Earlier this week I agreed with some people who thought that Tim DeBoom was not great, I figured him just for a good drafter and runner. I saw him racing today and earned a MUCH higher respect for him. Even though he was in a pack, he was at the front of the pack often, and not the one getting pulled. Tim was at the front of the bike pack, and the front of the run pack, he showed the other guys that HE was the one to beat. Hats off to Peter Reid. The guy I hyped up so much and who proclaimed that Tim and Peter were not racing, Chris McCormack, tucked in the ENTIRE bike ride and did even bother to pull. Chris can win 6 Hawaii Titles and still should shut up about Tim and Peter not “racing” after this years event.
I guess it is true though that right now there is not the one athlete in the field who can take the sport to another level. I thought that was McCormack, but I was mistaken. My apologies to Time DeBoom. He raced hard the entire way, even with a DNF.
The one thing that I will say about Macca is that he impressed me by finishing. I think that he is a little too outspoken with his predictions. It is better to let your results speak the volumes for you but, like Zack a few years ago, I like to see pros that make it to the finish line rather than walking off the course (unless of course they’re coughing up blood like Legh) since that tells a great deal about their character as well.
Also impressive was Faris Al Sultan. Here is a guy very few people know, and he goes out on the bike while everybody is looking around and takes over 3min. Then Stadler catches and drops him, his lead to the group is down to 50sec but he keeps going. Hellriegel catches him, drops him, then Faris catches and drops Hellriegel and Hellriegel gets swallowed up by the group again. All the while Faris stays out in front of the group by himself until the last moment. To top it off he runs with all those guys who were sitting in that group and finishes 7th.
The reports may say that Hellriegel was pulling at the front, but I saw the race online live. The clips they showed were Hellriegel away from the pack with Luke Bell and Tim Deboom riding at the front. I saw this scenario more than once =).