in 1990. Alex Stieda<\/a> was the first Canadian\u2014and North American\u2014to do so, back in 1986 when he took the yellow with a clever ride involving time bonuses on a double day.<\/p>\n

How Alex Stieda caught the Tour de France peloton off guard and snagged yellow, 40 years ago<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Michael Barry rode it in 2010, Ryder Hesjedal finished fifth overall in the same year, and Svein Tuft was part of the winning team time trial (TTT) team in 2014. Hugo Houle and Mike Woods have each taken magnificent stage wins in recent years, and Derek Gee-West finished an incredible ninth at the 2024 edition.<\/p>\n

Canadians at the Tour de France<\/p>\n

There are lots of other Canucks who have ridden the biggest race in the world: Christian Meier, Guillaume Boivin, Gord Fraser, David Veilleux, and Antoine Duchesne have also been to the Grand D\u00e9part. But every time, these riders have been riding for European teams. (And in the case of Hesjedal, Stieda and Bauer, American ones.)<\/p>\n

The six Canadian riders who made history at the Tour de France Feminin<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now, it should be pointed out that Canadian national teams have raced the Tour\u2014the women raced at the Tour de France Feminin, which has seen various iterations and is now called the Tour de France Femmes. And plenty of Canadian women have been in action at the TdfFF since its inception in 2022.<\/p>\n

Olivia Baril, Simone Boilard, Clara Emond, world champ Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res-Mill, Alison Jackson, Sara Poidevin, and Maggie Coles-Lyster have all raced in the Tour de France Femmes. There was also a pro team that raced the Tour, sponsored by the then-Canadian company Cerv\u00e9lo, which included a Canadian rider, Dominique Rollin. Although Rollin didn\u2019t ride in the Tour, he did compete in the Giro and Vuelta.<\/p>\n

And in 1937, the first Canadian\u2014and North American\u2014rode the Tour with an amalgamated Great Britain\/Canada team. His name was Pierre Gachon<\/a>. Although he did start the Tour, he didn\u2019t manage to finish the first stage (263 km from Paris to Lille, with an average speed of 38 km\/h!)<\/p>\n

Over the years, a few notable teams have had the intention of becoming the first men\u2019s pro team at the Tour de France. Three squads stand out: Evian, which ran from 1989-1992; Symmetrics, which ran from 2004-2008; and SpiderTech\u2014run by Bauer himself\u2014which ran from 2008-2012. Let\u2019s break down each team\u2019s viability when it came to making that dream come true.<\/p>\n

Evian<\/p>\n

Evian was a Canadian team from 1989 to 1992. The team had lots of big hitters on the squad\u2014including Stieda, who joined the team in 1991. In 1992, however, he would ride with the American powerhouse squad Coors Light, which was one of the dominant domestic teams of the time with riders like Davis Phinney. It had also briefly been the home for Greg LeMond<\/a> in 1989\u2014he raced for Coors when stateside and the small Belgian team ADR in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Pierre Hutsebaut<\/p>\n

Other riders on the team included Yvan Waddell, Tim Lefebvre, Steve Rover, Todd McNutt, Colin Davidson, Czeslaw Lukaszewicz, and Gervais Rioux.<\/p>\n

The concept of pro teams prior to 1998 was quite different than it is today. Before 1998, being a professional was based on an individual rider\u2019s license designation rather than the \u201cteam.\u201d The UCI had an affiliated global federation called the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Cyclisme Professionnel FICP that managed pro cycling events and riders. Teams, by virtue of having only pro-licensed riders, were \u201cpro teams\u201d and eligible to race in the FICP races.<\/p>\n

The history of pro cycling<\/p>\n

In North America, there were no FICP races, so teams actually had a mix of pro or amateur riders, and the best events were mixed. Teams like Gianni-Motta<\/a> and 7-Eleven became the first North American teams with exclusively pro riders.<\/p>\n

Riders could change their licence without restriction mid-season, and this was common. It was also possible to be an independent \u201cpro\u201d with personal sponsors. Canadian team Evian was the first Canadian team to have the majority of its riders take out a pro license and race exclusive FICP races.<\/p>\n

However, there were teams that had \u201cpro-licensed\u201d Canadians on the team prior to that. The UCI dissolved the FICP in 1992, and there were a few years of transition to the three-tier trade team system we have today, which started in 1998.<\/p>\n

