Race Coverage

Deb Pumped Her Fist...

Monday, 20 July 2015 06:10

By Warren Peece

30th HEART OF THE LAKES - THE WOMEN - As Deb Roberts approached the finish line at HOLT on Sunday, she pumped her fist in celebration. She did so not because she had raced well, though she had (placing 2nd in her AG behind that pesky six-o-genarian, Pammy Stevens), but because the announcer guy told her and everyone within earshot, that her daughter Christina, had won the overall women's title.

Christina Roberts raced brilliantly at Annandale. She followed her signature strong swim (2nd fastest of the day for the women) with her best bike performance to date. The MTN Guys had contended in recent posts that a little more bike speed was all that was keeping Christina out of more Winners Circles. Well, she more than held her own in the saddle on Sunday. Only top tri cyclists Suzie Fox, Kortney Haag and Lisa Lendway, had faster splits. When Roberts came into T2 with those women, she looked energized. She was smiling. She knew something that the rest of us would know soon enough....

She knew that she was going to win. And less than 33 minutes later, she did just that. It was the 7th win of her career, and her biggest to date. The field she topped that day was even stronger than the one she faced 13 months earlier at Maple Grove, and arguably as strong as the one she finished 2nd among last week at Minneapolis.

Roberts' time at HOLT was 1:41:37, the fastest women's clocking here since 2006 and the 9th fastest women's time in the 30-year history of the race. In 2014, which was also super-exciting, Christina placed 3rd behind Suzie Fox and Nicole Heininger. Her time was 1:45:57, 4:20 off what  she did on Sunday.

In no other season in recent, or not-so-recent history, have more Minnesota women demonstrated mercurial improvements. Looking at the tumultuously impressive 2015 resumes of Lisa Lendway, Gaby Bunten, Bridget McCoy, Nicole Heininger, Sheena Dauer, Dani Vsetecka, and, of course, Christina Roberts, have us believing that there has never been a more dynamic and exciting year for Minnesota multisportwomen. Fun stuff.

Despite her consistent excellence since her arrival on the scene in 2009, when she earned the Rookie of the Year award, Suzie Fox's name belongs on the mercurial list, too. Her 2nd place finish at HOLT, a race she had won in 2014 and 2012, was done in PR time and compliments the seven wins she's already posted in this, the first half of the 2015 season.

In an email, Suzie had this to say about the woman who beat her: I am impressed with her so much. ...... I PRed today by :46 and was super happy with that and was still no match for Christina!

She also wrote: "...this is a super exciting year for women, I feel like there are so many evenly matched women all pushing each other and everyone is so nice and supportive of each other, it is fun. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and I feel like on different course with the different distances we could see a different winner each weekend, just depends on how long each leg is & wetsuits or not, so exciting! It is a toss up to know who will win each race, that was fun!

Was Christina Roberts' victory the women's performance of the day? Maybe, but her peers knew that something like what she did on Sunday was going to happen sometime. That it happened sooner, rather than later, is a big deal.

But what "occasional" triathlete, whose heart belongs to distance running, Nicole Cueno  did at HOLT, in the minds of many, may have trumped Christina's win. In her first try at HOLT's long course, Nicole finished 3rd in 1:43:39. Only Kortney Haag's first effort here, which was back in 2009, was faster (1:42:11). In that year, Kort won the Most Improved award and was ranked 2nd on Team Minnesota. (NOTE: Wetsuits were allowed in 2009, we think?)

Cueno, who has no definite plans to race in other tris this season, turned in the fastest women's run split in the history of the race. Though temps had already reached the 80-degree mark and the direct sun was uncharitable, Nicole reeled off 5.3 sub-six minute miles (32:58). Nice.

Cueno's race broke down in this way: She was 18th out of the water. She rode her way into 6th place and ran her way into 3rd.

In HOLT's Sprint race, