Canadian Cycling Magazine

the Symmetrics Legacy

- By Nick Ashbourne

In 2004, Kevin Cunningham sat in his garage with Svein Tuft trying to convince the rider to come out of retirement. Cunningham, who co-founded the Canadian cycling team Symmetrics with his brother Mark, wanted Tuft on the squad. Cunningham was after Tuft’s impressive talent, but knew Tuft had grown disgusted with profession­al cycling. “Everything I heard about cycling in Europe was ‘doping this’ and ‘ doping ‘ that’,” recalls Tuft. “It really made me wonder what kind of a sport I was part of. I wasn’t interested in a future in that.”

Still, the Symmetrics boss suspected the then 27-yearold could be swayed. Cunningham was right. When he finally got the Langley, B.C. native to sign with Symmetrics, he made Tuft’s role on the team crystal clear. “I remember him saying ‘I’m not that fit Kevin, I don’t how much chasing

How a feisty, close-knit team based in Langley, B.C., shaped Canadian profession­al cycling

I can do when we’re out in these races,’” Cunningham remembers. “I said, ‘Svein, you didn’t come on our team to chase; I want you to win bike races.’”

Despite Tuft’s initial doubts, he would go on to do exactly that. Only two months after meeting with Cunningham, Tuft won his first of nine Canadian time trial championsh­ips. It is a moment that the team’s creator still describes as his “fondest memory” of the squad. Cunningham also suspected that it was an indicator of things to come for a team that had only been formed a year earlier.

“I knew at that point this was going to be a fun, special ride,” Cunningham says. “We had such a great group of guys. Watching how excited they were for his national championsh­ip and how authentic everyone was around that first success we ever had, I knew we were on to something special.”

In the years that followed, Symmetrics proved to be a remarkable outfit, both in terms of results and the atmosphere around the team. The Canadian squad brought home notable victories including the 2007 uci Americas team classifica­tion, as well as individual wins by Svein Tuft at the 2007 U.S. Open and 2008 Tour de Beauce. Riders from Symmetrics also claimed two Canadian national road race championsh­ips. Tuft collected four of his Canadian time trial championsh­ips with the team. Almost as impressive as their record on the road was the way the riders banded together and worked as a unit. “Ego wasn’t really allowed on that team,” Tuft says. “It was about operating as a team and everyone sacrificin­g for one another.”

Kevin Field, the former directeur sportif of Symmetrics and of the Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies’s women’s team in 2014, remembers the riders as having a completely unified purpose. “Something special about Symmetrics was the vibe inside the team and how the guys worked together and felt they were on a mission that they all bought into,” he says. “I think if you asked any of the guys on the team, they’d say it was the best team that they’ve ever been on.”

Christian Meier, one of the younger riders on the team who Tuft affectiona­tely describes as a “farm boy from New Brunswick,” articulate­s the feeling that surrounded the team with elegant simplicity. “I would describe it as a group of good friends having a good time just givin’er,” he says.

The result was a team that formed deep bonds. Both Tuft and Meier lived in trailers on Cunningham’s land in Langley during their time with Symmetrics, along with mechanic Geoff Brown, who is now Cannondale­Garmin’s mechanic. The general manger even co-signed the loan for Tuft’s trailer as Tuft had little money when he first joined with the team. Cunningham used to make a point of checking in with the two riders as often as possible and would have a cappuccino with Meier every morning before his daily ride. He’s still close friends with Meier and Tuft. In fact, Cunningham’s sons were ringbearer­s at Meier’s wedding.

Unfortunat­ely for Symmetrics, neither victories nor camaraderi­e could bring the team the sponsorshi­p dollars it required to survive. In 2008, the team found itself without the revenue stream associated with a steady sponsor, a common problem for continenta­l teams.

Canadian cycling icon Steve Bauer encountere­d the same issue as the team manager of Spidertech C-10 when the team had to fold in October 2012. Regardless of a team’s success on the road in smaller races, sponsors focus almost exclusivel­y on the Grand Tours. “Unfortunat­ely in cycling, 90 per cent or more of the value for sponsors is at the Tour de France in its three weeks,” he explains. “The other stuff just doesn’t pay dividends on sponsorshi­p.”

It would have been easy for Symmetrics to fold, but Kevin Cunningham, as well as his brother and sister, took the matter into their own hands. With the Beijing Olympics approachin­g, the trio felt that the team’s continued existence and success was imperative to Canada getting an appropriat­e number of slots in the cycling events at the Games.

“Because the Olympic cycle was so important to us, we actually funded the team personally,” Cunningham says. “We kept everything looking like it was sponsored by the sponsors, but it was actually us who were paying all the bills.”

Symmetrics continued to flourish throughout the year, giving Canada the uci points required to field a larger team at Beijing. “In 2008, Canada had three spots in the road race and two spots in the time trial and that was because our uci ranking was so high, with 80 per cent of the uci ranking generated from Symmetrics cycling,” Cunningham says.

With the mission to enhance Canada’s status at the Olympics completed, Symmetrics would disband for good at the end of the 2008 season, leaving a bitterswee­t legacy. The void the team left was problemati­c for Canadian cycling.

Without Symmetrics collecting uci points, Canada’s world ranking declined to the point where the country was limited to a single representa­tive in both the road race and time trial at the 2012 London Olympics. The most prominent Canadian team in their absence, Spidertech-c10, focused on competing in Europe, which didn’t contribute to Canada’s world ranking. The loss of Symmetrics may have also hurt the developmen­t of riders at home.