The evolution of WorldTour, ProTeam and Continental<\/p>\n

In 1998, the UCI unveiled a three-tiered system to classify elite cyclists. Back then, it was simply called division 1, 2, or 3\u2014similar to soccer, except, again, you would still see division 1 teams show up in races against division 2 or 3, especially more so in North America. A division 3 team would never, for example, race the Tour de France. Given the sport\u2019s lesser prominence in Canada and the U.S., the bigger races would sometimes feature a mix of both professional and amateur riders.<\/p>\n

The three-tiered divisional system would eventually morph into its current format: WorldTour, ProTeam, and Continental. The lowest rung in the ladder would be Continental. The Continental requirement in the late 90s was a hefty registration fee of $10,000, but with no minimum salary requirements, just as is the case now. Most teams could still pay their riders something, but it wasn\u2019t mandatory.<\/p>\n

Then, just like now, the WorldTour teams had a minimum salary, as did ProTeam. The first UCI team\u2014which would now be known as Continental\u2014was a small team out of Toronto called JetFuel Coffee<\/a>. Although its budget was small, with the novelty of being a UCI team from Canada, they were flown around the world for races. A\u00a0 few riders from the team would go on to bigger things, including Andrew Randell, and Rollin.<\/p>\n

Though Evian wasn\u2019t technically a pro team, some of the riders would get a pro licence, which meant they could race the pro worlds. Although the riders who got the licence certainly were of good calibre, there was no technical requirement to be eligible for it. Meaning you could go and get a pro licence, but if you weren\u2019t any good, or on a pro team, it would be useless anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Pierre Hutsebaut<\/p>\n

In 1992, many of the riders obtained pro licenses with the goal of racing in the pro road world championships in Benidorm, Spain. Before the race, they competed in Europe as part of their preparation. The team raced in the Tour du Poitou-Charentes and then in Benidorm as the national team, with the addition of Bauer and Brian Walton, who were racing for the American team\u2013and future home of Lance Armstrong, Motorola.<\/p>\n

The origins of Evian<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo friends, St\u00e9phane Lebeau and Ed Arzouian found sponsors and established the Evian team,\u201d Pierre Hutsebaut said. \u201cThey hired me as the team manager for the European section. We raced in the Tour de Poitou-Charentes and then in the World Championships in Benidorm, Spain, with the support of Steve and Brian. Unfortunately, the team didn\u2019t last long after such a great start. As for me, in December 1992, I returned to Cycling Canada as director.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arzouian remembers a Montreal Gazette article from around spring 1992. The article, written by Pat Hickey, the Sports Editor at the time, wrote about how \u201cIt\u2019s a long way from Les Mardis Cyclistes de Lachine to Paris.\u201d But that was exactly the goal Arzouian had planned for the Evian Cycling Team: The Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the UCI changed the rules, the Tour de France and other pro races could invite teams without the need for UCI points,\u201d Arouzian said. \u201cSince the team was from Quebec, the French organizers often liked to invite Quebec riders, which gave them a kind of backdoor entry into these prestigious races. Unfortunately, that option is no longer available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo: F\u00e9d\u00e9ration qu\u00e9becoise des sports cyclistes<\/p>\n

Multiple national champion Rover said that after 1992, \u201cThe plan was to go full pro for 1993, but then we lost Evian as a sponsor, so that plan went south.\u201d In 1993, the team\u2019s budget was much smaller and was known as the Reynolds-Volkswagen Team. They still had some impressive results, courtesy of an American who would later win the US Pro Championships and race in Europe. Marty Jemison won the Tour de Beauce with the team and would later race the Tour de France twice, as well as ride for teams like US Postal.<\/p>\n

Rover would ultimately head to Europe, riding for the small French team Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne alongside Fraser in 1997. That same year, Fraser would ride his one and only Tour de France with the French outfit.
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alas, they lost the Evian sponsor by \u201993, and all that was left was a smaller budget, and the team was known as Reynolds. Although Arzouian had hoped to be the first Canadian team to race the Tour, it didn\u2019t happen. How far the team would have gone is hard to say\u2013the dream of going to the Tour might have very well been that, a dream, according to Stieda, after Evian pulled out. But the team definitely created an incredible legacy for pro cycling, and its brief years were ground-breaking.<\/p>\n

