My first impression on arriving to the transition area was one of awe. I knew that this was just a 300+ person race, and expected a nice local event, but it had all the pomp and atmosphere of your typical Mdot race. THere is no way that this race makes money from the athletes fees, and the RD and crew are to be commended for thinking about the athlete expirence, over the profit motive. THey do however deserve to make a profit.
Race day was a complete turnaround from the day before, where there was no wind, and a heavy cloud cover all day, that saw temps stay in the 50’s. THe swim was an accurate course, but the 20mph crosswind made both the out and back a struggle against the current. The best open water guys in the world did a good job swimming about 45, but would have been low 40 on a calm day…The rest of the field would lose anywhere from 6 to 25 minutes in their swims this day. Except for Jonas, who missed the turnaround buoy, and had to swim back to stay legal. He lost about 4 or 5 minutes on top of the wind handicap. One of my favorite parts of the day, was sitting on a boat lounge chair with Dave Scott, and reminiscing about the old days. We have a very similar attitude towards where triathlon racing has evolved. Most of you know my feelings, nuff said…
I got to meet Tyler before the race, and as others have said, he was very pleasant. He came ready to race, and it showed from the gun. THe wind actually died down a bit after the sun was up for a couple hours, but began to build after an hour. It was a bastard of a headwind all the way to the 52 mile mark, where the bike turnaround was. From that point it was a monstor tailwind most of the way back, and reading all the RR’s, most everyone did the last 60 faster than the first 52. Tylers cadence seemed to stay between 92 to about 98, and he looked comfortable on his bike( Cervelo P3C). The columbian rider Hernan was all over his bike, and was riding old style Tour tt position(7 cm behind the BB). I had a long chat with him afterwards, and he just had no clue what position the good tt guys are riding.But after we talked, it all made sense to him. He has an appointment to come see Dan this winter , and get himself competitive. He was very strong, but no one could overcome the wind out there in a poor position. He held off Eric Bean for about 60 miles, but Erics superior tt ability took over, and he motored about a minute every 10 miles into Hernan to the finish. As for Bjorn, you have all probably read what his day was like. I said in an earlier thread that I was proud of the guy to have charged that course with a broken aero bar, dangling the entire race…My speculation here, he would have ridden at least 10 minutes faster. Dont’ think he would have outsplit Tyler, but definately would have stayed in the same zip code with him. Eric showed that a good triathlete with a few extra bike miles is not that far off either… Tyler hit the 56 mile in 4:45 pace, and Dave and I commented that he could do sub 4:40 with the wind blowing so strong behind him. HE ended up with a 4:33, Eric and Bjorn 4:49 and 4:50, and Hernan about 4:54.So Tyler stayed strong enough to really take advantage of the tailwind. Dave’s quote to me was “Not in 20 years will they get a course this fast for the bike.” And I have to agree here. I know all of you that raced have horror stories about the winds, but in the aggerate, it was a fast course with the tailwind building throughout the day. Slight to heavy headwind to the 52 mile mark, and then building tailwind for the last 60, = fast ride…But don’t feel cheated, the nearly 10k ft of climbing, the dirt and gravel road, the twisting 20 mile bike path with 18% climbs, and the 1000ft of elevation gain from start to finish, make for the toughest 112 I’ve ever heard of for a tt. Maybe the old Tahoe Worlds Toughest course that crested 4 mountain passes comes close…
SO TYler comes in and runs the dismount line, 4 minute penalty. Not his fault really, the line came less than 2 seconds after the last turn. Everyone would have done the same, except after him, they physically stopped people at the line. Their runner Kamelli took off like the bat out of hell. ABout an 8:40 for the first two miles, slightly downhill. He finally calmed down a bit, and once they could catch him, he had to serve the penalty right there on the course. Once served, he took off like my dog Punkin running with reckless abandon, and I clocked him at a 1:09 flat at the half, + the 4 minute penalty, 1:13. He looked good at that point, but Dan called it right there, he’s out too fast. This is a really difficult running course, and these pure runners have no expirence running marathon tt’s. THe race appeared to be in the bag because we all just imagined ourselves being able to run within 25 minutes of our PR’s to collect the 100k, easy…NOT>>>It would have been easy if Kimelli actually paced for a 2:35, but he was running 2:18 pace on a course that I figure the pro field from NY would maybe run 2:16 . All the other elite runners were well off times that seemed possible to them just hours earlier. Of the 4 elite teams, two runners blew up completely, and the others struggled to good work out times…
The race actually ends up being a close finish, but the drama of the 8 hour barrier had come and gone 17 minutes earlier. We now know that 8 hours is definately doable, and I suspect the time may drop for next year, but the money could go up. SOme rumors of a possible second race, maybe a half to go along with the big daddy.
My grade for this race is a definate A+, and you will not be dissappointed. Like we like to say around the ranch here, “You get your monies worth”.
Most of my splits I took are up on Dan’s live coverage, only correction I have from his report is that the lead swimmer did wear a wetsuit. I really hope this race can survive the Mdot onslaught, it is a gem of a race, with shades of the old school feeling that got a lot of us cought up into triathlon in the first place…
