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DE GRASSE READY TO RIDE INTO TOKYO

Canadian sprinter has employed a variety of training activities to get set for Games

SCOTT STINSON sstinson@postmedia.com twitter.com/ Scott_stinson

Here is a peek behind the sportswriter curtain: Sometimes around big events, high-profile athletes are made available for an interview through one of their sponsors. You can generally talk about whatever you want, but need to at least sneak a sponsor question in there somewhere.

It can make for some awkward transitions. An All-pro running back is discussing his new offensive co-ordinator and what it will mean for the upcoming season, and then: “So, tell me about Kingsford charcoal.” As it happens, it is his favourite. What a stroke of luck.

But I was legitimately curious about Andre De Grasse's use of a Peloton bicycle. These are the very expensive machines that include online classes run by extremely chipper instructors, which are viewed on a display in front of the handlebars. Judging by the advertisements, the bike is to be placed in the centre of your condo with wraparound views of Manhattan or, failing that, the Amalfi coast.

Many years ago, when I was just starting out in the business, I interviewed an Olympic sprinter who asked me if I did any running. I told him I had started running regularly in six- to eight-kilometre increments. He told me I could certainly beat him at that distance. I pointed at myself theatrically and cocked my ear like a spaniel being told it's walkies time. “Who, me?” He explained that a sprinter was all about brute power and short bursts, like a muscle car. He wasn't built for any kind of distance.

Which is why I was curious about the Peloton. Could someone like De Grasse, a triple Olympic medallist who is one of the fastest men in the world, and who requires an extremely precise training regimen, really fit in time to use an exercise bike?

He insists that he does. De Grasse explains over the phone that he will have bike workouts when it's raining, or when he needs to have a low-tempo day. “It helps me flush out my legs to get ready for the next hard workout on the track,” he says. De Grasse says he also uses the Peloton system for yoga and Pilates workouts, to stretch and maintain flexibility. (Gold medal for the sponsor plug.)

And when I ask if he ever joins the classes with the loud and excited instructors, he says he's tried that, too. “It can get pretty intense, pretty competitive,” he says. “You'd be surprised how many people are really good at riding a bike.”

One doesn't imagine the 26-year-old Canadian is doing too many bike classes these days. The Tokyo Olympics begin in five weeks, and the most important thing now is to stay healthy, especially since he had some injury troubles after his three-medal performance at Rio 2016, and his buddy-cop routine with sprint legend Usain Bolt.

“The days are flying by and I'm just excited,” he says. De Grasse is training in Florida, and will go from there to Europe for a couple of meets before heading to Japan.

“You want to feel that competition, making sure that you're executing your race,” he says. “This is the time to go out there and make sure that everything is clicking and everything is in sync, because when you get to the Games, you don't want to be second guessing (yourself ).”

The tune-up races will take on extra importance because of the oddity of Tokyo 2020, delayed for a year and forcing athletes to rethink schedules that were designed to have them peak at a specific point in the calendar.

De Grasse, though, says after the initial disappointment of the postponement, he embraced the pause away from the peaks and valleys of training, the rare time with no big-ticket event for which to prepare.

“It was good to just relax, worry about some other things and just take this break for a moment ... because it's definitely, it's definitely draining, you know, to gear yourself up every single time and try to push your body.” He spent time with his family. He had them on Peloton bikes, too, he says with a chuckle. (The man is on his game.)

With Bolt having retired after dominating the top of the sprint podium for so many years, De Grasse is one of a pack of sprinters that are tightly bunched. He has already run a sub-10-second 100-metre race this season, last month in Florida, and a sub-20second 200-metre race a few days earlier in Qatar.

“I know what I'm capable of,” De Grasse says. “I've run good times, so now it's really just about taking one race at a time and winning your round.”

Which brings another question: When he gets in the starting block, does he have a specific time in mind, or is it just about finishing ahead of everyone else on the track? De Grasse says the latter, definitely. “It's about winning,” he says. “Winning that race and executing, because at that point, the time is gonna come.”

Or, put another way, if you are winning your race?

“Then you're gonna run fast.”

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2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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