This Weekend Box features a Canadian double in St. Andrews, Canadian-U.S. victors in Muskoka, Spanish-German winners in the dirt in France and a Dutch-French team atop the podium in an ETU sprint in the Netherlands.
Men
Igor Amorelli of Brazil opened a big lead with a race-best 23:00 swim split that put heavy favorite Sanders in 9th place, 4:48 down. By 35km of the bike leg, Sanders whittled the lead of Amorelli – no slouch on the bike – down to 3:30. After a blazing 2:16:08 bike split – 6:33 better than Kyle Pawlaczyk of the U.S. and 9:01 faster than Brazilian Amorelli – Sanders held a 4:32 lead on Amorelli and 7:21 on Pawlaczyk.
Any hope of stealing Sanders’ home country victory was erased on the run, as his race-best 1:15:39 split brought him to the line in 4:02:52 with a 13:38 margin over fellow Canadian Alex Vanderlinden (1:16:34 run split) and 16:41 over 3rd-place finisher Ian Boggs of the U.S.
Women
The women's race turned out to be more of a battle than Sanders’ demolition of the men’s field. Spieldenner started with a women's-best 25:25 swim, which gave her a 3 minute 53 seconds lead on Canadian Kirsty Jahn and 6:14 on Canadian Sue Huse. Although separated throughout the challenging 56-mile bike course, Spieldenner and Jahn posted nearly identical 2:44:28 and 2:44:29 bikes splits, so the American maintained a 4:38 lead starting the run.
With the gradual inevitability of melting snow, Jahn eroded Spieldenner’s lead to 2:14 at the halfway mark of the 21-kilometer run leg. In response Spieldenner carefully upped her pace by a few seconds per kilometer and held on. At the finish, Spieldenner’s 1:25:59 run surrendered 3:52 to Jahn, but brought her to the finish in 4:39:27 with a 40 seconds margin of victory and 10:51 lead on 3rd-place finisher Huse.
Ironman 70.3 Muskoka
Muskoka, Canada
July 5, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Lionel Sanders (CAN) 4:02:52
2. Alex Vanderlinden (CAN) 4:16:30
3. Ian Boggs (USA) 4:19:33
4. Jordan Monnink (CAN) 4:19:56
5. Kyle Pawlaczyk (USA) 4:20:38
Women
1. Jennifer Spieldenner (USA) 4:39:27
2. Kirsty Jahn (CAN) 4:40:07
3. Sue Huse (CAN) 4:50:18
4. Robyn Hardage (CAN) 4:50:51 * F30-34
5. Kristen Tamburrino (CAN) 4:56:42 * F40-44
Canadians Taylor Reid and Melanie McQuaid prevail at Challenge St. Andrews
Canadians Taylor Reid and Melanie McQuaid topped the men’s and women's fields at Challenge St. Andrews.
Men
Reid, coming off an encouraging 2nd place finish at Ironman 70.3 Mt. Tremblant, surrendered a 1:16 lead to Italian veteran Alberto Alessandroni after the swim, then gained back 1:30 with a race-best 2:12:46 bike split. Starting in close order, Reid unleashed a men’s-fastest 1:13:20 run that bested the Italian by 8:46. Reid finished in 3:54:14 with a 9:32 margin on Alessandroni and 12:36 on 3rd-place finisher Iain Alexandridis of the U.S.
Women
McQuaid, 3-time XTERRA World Champion and five-time half Ironman distance winner, started her day with a 23:23 swim that gave her a 2:40 lead on a trio that included Canadians Kristen Marchant and Isabelle Rouleau and Jillian Petersen of the U.S.
McQuaid increased her lead to 7:40 on Marchant, 11 minutes on Petersen and 22 minutes on Rouleau with a women's-best 2:25:07 bike leg - 5:35 better than Marchant,
8:27 better than Petersen and 18 minutes better than Rouleau.
McQuaid needed that lead to ward off Marchant’s women's 2nd-best 1:27:33 run, which took back 5:58 from the XTERRA champion’s margin. At the finish, McQuaid’s 1:33:31 run, the slowest among the five pro women, brought her to the finish in 4:26:57 with a 2:24 margin of victory over Jahn and 2:46 on 3rd-place finisher Petersen.
Challenge St. Andrews
St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Taylor Reid (CAN) 3:54:14
2. Alberto Alessandroni (ITA) 4:03:46
3. Iain Alexandridis (USA) 4:06:50
4. Alistair Eeckman (USA) 4:09:20
5. John Kenny (USA) 4:10:11
Women
1. Melanie McQuaid (CAN) 4:26:57
2. Kristen Marchant (CAN) 4:29:21
3. Jillian Petersen (USA) 4:29:43
4. Isabelle Rouleau (CAN) 4:44:00 * F20-24
5. Charisa Wernick (USA) 4:44:16
Rachel Klamer and Aurélien Lebrun win Holten ETU Premium European Cup
Home country favorite Rachel Klamer of the Netherlands and Aurélien Lebrun of France won the Holten ETU Premium European Cup sprint triathlon Saturday.
