http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20041014-9999-1s14ironman.html
Ironman rookie fashionable pick to win at Kona
Lessing impressive at any distanceBy Don Norcross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 14, 2004
**<u>Ironman favorites</u>** KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii – Simon Lessing exited the main airport and quickly turned onto the Queen K Highway, where the bulk of Ironman Hawaii unfolds.
The Queen K stretches through stark lava fields where the sun heats the black rock, driving temperatures sometimes to triple digits. The bike course winds all the way to Hawi, where the mumuku winds show no mercy, once blowing over 70-year-old Sister Madonna Buder, who suffered cuts to her face and a broken shoulder.
His two toddlers buckled into the back of the rental car, Lessing asked his wife, Lisa Laiti, “Where’s the bike course? Where’s the run course?”
“Simon,” said Laiti, who has raced here, “you’re on it.”
Since 1980, only one first-timer has won the Ironman Triathlon World Championship: Belgium’s Luc Van Lierde in 1996.
But this year all eyes are on another newcomer – Lessing, a five-time world champion at shorter distances.
Three *Triathlete *magazine staffers predicted Lessing would cash the winner’s $100,000 check.
Asked what the public expects from Lessing, *Competitor Magazine *co-publisher Bob Babbitt said, “To win.”
Born in South Africa, a British citizen who lived in France for nearly 10 years, married to an American and now living in Boulder, Colo., the worldly Lessing is not getting caught up in the hype.
A couple of days after arriving on the Big Island, he casually asked Laiti, “Is the race Saturday or Sunday?”
It’s Saturday, Simon.
The morning after they arrived, Laiti told him he should go for a run, that the trees were creating some welcome shade along Alii Drive.
“Where the hell’s Alii Drive?” said Lessing, unaware their rental home was right off the main road where thousands will be cheering the 1,700 triathletes home Saturday.
Like so many others, Lessing, 33, believes he can become the second to win Ironman Hawaii in his first attempt.
“A lot of people say there’s no way to win your first time around,” he said. “The problem is that if you go into the race with that attitude, it’s not going to happen.”
Lessing grew up in Durban, South Africa, hometown of Encinitas resident Paula Newby-Fraser, the eight-time Ironman Hawaii champ. Raised on the Indian Ocean and with his mother a swimming teacher, Lessing is virtually part fish. He began racing triathlons at 15, moving to France by 18 because the country sponsored so many races.
Lessing won his first Olympic-distance world championship in 1992. He was 22. He repeated that title in 1995, '96 and '98. The Olympic distance measures 1.5 kilometers in the swim (just under a mile), 40K on the bike (almost 25 miles) and 10K for the run (6.2 miles).
Showing his versatility, Lessing won the long-distance world championship in 1995 at Nice, France (a 2.5-mile swim, 75-mile bike and 18.5-mile run).
“If you list the greatest triathletes of all time, for doing all sorts of different distances, you start with Mark Allen,” Babbitt said. “And Simon is right there.”
Until this year, Lessing focused on the Olympic distance. When triathlon made its Olympic debut at Sydney in 2000, he was the prohibitive men’s favorite but finished ninth, a sporting catastrophe in Great Britain.
When a postman delivered registered mail to Lessing’s home and looked at the signature, the man said, “Oh, you owe me 20 pounds. I put 20 pounds on you to win.”
Joked Lessing about so many favoring him at Kona: “I just hope the UK bookies aren’t handling as much action on me as before Sydney.”
Another reason for the Lessing hoopla: He raced his first Ironman-distance event (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, marathon run) in July at Lake Placid, N.Y., and blew away the field, winning in 8 hours, 23 minutes, 12 seconds. Australia’s Luke Bell, fifth at Kona last year, finished nearly 15 minutes back.
Assessing Lessing’s performance, Bell said, “The guy’s a freak.”
With Ironman Hawaii coming 12 weeks after Lake Placid, one concern about Lessing is how fresh his legs are.
Be it self-confidence or honesty, Lessing said, “I struggled (with his recovery) for four to five weeks. But now, if anything, I feel fitter than I was at Lake Placid.”
Lessing must hope the race will be kinder to him than it was to his wife. Laiti raced Ironman Hawaii once, in 1989. Leading with about four miles remaining on the bike, she passed out because of an electrolyte imbalance, crashed into a car and broke her neck.
She didn’t suffer any permanent damage, but she never raced again on the Big Island. A massage therapist who used to live in Leucadia, Laiti did return to Kona, but only to pamper clients come race week.
“I’m not going to tell you he’s going to win,” Laiti said. “I can’t tell you who’s going to win. I know what’s out there. I’ve seen the top athletes crumble.”