Race officials canceled the swim due to an unsafe concentration of algae in the lake at Nathan Benderson Park, so Juri Ide prevailed at the hastily reconfigured duathlon at the Sarasota World Cup.
On a hot, windy day under dark clouds, Chelsea Sodaro of the U.S., a former All-American NCAA runner at UC Berkeley, broke away on the 5.2k opening run, arriving at T1 with a race-best 18:47 split that was 17 seconds ahead of a 10-woman pack that included Juri Ide, Maaike Caelers of Netherlands and Amelie Kretz of Canada at 19:04, and Katie Zaferes, Taylor Spivey and Chelsea Burns of the U.S., Romana Gajdosova of Slovakia, Adriana Barraza of Mexico, Julia Hauser of Austria, and Andrea Gonzalez of Mexico - all at 19:05.
By the time the lead pack on the draft-legal 40 kilometer bike leg had been whittled down to eight women within 7 seconds, Ide led into T2 followed closely by Sodaro, Caelers, Hauser, Zaferes, Spivey and Barraza. Two minutes back of the lead pack were Vanesa De La Torre of Mexico, Gajdosova, Cecilia Perez of Mexico, and Tamara Gorman and Erin Storie of the U.S.
After the large pack finished the bike leg, they were left with a wet run to decide matters. Sadly, WTS Grand Final silver medalist Katie Zaferes did not finish the run. Whereupon the heat [94 degrees Fahrenheit], humidity, the wind, and a longer than regulation 10k [11:05k] took its toll on run splits. Halfway through the run Ide broke away from the field and finished with a race-best 42:57 run split that brought her to the line in 2:04:21 with a 57 seconds margin of victory on Sodaro (43:52 run) and 1:10 on 3rd place Julia Hauser of Austria (44:03 run).
This World Cup win was the 34-year-old Ide’s first since her victory at Huatulco in 2011.
Sodaro is quite new to the sport – she earned her pro card this spring with a win at the Clermont [Florida] Draft Legal Challenge in the Elite Development sprint triathlon against top amateur competition. Sodaro’s best recent outings included 7th place finishes at the Karlovy Vary and Huelva ITU World Cups.
"I did feel confident going in, but on the other hand, duathlons are extremely challenging events," Sodaro told USA Triathlon media. "It doesn't matter how strong of a runner you are, when you have to run 15k and bike about 40k in this kind of heat, it's going to be a tough one for everyone out there. Mostly, I was just running my pace and trying to execute the race plan that my coach, Paulo Sousa, gave me. I knew that I would have the finish at the end when it counted, so I just tried to hang in there and run as efficiently as possible."
Sarasota World Cup
Sarasota Florida
October 7, 2017
R 5.2k / B 40k / R 11k
Results
Elite Women
1. Juri Ide (JPN) 2:04:21 R 19:04 T1 00:29 B 1:01:22 T2 00:29 R 42:57
2. Chelsea Sodaro (USA) 2:05:18 R 18:47 T1 00:32 B 1:01:37 T2 00:30 R 43:52
3. Julia Hauser (AUT) 2:05:31 R 19:05 T1 00:30 B 1:01:23 T2 00:30 R 44:03
4. Maaike Caelers (NED) 2:05:49 R 19:04 T1 00:31 B 1:01:21 T2 00:31 R 44:22
5. Taylor Spivey (USA) 209:46 R 19:05 T1 00:31 B 1:01:19 T2 00:33 R 48:18
6. Chelsea Burns (USA) 2:10:09 R 19:05 T1 00”28 B 1:01:24 T2 00:32 R 48:40
7. Adriana Barraza (MEX) 2:10:46 R 19:05 T1 00:31 B 1:01:23 T2 00:32 R 49:15
8. Vanesa De La Torre (MEX) 2:11:04 R 19:05 T1 00:30 B 1:03:30 T2 00:28 R 47:31
9. Romana Gajdosova (SVK) 2:11:13 R 19:05 T1 00:32 B 1:03:26 T2 00:33 R 47:37
10. Cecilia Perez (MEX) 2:11:41 R 19:21 T1 00:31 B 1:03:14 T2 00:32 R 48:03
11. Erika Ackerlund (USA) 2:11:52 R 19:32 T1 00:32 B 1:02:59 T2 00:36 R 48:13
16. Tamara Gorman (USA) 2:16:00 R 19:20 T1 00:34 B 1:03:08 T2 00:36 R 52:22
17 Sonja Kent (USA) 2:17:39 R 19:55 T1 00:35 B 1:04:59 T2 00:36 R 51:34
18. Erin Storie (USA) 2:18:58 R 19:34 T1 00:30 B 1:02:58 T2 00:36 R 55:20
19. Rachel Pearson (USA) 2:20:27 R 20:00 T1 00:31 B 1:05:08 T2 00:37 R 54:11.
