page_title: Ryder Hesjedal
section_title: 2010
hierarchical_section_title: Ryder Hesjedal / Career / Slipstream–Chipotle (2008–15) / 2010
caption_attribution_description: 5699 hesjedal
context_page_description: Eric Ryder Hesjedal is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in both mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016. Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite world championship in mountain biking. He turned professional with U.S. Postal Service in 2004 after several years with the Rabobank continental team. Having previously finished in fifth place at the 2010 Tour de France, Hesjedal won his first and only Grand Tour at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour win by a Canadian. Other major wins include two stages at the Vuelta a España, the first such stage wins by a Canadian.
context_section_description: In March, Hesjedal grabbed a good result at the Montepaschi Strade Bianche, an Italian race run partly on dirt roads. He finished fifth, 19 seconds behind the victor, Maxim Iglinsky of Astana, and said that he was happy with his performance. In April, Hesjedal earned a place on the podium in one of the Ardennes classics, the Amstel Gold Race, which ran through the Dutch hills for 257 kilometres (160 mi). In the final kilometre, he attempted to follow the acceleration produced by Philippe Gilbert on the steep Cauberg, but had to settle for second place, two seconds behind Gilbert. Hesjedal rode the Tour of California and finished fifth overall, grabbing a victory on the eighth stage in the process, as he out-sprinted his breakaway companions Chris Horner (Team RadioShack), George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team) and Carlos Barredo (Quick-Step). With that operation he helped secure the overall win of Michael Rogers since Hesjedal appropriated the 10 seconds bonus awarded to stage winners, making sure none of Rogers' rivals could claim it since Rogers had a very narrow lead in the general classification.
  During the Tour de France, Hesjedal finished 4th in the third stage, which featured some cobbled sections, after leading by himself for much of the race until being caught in the last 6 kilometres (3.7 miles). He was awarded the most combative rider on the day and thus wore red numbers for the fourth stage. On July 22, Hesjedal again finished fourth, this time on stage 17 on the famed slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. Hesjedal went on to finish fifth in the overall classification of the race, the highest Canadian finish in the race in 22 years, when Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 Tour de France. Hesjedal went on to say of his result:
  "I hope this result does positive things for Canadian cycling and motivates the next generation of Canadian cyclists. I hope that’s the biggest thing that comes out of this... This placing will be there [in the books] forever... If this makes more Canadians aware of cycling, and want to cycle, then it will have been worth it for that alone."
  — Ryder Hesjedal, about his Tour de France 5th place
caption: Hesjedal at the 2010 Tour de France
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