May 24, 2006 – According to an article in Montreal’s La Presse this morning Lyne Bessette will not be on the start line for this Saturday’s Montreal World Cup on Mont Royal. Bessette will make this announcement at a press conference for the race this afternoon in Montreal.

Troubled by injuries since the beginning of the 2006 season, speculation is that Bessette could be in fact be announcing her retirement from cycling. A shoulder injury prevented her from participating in her third Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia this March, and Bessette recently DNF’d at the Tour de l’Aude – one of the most important Stage races in the UCI women’s racing calendar. Prior to her participation at the Tour de l’Aude, Bessette had said that she was “80% healed” from her shoulder injury. Regarding her premature departure from l’Aude in an interview with Sportcom Bessette said: “I want to reassure everyone that I am ok, I am at home, and not to worry about me.”.

In the La Presse interview Bessette’s agent Érik Pokomandy did not confirm or deny her retirement, instead focusing on the “accumulation of injuries” as being worrisome. La Presse also quotes a reliable source as having commented that “She is injured, tired. She probably just doesn’t want that kind of life anymore. She can’t find the same happiness on her bike.”

Radio-Canada for its part speculates that Bessette will have an operation to repair her shoulder now instead of waiting until autumn as previous scheduled, potentially putting her back in the saddle for the cyclocross season.

Bessette had a late but spectacular entry into cycling, making a name for herself at the Commonwealth Game with gold at the road race in 1998, and bronze in 2002 at the Games in Manchester. In 2001, Bessette won double-gold at the Canadian Championships – road race and time-trial – and has also won the Tour de l’Aude, the now-defunct Challenge Féminin Hewlett Packard, and the Montreal World Cup.

Bessette’s trips to the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) were a different story. Sydney saw a media frenzy over the controversy with teammate Geneviève Jeanson and accusations that Jeanson had cost Canada and Bessette a podium during the last kilometers of the race. Following her disappointing Games in Athens Bessette focused on cyclocross leaving road racing aside for 2005.

The in November 2005, La Presse announced that Bessette was returning to the road scene with T-Mobile, the high-profile German road team.

The story by Simon Drouin is available at Velo Nouvelle:
www.geocities.com/velonouvelle/art/6/5mai/P24.html