Symmetrics Cycling<\/p>\n

Symmetrics Cycling began when Mark Cunningham, co-owner of the team, decided it was strange to wear jerseys with other companies\u2019 logos while racing as a Cat 4 cyclist. Feeling frustrated, he thought, \u201cWhy not just create my own jersey?\u201d This led to the creation of the team, which evolved into something much larger than Mark had initially expected. What began as a simple idea soon grew into a significant force in Canadian professional cycling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Symmetrics team at the 2008 Tour de Beauce with Tuft in the leader\u2019s yellow jersey<\/p>\n

In 2002, the late Kevin<\/a> and his wife Kelly Cunningham moved to Langley, B.C. where Kevin began commuting to work from their home to his company\u2019s office and mill, which was 15 km away.<\/p>\n

Cycling was not entirely new to the brothers, as both had raced triathlons in their younger years. With Kevin commuting and Mark\u2019s growing interest in cycling, along with frequent visits from local cyclist Tony Zarsadias, the sport quickly became a bigger part of their lives.<\/p>\n

The Moneyball of Canadian Cycling<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In 2004, Kevin Cunningham convinced Tuft to come out of retirement and join Symmetrics, despite Tuft\u2019s disillusionment with cycling due to doping scandals. Cunningham reassured Tuft, saying, \u201cI want you to win bike races,\u201d and soon after, Tuft won his first of nine Canadian time trial championships. This victory became Cunningham\u2019s \u201cfondest memory\u201d of the team and marked the beginning of a successful period for Symmetrics, which had only been formed a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Collector\u2019s item: The Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team comic book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The team would go on to accomplish amazing feats, including national titles, wins at races like the Tour de Beauce and the UCI America Tour, and launching\u2014and revitalizing the careers of riders like multiple national champion and Olympian Eric Wohlberg.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A page from the Symmetrics long-term plan<\/p>\n

Ultimately, in 2008, the team, which was being funded solely by the Cunninghams, with the riders taking a massive pay cut, folded. But the dream of riding the Tour de France as the first Canadian team had always been there.<\/p>\n

A shining light, however, is that even though Symmetrics never rode the Tour, two of its riders did\u2013Tuft and Meier. In fact, Tuft was part of the winning team of the Stage 4 TTT of the Tour de France in 2013.<\/p>\n

SpiderTech<\/p>\n

After the end of Symmetrics, some of the riders needed a new home. Bauer, who also had the dream of having the first Canadian team to go to the Tour de France, transformed a local team\u2014first GEARS, a bike shop\u2014then Team R.A.C.E into SpiderTech, which would ultimately go from being a Continental team to a ProTeam\u2014the first and only Canadian team to do so.<\/p>\n

After recruiting several ex-Symmetrics riders, including former national champion Randell and Fran\u00e7ois Parisien, Team R.A.C.E became a strong Canadian continental team. It also hired some young riders who would go on to great things\u2014including a certain Boivin.<\/p>\n

2010 saw the team get an increased budget and rebrand as SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy. A young Boivin would give a hint of the future, winning two stages of the Mi-ao\u00fbt Bretonne in France and winning a stage of the Vuelta A Cuba.<\/p>\n

He would also have a huge result at the under-23 road worlds, finishing third.<\/p>\n

Tuft to SpiderTech<\/p>\n

In 2011, they added Tuft\u2014who was left scrambling after the Australian team Pegasus Cycling folded toward the end of the season. He gave the team some big wins, including one in Belgium at the GP Stad Zottegem, as well as winning both the road race and national championships.<\/p>\n

By 2012, the team was ready to level up, although without Tuft, who would head back down under (this time successfully) with Orica GreenEdge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But that also meant expanding the team as well as its budget. To graduate to a ProTeam\u2014then known as ProContinental, the UCI lists several criteria. \u201cThe UCI ProTeam consists of riders registered with the UCI, along with the paying agent, sponsors, and all contracted staff involved in the team\u2019s operation, including managers, sports directors, coaches, and other personnel like paramedics and mechanics. To be eligible for the full registration year, each ProTeam must employ at least 20 riders, three team managers, and five additional full-time staff members.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t easy, but they managed to make the upgrade.<\/p>\n

SpiderTech levels up<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the challenging process of the way the UCI works and until you\u2019ve done it once, you don\u2019t really know,\u201d Bauer said in 2011. At one point, he and his partner Jos\u00e9e Larocque had to fly to Switzerland to meet with the UCI. \u201cWe went to Geneva for a 15-minute meeting. They were concerned about the financial plausibility of the whole budget, so we rectified that and guaranteed we would have the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team also hired some more familiar names, including a 21-year-old Houle. They also added strongman Brian Bach Vandborg from Denmark\u2014who had ridden with big teams, including CSC and Discovery. Another rider who came on as a stagiare was Duchesne. Duchesne would go on to have a long career in Europe, riding the Tour twice, the Giro d\u2019Italia once, and the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a once as well.<\/p>\n

