Cameron Dye blew away the men’s field on the bike and 2012 Olympian Laura Bennett’s superior swim trumped Ironman 70.3 World Champion Melisa Rollison’s faster bike split to take the men’s and women’s titles at the 2012 Boulder Peak 5i50 Triathlon.
The Men
Dye emerged from the Boulder Reservoir tied with Marcus Fernandes of Brazil, 5 seconds back of Kiwi Dylan McNeice's race-best 17:52 swim, and two seconds behind Australian Joseph Lampe. Trailing the lead group were Kris Gemmell of New Zealand (18:10) Michael Fox of Australia (18:32) Matt Reed of the US (18:33) and, in a later amateur elite wave, Drew Scott (18:59).
Dye then scorched away with a 2nd best 57:50 bike split matched only by slow swimming XTERRA star Conrad Stoltz of South Africa, whose 20:42 swim cancelled out his race-best 57:44 bike and put him 2:46 back at T2. Matt Reed’s trailed by 4 minutes, Joseph Lampe 4:58, Michael Fox 5:12, Kris Gemmell 5:22, and Drew Scott’s 5th fastest 1:02:02 bike left him trailing on elapsed time by 5:40.
Protected by his big lead off the bike, Dye’s 9th-best 35:04 run was enough to get him to the finish in 1:52:44 with a 3:18 margin of victory over Reed, (4th best 34:20 run), 3:39 over 3rd-place Gemmell (race-best 33:25 run), 4 minutes flat over Lampe (2nd best 34:11 run) and 4:26 over 5th place Stoltz (36:47 run).
Scott, who won the amateur Male Elite category, finished 8th overall in 1:59:21 after a 36:12 run.
The Women
Boulder resident Laura Bennett started fast with her 19:40 swim split that gave her a 1:43 lead on Jillian Petersen, 2:43 on Erika Erickson, 2:57 over Rollison, 3:41 on Jennifer Tetrick, and 4:48 on Amanda Lovato.
Rollison fought back with a race-best 1:06:08 bike split which was 1:59 faster than Bennett’s and left the American with a 41 seconds lead starting the run. Using her ITU foot speed, Bennett ran a race-best 36:34 10k which was 24 seconds faster than Rollison. At the finish, Bennett’s 2:06:20 finish was 1:35 ahead of runner-up Rollison and 7:07 better than 3rd place Jillian Petersen.
Boulder Peak 5i50 Triathlon
Boulder, Colorado
July 8, 2012
S 1.5 k / B 40 k / R 10k
Results
Male
1. Cameron Dye (USA) 1:52:44
2. Matt Reed (USA) 1:56:02
3. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:56:23
4. Joseph Lampe (AUS) 1:56:44
5. Conrad Stoltz (RSA) 1:57:10
6. Michael Fox (AUS) 1:57:31
7. Timothy Reed (AUS) 1:59:18
8. Drew Scott (USA) 1:59:21 * Male Elite
9 Marcus Fernandes (BRA) 2:11:42
10. Travis Johnston (RSA) 2:00:42
Female
1. Laura Bennett (USA) 2:06:20
2. Melisa Rollison (AUS) 2:07:55
3. Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:13:27
4. Amanda Lovato (USA) 2:14:12
5. Erika Erickson (USA) 2:17:44
6. Danielle Kehoe (USA) 2:18:26 * F25-29
7. Kelly Lear-Kaul (USA) 2:19:10 *F40-44
8. Steph Popelar (USA) 2:19:50 * F45-49
9. Rebecca Witinok-Huber (USA) 2:23:31 * Female Elite
10. Sinead O’Dwyer (USA) 2:23:56 * Female Elite
