CYCLING WHILE SAILING

PEDAL power is returning to the America’s Cup.

Two-time defending champion Emirates Team New Zealand has added a new group of elite athletes, including two cyclists, to help provide the immense amount of power required for the hydraulics that control various systems on the foiling AC75 sloops that will be sailed in the 2024 regatta in Barcelona.

The Kiwis first debuted the “cyclors” during the 2017 America’s Cup, using cyclists pedaling stationary bikes to replace traditional grinders to power the hydraulic systems for trimming sails and controlling the foils on their 50-foot catamaran. That was just one of several technological breakthroughs that helped propel the Kiwis to a stunning upset of two-time champion Oracle Team USA.

Cyclors were banned from the last America’s Cup, when the AC75 monohulls replaced the catamarans, but are back because the crew size has been reduced from 11 to eight. It’s up to each team to decide whether to use grinders or cyclors, but the prevailing thinking is that four crewmen using their legs will provide more power than four crewmen using their arms.

The Kiwis have hired rower/cyclist Hamish Bond, a three-time Olympic rowing gold medalist; cyclist Louis Crosby; multi-sport athlete Dougal Allan; and rower Cameron Webster to go along with grinders from the last Cup and original cyclor Simon van Velthooven. E ach of the new recruits went through a tough selection process overseen by ETNZ trainer Kim Simperingham late last year.

“ We had a really interesting week of cyclor testing for our existing sailing team as well as a list of potential new candidates, all of whom took their bodies to their absolute limits for the tests,” Simperingham said. “The two main physical qualities we were looking for are athletes that can sustain a really high-power output for the length of a race, up to about half an hour, and athletes that can also achieve really high peaks in power, that will be used for the maneuvers during races.”

The tests were a combination of short maximum power output tests as well as longer endurance tests as the Kiwis looked for athletes to get them through the next few years.

What we found was the big guys have the power and endurance as opposed to the smaller guys with huge power-to-weight ratio who, although highly impressive, struggle to match the overall numbers that bigger guys can output which shows in many of the guys who have been selected,” Simperingham said.

Van Velthooven, will return to his familiar role alongside grinders Louis Sinclair, Marcus Hansen and Marius van der Pol from the last regatta. The grinders went through the testing as well, along with sailor Sam Meech who joined the team in 2022.

“ It’s brutal. America’s Cups are hard so they put us through a hard test. It’s crucial to deliver the whole way through.” van Velthooven said.

You sort of easily forget how much pain these little tests can put you through. So that’s a good check-in and reminder,” van der Pol said.

F light controller Blair Tuke was involved in the selection process and is encouraged by the skill of the athletes.

We have a really potent mix of America’s Cup and AC75 experience, fresh hungry talent and raw power which I am sure will set us up strongly by the time we are on the start line for the America’s Cup match,” Tuke said. To see what these guys are prepared to put themselves through in testing to qualify for the team has been really impressive and I have no doubt they will apply that same commitment to the whole team in the gym, in the shed and on the water throughout the campaign,” Tuke said.

The New York Yacht Club’s American Magic has been training with four cyclors aboard Patriot on Pensacola Bay for four months, said Terry Hutchinson, the president of sailing operations/skipper. The change in the rule drove the decision,” Hutchinson said.

“The crews were reduced from 11 down to eight but they didn’t change the amount of power being used in the boat. Four guys using their arms are not the same as using their legs, so the rule change made it very easy. From there we’ve had to work on fine-tuning the athletes and finding them.” Hutchinson said 10 athletes are competing for cyclor spots. The team will have eight or nine cyclors in order rotate fresh athletes through on days when there are multiple races. AP

Scattered by war, Ukrainian preteens head to hockey tilt

Hall of Famer Bill Walton played with him and the Boston backups. Hawks coach Nate McMillan took on that role at times, too. McMillan used to play key stretches with the youngsters—and the stars—in Seattle, taking great pride in making the others shine, “because that was the strength of my game.” Gary Payton would move to the wing and McMillan might run the point on the floor with Hersey Hawkins, Sam Perkins and Detlef Schrempf. “ I was the guy that would come in and really be that coach out on the floor,” McMillan recalled. “I was that guy who was initiating and making sure that we set up. Very similar to Draymond, I wasn’t providing a lot of scoring but the defense was going to be there, moving the ball, getting the ball to those shooters, all of that.”

Those versatile players mean so much, to both the starters and the backups, for their ability to make everyone on the roster better. The Warriors are counting on the experience gained by the young players now making them a far better team come playoff time in April and May.

To this day, Carlisle treasures the time he spent on the court with Walton.

When I was a young player we traded for Bill Walton when I was in Boston and I was a hell of a lot better player when I was on the floor with Bill Walton,” Carlisle said. “I wasn’t very good but now when you’ve got a chance to be on the floor with a Hallof-Fame-type player like that who has major impact on defense and offense, it’s going to change you.” Green gets that. He wants to be part of helping his teammates build a better NBA future by serving as an on-court guide. He has the championship pedigree. AP

MONTREAL—Sean Bérubé said he thought it was a joke when he was first asked to help assemble a team of Ukrainian preteen refugees, displaced by war and spread out across Europe, to play in a renowned Quebec City hockey tournament.

B érubé, a businessman from the Quebec City region, was having a beer in Bucharest last March with Evgheniy Pysarenko, whom he played hockey with in Ukraine as a teenager.

The businessman—with the help of Pysarenko—had just traveled to Ukraine to help his former Ukrainian hockey coach and the coach’s family flee the Russian invasion. To show his gratitude, Bérubé said he owed Pysarenko a beer.

Then he (Pysarenko) said, ’No, I’ve got a different thing to ask you. I have a different favor.’”

Th at favor morphed into a mission, culminating with travel visas to Canada for a group of 11- and 12-year-olds from Ukraine to play in the Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament, which has hosted greats such as Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur.

The Ukrainian team is scheduled to take to the ice at the Videotron Centre on February 11 to play the Junior Bruins from Massachusetts.

My thrill is to see them smile after all the mess and all the trouble they’ve been through for the last few months,” Bérubé said this week before heading to Europe.

The biggest obstacle to getting them in Canada was the paperwork, Bérubé said. The boys were living with their mothers in various European countries, while their fathers were on the front lines fighting the Russian invasion.

So to get the signature for their mother—that was the easy part,” Bérubé said. “But the most difficult part was to get the signature from the fathers…[they] are all on the battlefield…so we had through a courier service to get them to sign.”

P ysarenko, speaking from Romania, said he searched for Ukrainian coaches and put together a list of potential players before he contacted Bérubé, who put up his own money to bring the kids to Quebec.

A s of this week, Bérubé was still finalizing tickets and travel insurance and making sure families in Quebec City are ready to host the boys.

I want to give back to Ukraine,” Bérubé said. “You know, I had such a great time when I went there as a teenager, so I feel it’s my duty.”

Tryouts were held over Christmas in Romania. Pysarenko said some of the boys knew each other, either as former teammates or opponents. They will gather again in Romania later this week, traveling from places like Latvia, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, before they fly to Montreal on February 1 and ultimately travel to Quebec City.

“

The first goal is to show these kids that anything is possible, that dreams can come true even if it’s a difficult time back home and it’s war,” Pysarenko said. “They need to believe in a better future, and they can be an example for other people all over the world.”

B érubé was heading to Europe to pick up four players at the UkraineRomania border. Two kids are originally from Kherson, which spent months under Russian occupation, and two others from Odesa, which has also been bombed. AP