Women
Klamer led the 750-meter swim in 9:07, which gave her a 1 second lead on Kelly-Ann Perkins of Australia, Anastasia Abrosimova of Russia and Kimberley Bell of Great Britain, and 2 seconds on Natalie Van Coevorden of Australia. The rest of the 33-woman field were within 50 seconds of the leaders.
As expected in a draft-legal, 20-kilometer bike leg on a table top flat surface, the race devolved into a huge pack with matters to be decided on the run. Sarah Dossena of Italy made up for a 9:40 swim and a mid-pack 32:06 bike leg with a race-best 17:52 run which brought her home 3rd, 16 seconds behind the winner. Klamer posted a 2nd-best 18:02 run to finish in 1:00:49 with a 7 seconds margin of victory over Perkins, who closed with a 3rd-best 18:05 run.
U.S. newcomer Renee Tomlin, who scored a World Cup win at Chengdu and 4th place at WTS Yokohama, had a disappointing 29th place finish as she fell back with a 35:22 bike split and an off-form 19:17 run.
Men
Lebrun started with a tied-for-4th 8:42 swim, 11 seconds back of swim leader Denis Vasiliev of Russia, 3 seconds behind Ryan Sissons of New Zealand and in the middle of a sardine-close pack with Andrey Bryukhankov of Russia, Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway and two dozen other contenders.
Like the women, the 20 kilometer flat bike leg turned into a clot of riders arriving in T2 en masse, with the race to be decided by a 5k run.
Lebrun had the most firepower and ran a race-best 15:53 – 13 seconds better than his closest pursuer – to finish in 55:14 with a 16 seconds margin on Sissons (2nd-best 16:06 run) and 22 seconds on 3rd-place Brice Daubord of France.
Of interest to U.S. fans, still-recovering Lukas Verzbicas finished in 11th place, the top American, 1:02 behind the winner. Verzbicas, now training with famed coach Brett Sutton, posted an 8:55 swim, 28:32 bike leg – 11 seconds faster than Lebrun – and a 16:47 run.
Holten ETU Triathlon Premium European Cup
Holten, Netherlands
July 4, 2015
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k
Results
Women
1. Rachel Klamer (NED) 1:00:49
2. Kelly-Ann Perkins (AUS) 1:00:56
3. Sara Dossena (ITA) 1:02:05
4. Natalie Milne (GBR) 1:02:39
5. Avery Evenson (USA) 1:02:44
15. Johanna Gartman (USA) 1:03:40
29. Renee Tomlin (USA) 1:06:00
DNF Kristen Kasper (USA)
Men
1. Aurélien Lebrun (FRA) 55:14
2. Ryan Sissons (NZL) 55:30
3. Brice Daubord (FRA) 55:36
4. Andreas Schilling (DEN) 55:41
5. Jorik Van Egdom (NED) 55:46
11. Lukas Verzbicas (USA) 56:16
38. Nick Karwoski (USA) 58:16
39. Eli Hemming (USA) 58:17
50. Hunter Lussi (USA) 59:40
53. Josh Izewski (USA) 1:00:23
54. Robby Webster (USA) 1:00:34
Ruben Ruzafa and Kathrin Mueller win XTERRA France
Three-time and reigning XTERRA World champion Ruben Ruzafa of Spain and reigning XTERRA European Tour Champion Kathrin Mueller won XTERRA France for the second year in a row.
The win was Ruzafa’s 12th XTERRA victory in a row after winning the XTERRA World title in 2013 and was Mueller’s 8th win in her last 10 races on the XTERRA European Tour in the last two years.
Ruzafa was among the leaders on the swim, posted the fastest bike split by five minutes, and cruised to the win by 5:12 over Bradley Weiss of South Africa and 6:46 over 3rd place finisher Francois Carloni of France. “I had no problems, no cramps, no mechanicals,” said Ruzafa. “But it was a very long race and very hot.”
After six races, Roger Serrano of Spain leads the XTERRA European Tour men’s points chase with 354, followed by Carloni with 332, Ruzafa with 275, Albert Soley of Spain with 219 and Forissier with 175.
Mueller led the women’s race from start to her 3:55:21 finish, leading Helena Erbenova of the Czech Republic by 3:24. Erbenova, who won XTERRA Greece and XTERRA Spain last month, said, “I finally had a good swim but I could not get any speed on my first bike lap. It was so hot but my legs were OK.”
Brigitta Poor of Hungary leads the XTERRA European Tour points chase with 446, followed by Erbenova with 414, Louise Fox of Great Britain with 340, Jessica Roberts of Great Britain with 196 and Mueller with 175.
XTERRA France
Xonrupt, France
July 5, 2015
Results
1. Ruben Ruzafa (ESP) 3:18:08
2. Bradley Weiss (RSA) 3:23:20
3. Francois Carloni (FRA) 3:24:54
4. Arthur Forissier (FRA) 3:28:14
5. Malte Plappert (GER) 3:31:21
Women
1. Kathrin Mueller (GER) 3:55:21
2. Helena Erbenova (CZE) 3:58:45
3. Myriam Guillot (FRA) 4:00:14
4. Coralie Redelsperger (AUT) 4:04:48
5. Sandra Koblmueller (AUT) 4:07:46
6. Brigitta Poor (HUN) 4:09:43
