Svein Tuft, Langley's time-trial man

Svein Tuft’s career is a list of odd, good stories. He left school at 15 and spent years travelling with his dog, climbing and riding long distances, including a teenage bike trip to Alaska of roughly 4,000 miles. Then he became a professional time triallist good enough to stand on a world championship podium.

The Langley connection

Both Wikipedia and the Canadian Olympic Committee tie him to Langley: Wikipedia gives Langley as his birthplace, and Olympic.ca lists Langley as his hometown and his home (it gives White Rock as the birthplace). In his early pro years with the Symmetrics team, Wikipedia says, he lived in a trailer behind the team owner’s place near Langley, next door to a teammate in another trailer. Their teammates called them the trailer park boys.

The big days

• 2006-07: wins the UCI America Tour, the season-long continental ranking.
• 2008: at the world championships in Varese, Italy, he takes silver in the time trial despite a flat tire inside the last 5 km. That summer he finishes seventh in the Olympic time trial in Beijing, better than any Canadian before him in the event, per Olympic.ca, and 58th in the road race.
• 2012: wins a stage of the Eneco Tour.
• 2013: finishes the 100th Tour de France as the lanterne rouge, the last-placed rider overall.
• 2014: his Orica-GreenEDGE team wins the opening team time trial at the Giro d’Italia, and he is the rider who pulls on the leader’s pink jersey, the maglia rosa. Wikipedia quotes him calling it “a once in a lifetime experience.”

He won the Canadian championship 13 times: 11 in the time trial and twice in the road race (2011 and 2014).

After racing

He retired in 2019 after a last season with Rally UHC Cycling. His memoir, We Will Never Be Here Again, was published in 2025.

Ride here

For bike lanes, routes and the local rules of the road, see cycling in Langley.

The photo at the top is from that 2008 world championships podium in Varese.

Something out of date? Tell us.