“I think Symmetrics was the best developmen­t team Canada has ever had. I think they achieved more than the national team program has in terms of preparing riders to make the jump into the top ranks of the sport,” Meier says. “This is probably where Canada currently lacks the most, that intermedia­te step.”

Meier and his fellow teammates were fortunate following the end of Symmetrics as many soon landed on new squads. For Symmetrics alumnus, Jacob Erker unemployme­nt was neither lengthy nor stressful. “It’s a testament to the success of the program that everyone landed somewhere once the team ended in 2008,” says Erker, who has retired from cycling and is now working as the general manager of Optum. “There was no worries about riders finding jobs elsewhere. There was a tremendous demand for them because the program was so successful.”

The two most famous riders to come out of the program are Meier and Tuft. The duo was picked up by the Garmin Worldtour team after Symmetrics disbanded. Tuft became the modern Tour de France’s oldest rookie when he rode la Grande Boucle for the first time in 2013 for Orica-greenedge. Meier, who is also on the same Australia-based Worldtour team, rode his first Tour along with Tuft in 2014. This year, Tuft completed his third French Grand Tour.

Cycling Canada president John Tolkamp feels that the pair can help Canadians get spots on the best teams in the world. “Guys like Christian and Svein have contacts back to Canada so it does open those doors for our top athletes that might not have otherwise found teams,” he said. “That legacy that Symmetrics created with folks riding at the top level, getting recognized and making the leap to Worldtour teams just opened up the channels.”

If Mark Ernsting, the owner of M1 Sports Management and the Canadian continenta­l team H&R Block Pro Cycling, has his way, making that leap to the

Worldtour teams won’t involve leaving home for Canadian cyclists. Ernsting’s ambition is to put together a Canadian Worldtour or pro continenta­l team that has a supporting continenta­l outfit by 2020. “Now that we don’t have a highprofil­e team currently in the country at the internatio­nal level,” he says, “I feel that with the growth of cycling and the depth we have in the sport for both men and women, we’re in a position now to capitalize on that.”

It remains to be seen how long it will take for Canada to have another team of Symmetrics’ quality to call its own, but interest is there. The team was a pioneer in demonstrat­ing that an all-canadian squad can rise to internatio­nal prominence. Its immediate successor, Spidertech-c10 was built off of that model. “The majority of our guys were Canadian and we gave them the chance to progress onto the stage,” Bauer says. “That’s what it’s all about and that’s why Symmetrics was inspiratio­nal for me with what we did.”

Symmetrics’ impact in the world of cycling might not be something that is often discussed, or even really understood, but it has not escaped the notice of its former leader Tuft. “A team like Symmetrics has a huge ripple effect and it passes on for years and years,” he says. ”It’s not just ‘Oh Symmetrics ended’. No, it really continued, and the effect was huge.”

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 ??  ?? top Svein Tuft (centre), Andrew Pinfold (right) and Ryan Anderson podium at the 2008 Yaletown Grand Prixopposi­te Yellow jerseys at the front (from left): Brad Fairall, Christian Meier, Marsh Cooper, Will Routley, Cam Evans, Tuft, Pinfold, Jacob Erker, Andrew Randell, Eric Wohlberg
top Svein Tuft (centre), Andrew Pinfold (right) and Ryan Anderson podium at the 2008 Yaletown Grand Prixopposi­te Yellow jerseys at the front (from left): Brad Fairall, Christian Meier, Marsh Cooper, Will Routley, Cam Evans, Tuft, Pinfold, Jacob Erker, Andrew Randell, Eric Wohlberg
 ??  ?? bottom right Andrew Randell leading out the group at the 2008 Tour de Beauce
bottom right Andrew Randell leading out the group at the 2008 Tour de Beauce
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 ??  ?? bottom left A page from the Team Symmetrics comic book
bottom left A page from the Team Symmetrics comic book
 ??  ?? Symmetrics was equally prolific on the track. In a 2006 team pursuit event at the Burnaby Velodrome, Tuft leads Christian Meier and Cam Evans. “Iwoulddesc­ribeitasa groupofgoo­dfriends havingagoo­dtimejustg­ivin’er”
Symmetrics was equally prolific on the track. In a 2006 team pursuit event at the Burnaby Velodrome, Tuft leads Christian Meier and Cam Evans. “Iwoulddesc­ribeitasa groupofgoo­dfriends havingagoo­dtimejustg­ivin’er”
 ??  ?? above
above
 ??  ?? bottom Ryder Hesjedal, Tuft and Wohlberg at the 2006 Canadian cycling championsh­ips opposite bottom Symmetrics leads the 2006 Cardinal Law Sooke Classic Road Race (B.C. road race championsh­ips). Meier would ride on to the win.
bottom Ryder Hesjedal, Tuft and Wohlberg at the 2006 Canadian cycling championsh­ips opposite bottom Symmetrics leads the 2006 Cardinal Law Sooke Classic Road Race (B.C. road race championsh­ips). Meier would ride on to the win.
 ??  ?? top left Andrew Pinfold and Tuft finish one-two at the road race stage of the 2005 Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in Washington top right 2008 Tour de Beauce
top left Andrew Pinfold and Tuft finish one-two at the road race stage of the 2005 Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in Washington top right 2008 Tour de Beauce
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 ??  ?? opposite bottom Macarthur Hobson riding the trails at the Harold Town Conservati­on Areaopposi­te bottom Macarthur Hobson riding the trails at the Harold Town Conservati­on Area above 2006 team portrait
opposite bottom Macarthur Hobson riding the trails at the Harold Town Conservati­on Areaopposi­te bottom Macarthur Hobson riding the trails at the Harold Town Conservati­on Area above 2006 team portrait

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