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If you don t mind a bit of wear and a few champagne marks, RyderHesjedal s pink jersey the first one ever won by a Canadian inthe Giro d Italia could be yours. The autographed jersey is for sale on eBay, with all proceeds goingto support up-and-coming cyclists in Canada through Ryders CyclingSociety of Canada. It was Ryder s idea to auction off the pink jersey. That s justRyder for you, said close friend Cody Graham on Sunday, minutesafter the jersey went live on the Internet auction site. Just how much the jersey will generate is anyone s guess, Grahamsaid, but whoever buys the maglia rosa will own a piece of cyclingand Canadian sports history. This is Canada s first pink jersey. There s only one and it sthe real one the one he wore up on the podium after stage 7. The pink jersey is given at the end of each of the Giro s 21stages to the rider with the leading overall time. Tradition hasthe winner of each stage open a magnum of champagne, which isusually sprayed around liberally. Hesjedal won the jersey on stage 7 of the race, and kept it untilstage 9, reclaiming the jersey again at stage 14 and winning theoverall Giro on May 27. He is the first Canadian to ever win one ofthe three Grand Tour cycling events, which also include the Tour deFrance and the Vuelta a Espa a. Hesjedal will race in the Tour de France as well, as team leaderfor Garmin Barracuda. The 31-year-old was sixth in the Tour deFrance two years ago. The Tour starts June 30, has 20 stages andfinishes in Paris on July 22. Bids on the jersey will close June 20 at 9:15 a.m. PDT. The weblink for bidding on it is given below. The eBay auction was announced Sunday at the opening of a nationalconference for the Canadian Public Relations Society at theVictoria Conference Centre. We have 300 of Canada s top PR people here, said Kim VanBruggen, who handles much of Hesjedal s publicity and who openedthe conference with the announcement. We challenged them all toget the word out there, and see how far and wide it can take off. Also debuting at the conference was the minute-long video ofHesjedal called Champion done by Graham and Media OneMultimedia Inc. The two have been close friends since junior highschool and Graham was the only Canadian media person in Italy withHesjedal. Graham s montage includes images never released before, includingthe moment when Hesjedal realized his father had come to Italy tosurprise him. His father and Graham waited for Hesjedal at the endof the final mountain stage. The only stage left was the time trialthe following day. He had been on his bike for seven hours and done 13,000 feet ofclimbing. He had survived the mountains but he was shelled, saidGraham, describing the look and feeling when a cyclist s energy iscompletely gone. You leave everything you have on the road behindyou. When Hesjedal sees his father, he breaks into a huge smile. His dad came up to him crying and said, I m so proud of you. You can see Ryder s face light up and his energy go from zero to100 per cent. We realized then, there s no way he s losing thetime trial tomorrow. We could tell how invigorating it was for him.We knew it then he s going to win the Giro, Graham said. And Hesjedal did. To see the video, go to: /watch?v=HWVlZZrGtEI&feature=share To get to the auction, go to:itm/Ryder-Hesjedals-Giro-dItalia-Stage-7-Podium-Jersey-Autographed-/180903573215?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1eb176df. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Discovery Metal Detector , Walk Through Metal Detector Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Walk Through Metal Detector today!
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