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Minneapolis LTF and Paris French GP

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

12th-19th July

Well last few training hit outs/ races before the business end of the season, the whole purpose of Minneapolis was to vent a bit of frustration, too many times have I been the workhorse for ITU athletes in the last five years of racing World Cups and WCS. So this day was my first and definately not my last chance and oppurtunity to unleash the beast within. The format of all six Toyota Cup (American Pro series races) are to race the athletes in a non drafting Olympic format, bringing back the axes of ITU from the 90s, Matt Reed to name one and encourage an honest 2hrs ofr racing with a hard swim, hard bike and hard run.

Was great to step away from the ITU for a racing format for a weekend towards my bid of qualifying for London.

With my burrowed LOOK t.t bike from Colorado multisports a pimped up SRM and a whole heap of determination to get well under that hour for a 40k t.t, Sparky was off to Minneapolis and keen to make a few US dollars.

The end result was ok, not what the goal was, a podium definately was realistic at the 25km mark on the bike until a draft buster quite favourably stood me down for a so called USAT staggering penalty. Normally i wouldnt kick up a fuzz as I am all for draft busting and all that jazz, but this new staggering thing makes no sense and well if you are 40m behind an athlete, u have to be either 2m to the left of their line they are riding or two metres to their left, which sux coz they pulled me up as i was about to pass Craig Alexander on a bloody round about, u tell me how u dont ride the same line as someone in front of u going through a roundabout at 45kms and hour

mehh.

Anyway… I got stood down for a minute and my well worked up position of three slipped away into the horizon as Greg Bennett passed me, David Thompson and Filip Osplay.

So i had to wreck meself for the last 10k of the bike just to get back into the race. my average wattage of 353 had to go up to 450 for the last ten k, just to get back some of my 1min deficit, which isnt easy when my aerobic threshold on the bike is 360 watts, threshold meaning av heart rate i hold 150/165bpm without producing too much lactic for the run.

So those figures were basically thrown out the window for the last 10k in order for me to make amends on the run. I finished the bike with a 58min 40k t.t split, which was a 57, had i not had to stand down for a minute.

Matt Reed took the cake on the bike for the day riding a solid 57 low 40k split to go on and win the race with a 32min high 10k split.

I ran solid to the five k mark running hard with Filip Osplay, whom also suffered a 1min stand down on the bike for losing a drink bottle… yeah go figure, yanks make up their own rules to suit the winners as long as they are from USA sometimes I think.

Finished solid in 5th nailing a few smaller non drafting US athletes in the last 2k of the run, Cameron Dye and David Thompson
..

Will be back for u USA for LA and Dallas later this season, staz tuned.

On a plane back to Denver, crash course in packing, repacking, droppin off a t.t bike, sorting out money issues as always and then on a plane onward to Europe. Vive le Paris.

The team had a fantastic result is all I can say, Ryan Sissons came to take his part in Montlucon for his first time ever and passed in flying colors finishing in 8th place, making the famous Beauvais Mafia lead pack and hangin on for dear life as they continued to drop the hammer for a solid 20k averaging 465 watts to set up Gemmell for the win. Funny thing is even after all that effort from Beauvais, the star studded Brownlee senior and Junior show stole the podium coming in one two for the end result.

But history was made yesterday for us, the first team podium from Montlucon since 2003 when the famous Yannick Borseaux tore it up in Dunkerque.

Since then Montlcuon has had a lot of help from many famous seasoned campaigners, Benjamin Sanson, Paul Amey, recently James Elvery and Tony Dodds and finally with the arrival of Mr Ryan Sissons we got that podium.

With two more races in the French Grand Prix to go and the overall placing of our team sky rocketing from 13th to now a credible 5th in the GP we are more than capable of turning some heads and rolling into the big time of stardom within the ranks of the French GP… stay tuned.

London WCS this weekend, on the path of paving to Olympic glory awaits me…

Kia Kaha Kiwana

Sparky

Ellice in money at triathlon

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Taranaki Daily News

New Plymouth’s Clark Ellice recorded one of his best performances in elite company when finishing 10th at the rich Des Moines World Cup triathlon event in Iowa yesterday.

On a day when Kiwis dominated the top 10, Ellice held his form over the final stages to finish in one hour 50 minutes 54 seconds, just 34sec behind Great Britain’s Tim Don, who won in 1hr50min20sec. Ellice won US$9000.

Palmerston North’s Kris Gemmell was just four seconds shy of the richest prize in the sport when pipped by Don, who walked away with US$200,000 ($NZ287,395). Gemmell won US$50,000 for his strong finishing surge.

Auckland’s Bevan Docherty also finished strongly, in fourth place earning US$20,000, with Ellice 10th as the Kiwis picked up valuable ranking points towards qualification for the London Olympic Games.

The bulk of the field stayed together throughout the cycle leg, with the only attempted breakaway coming from young New Zealander Ryan Sissons, who stole 20 seconds on the field midway through, only to be reeled in before the 10km run.

Gemmell led off the bike and on to the run but could not match the pace of Don, with the former world champion turning back the clock in a display of running not seen for some years.

Gemmell was impressive as he paced his race almost to perfection to kick clear of Australian Courtney Atkinson to claim second, while Docherty cleared away from fifth-placed Beijing Olympic Champion Jan Frodeno, of Germany.

Earlier, a strong showing from the New Zealand women could not stop an Australian assault in the women’s race, with Emma Snowsill winning from compatriot Emma Moffatt.

Andrea Hewitt was the best of the New Zealanders in fifth place, continuing her consistent run of strong results.

Nicky Samuels finished eighth, closely followed by Debbie Tanner in 11th and Kate McIlroy in 12th.