Richard’s Bay Triathlon World Cup 2008

The past weekend saw some stellar performances at the South African round of the World Cup series, hosted in Richard’s Bay.

The woman was first off at 11:30am. With most of the top ranked woman in the world not on the start-line, the race was open to anybody hungry enough for a win.

The SA Squad looked awesome in their new race-suits sponsored by Kiwami. We are definitely making some good progress, and moving in the right direction…..Forward!

Ace swimmer, Sarah Groff from the USA led the girls out the water with the SA ladies not too far behind. Mari made the front pack, and Kate and Corrine settled into the second pack.

Once on the bike the girls was in no mood for hard work however, and it all came together to form one big pack. As 40 plus athletes scrambled into transition two, it was clearly going to be a runner’s race.

Out on the run course thing were getting pretty strung out, as the pure runners moved away from the rest of the field.

In the end, Carolyn Murray from Canada secured the win, followed closely by Felicity Abraham (Aus) and Magali Messmer (Sui) in third. Kate finished the best out of the SA girls in 20th position, with Mari and Corrine in 27th and 28th respectively.

Another SA girl, Anel Stewart had a great performance, and finished in 29th position.

Having to wait around for our race was not cool, but we “boys” were finally off at 15:00pm. Fifty men lined up on the pontoon, all ready to fight it out for the medals, points and money.

Myself, Kent and Hendrik had good swims, and exited the water in the front part of the field. On the first lap of the bike it all came together though, and like the girls, we were now one big pack. As expected a couple of breakaway attempts were made by the stronger cyclists, although they were all unsuccessful.

I unfortunately got a rear puncture at the start of lap four. I managed to get a new wheel 2km further, chased for 2laps, and punctured again. So my race was over.

Kent and Hendrik got off the bike in the big pack, charging into transition two. “The faster you can run the better you were going to do” The fast men were running side-by-side, leaving behind them a string of athletes.

Hendrik once again had a great run, finishing in third overall, just 1sec behind winner Daniel Unger (Ger) and 2nd placed Matt Reed (USA).

Next stop: Madrid BG World Cup, Spain.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 3:33 pm and is filed under 2008, Carolyn Murray, Daniel Unger, Erhardt Wolfaardt, Felicity Abraham, Hendrick de Villiers, Kent Horner, Kiwami, Mari Rabie, Matt Reed, Richard’s Bay, Richard’s Bay Triathlon World Cup, Sarah Groff, Triathlon World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.