The power of Bauer<\/p>\n

Having Bauer as part of the team was definitely a boon in more ways than one. \u201cAs a team we definitely have some sentimental attachments to the Belgian races,\u201d the team\u2019s directer sportif, Kevin Field said. \u201cThat was Steve Bauer\u2019s home when he was racing and he really gets motivated for the racing there. It infects the whole team with great energy when we are there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A page from the Spidertech long-term plan<\/p>\n

The squad had a big year, including racing with a wild card invitation at the Tour de Suisse, a longtime Tour preparation race. Ryan Roth also took a huge victory in the Tro Bro L\u00e9on.<\/p>\n

At the Tour de Suisse, Ryan Anderson, Will Routley, David Boily, and Boivin rode, along with Swiss rider Raymond K\u00fcnzli, Dane Brian Vandborg, and American duo Lucas Euser and Caleb Fairly. The top finisher was K\u00fcnzli in 76th.\u00a0 Andersen had a good ride in the mountains competition, finishing sixth overall.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>Photo: Cycle Sport Management<\/p>\n

It was definitely a higher level than most of the team was used to, but the majority of the squad did finish the eight-day race.<\/p>\n

After 2012, though, the team went on hiatus.<\/p>\n

The end of SpiderTech<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re stepping away from continental competition in order to focus our efforts on gaining UCI WorldTour status,\u201d Bauer said at the time. \u201cWe have made the decision to focus our efforts entirely on making the jump to the WorldTour in 2014 and have determined that we need to acquire additional financial partnerships to reach this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, by October 2013, the team\u2019s management company announced that it would cancel the following season\u2019s racing to \u201cuse the upcoming year to focus on acquiring additional corporate sponsorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the team not accomplishing its goal of doing the Tour, it still became the only Canadian team to ever ride the Tour de Suisse, a major WorldTour race, and be a ProTeam. And certainly, several of the riders\u2014Houle, who would go on to win a stage of the Tour, Tuft\u2014who would go on to wear the pink jersey, and Boivin<\/a>\u2014who took a brilliant 9th at Paris-Roubaix, can thank the squad for aiding their career trajectories. All in all, it\u2019s clear that SpiderTech was the closest to ever racing the Tour. Timing was not great for cycling\u20142012 was the year of Lance Armstrong\u2019s admission of doping, and corporate sponsors may have been wary of entering professional cycling.<\/p>\n

An honourable mention: IPT<\/p>\n

Speaking of Boivin and Houle\u2014the team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech (now NSN Cycling) deserves a mention. For years, several Canadians called the team home\u2014including Gee-West, Houle, Woods, Boivin, Riley Pickrell, and Pier-Andr\u00e9 C\u00f4t\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Its development team, is home to world track champ Dylan Bibic, and as of 2026, Ben Morin Although it is certainly not a Canadian team\u2014it gave several Canucks a chance to shine at the Tour, notably Gee-West, Houle, and Woods. The team has since rebranded<\/a>, as we all know.\u00a0 Woods has retired and riders like Gee-West, Pickrell and Houle have headed elsewhere.<\/p>\n

O Canada! Hugo Houle the first Canadian to win a Tour de France stage since 1988<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Will there ever be a Canadian men\u2019s team at the Tour? It\u2019s hard to say. Pro cycling isn\u2019t cheap\u2014although compared to, say, the budgets of NHL teams, it is. But pro cycling, despite its increase in popularity over the years in North America, is no hockey. Then again, if you told Gachon in 1937 \u2013 or Bauer in 1990 \u2013 about all the Canadians who have now ridden the Tour, they\u2019d probably not believe you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Tour de France is around the corner. There have been many notable Canadians who have ridden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[366729,64,63,784,267556,366730,366731,366732,366733,85,366734,366735,366736,2845],"class_list":["post-772184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alex-stieda","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-guillaume-boivin","tag-michael-barry","tag-ryan-roth","tag-spidertech","tag-spidertech-powered-by-c10","tag-sports","tag-steve-bauer","tag-svein-tuft","tag-symmetrics-cycling","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}