Born too late 6.11.03 (www.slowtwitch.com)
by Dan Empfield

With a stunningly lopsided win at Alcatraz over arguably the fastest no-draft athlete in the short-course arena, suddenly Simon Lessing is back.

Perhaps it was a flash in the pan. It would be unwise, though, to bet against the 32-year-old South-African born Brit who'se been a top pro triathlete for exactly half his life. Every time you think he's lost his dominance, he does something to change your mind. Like win another world title. He's won four of them at the International Distance ('92, '95, '96, '98).

And that doesn't count his World Long Course championship, won at the Nice Triathlon in '95, six weeks away from his short-course title won that year.

This makes Simon Lessing the one remaining bridge between the "old" era of the Big-Four-plus-Greg-Welch and today. Simon Lessing is the one current athlete who can—and has—won at short course and long, draft or no. He's got Mark Allen talent, but is not yet revered like Allen, because he chose (up to this point) a different, more European, career path. Had he been born a decade earlier, he'd have undoubtedly been an Ironman racer, as everyone was. His life probably would've been simpler.

Simon Lessing despises ITU-style racing. It's not the politics or the personages, it's just that he likes triathlon, with the emphasis on the tri. "They're just training to be swim/run specialists," he says. And in the end that seems to be what's driven him to live and race in the States. In his view, "Short course racing is worse off, except in America."

Simon Lessing spent his entire career living and racing in the Maritime Alp region of Salon de Provence, or in Bath, England. But he's relocated to Boulder, Colorado, with a new spring in his step. The husband of American retired pro Lisa Laiti, with whom he has a daughter, Amelie, with another daughter due two days ago, is racing the American "classics"—e.g., Chicago, Alcatraz—triathlon's version of cycling's Paris Robaix, Fleche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Most of triathlon's old guard was rooting for Simon in Alcatraz. Hope he does well, top-5 would be good, was the prevailing thought. He won by upwards of three minutes. This win, especially with Aussie Craig Walton in the field, has thrown a wrench in the works of the World's best short coursers who can ride. Walton has been in a class of his own as a well-rounded short course triathlete, while on the women's side there are a pair of Americans who stand apart: Sheila Taormina and Barb Lindquist.

Why is this newsworthy? Many pro athletes have pivoted their entire season around one race: the Life Time Fitness Triathlon. One person will walk away with $250,000. Smart money said it would be "Waldo," or Lindquist, or Taormina, with Chris McCormack given a shot at it as well. But now...

SLOWTWITCH: You've had a lot of great seasons, and won a lot of titles. What are your proudest achievements?

SIMON LESSING: I know this sounds trite, but I'm less proud of any single win than I am of my consistency over ten years—the decade of the 90s. I guess my win at Worlds in '98 exemplifies that, because I got third in '97, and I heard a lot of, "Well, Simon's come to earth, everyone has caught up."

SLOWTWITCH: You came up for a cup of coffee in long course as well.

SIMON LESSING: I first raced long in Nice in '93. Mark Allen and I ran together for 28 of 32 kilometers and then he pulled away. I finally won it in '95 [when it was long course worlds].

SLOWTWITCH: You have proven, then, your capacity to win at every distance up to Nice—a 6 hour race—and at both formats. There must be an ideal format and distance for you, even if you haven't raced it yet. What is it?

SIMON LESSING: Physiologically, probably the half-Ironman distance. But this race I just did, Alcatraz, is an example of what I like. It demands consistency. The swim is hard. The bike is short, but it also requires skill, and the run is hard. To win it you need to be an all-'rounder. I'm not great at any one thing. I need the bike course to be hard—I need all three events to be challenging.

SLOWTWITCH: You're here to race America's classics, and that obviously includes Life Time Fitness. What's after that?

SIMON LESSING: The goal is Athens next year. That will close the book on my short-course focus. The era of being able to win at all distances is over, and it's time for me to move on. I intend to be on the starting line in Kona in 2004.

SLOWTWITCH: Have you decided where you'll attempt to qualify?

SIMON LESSING: I haven't gotten that far along in planning my schedule. But I'll never be one of those who races six ultras a year. I don't think that's healthy for you. I'll race one or two.

SLOWTWITCH: Now that you're residing in America, how do you find Boulder? Who's in your circle there?

SIMON LESSING: Boulder's great. I'm working with Dave Scott. Not so many pros with with Dave, and I don't understand why. He's perfect for me. We have the same sense of humor. He's got good instincts. Mike Lovato also works with Dave, and I ride with Mike a fair bit. Also, Arturo Barrios works with a group of high-caliber runners—better than I—but he allows me to run with them. And Brad Bevan is coming over. We've trained together a lot in France, I'm looking forward to that.

SLOWTWITCH: You've also had a notable change of equipment.

SIMON LESSING: Yes, I came across Ves Mandaric, and I ride his bikes now. He's European, like me, and he's old-school. His bikes are terrific, very fast, they fit well, they handle, they're appropriately stiff for me. He's a purist. The commercial aspect of it has not come into it at all. He's just passionate to build great bikes.

SLOWTWITCH: I'm thinking about the great cyclists, and how they've had certain frame builders upon whom they rely, like Greg LeMond riding bikes built by Roland Della Santa, and later in his career by Craig Calfee. But you don't normally find that sort of relationship in triathlon.

SIMON LESSING: Ves is very definite in his opinions. I like that. He doesn't equivocate. He says, "This angle is good for you, this is bad, this frame material works, this doesn't," and that's what I need. I'm a triathlete, I'm not a bike maker, and I need someone who'll ask me questions, take measures, and build the bikes I need. I told him I wanted to ride his bikes, and two weeks later I had a custom draft-legal bike, and a custom time trial bike, on my doorstep."

SLOWTWITCH: Back to short course racing. I know you like no-draft courses, because they allow the bike leg to have an impact. But would you be in such opposition if the bike courses were tough? What if there was an 18-percent grade the cyclists had to negotiate a half-dozen times? I would think that courses in which drafting was of no real benefit would negate the problem.

SIMON LESSING: That's what we had last week, in Bellingham [Washington, site of another Lessing victory]. That was a great bike course and yes, that would be great. Unfortunately, for some reason, 95-percent of the courses out there are like Cancun, or Tampa, dead flat.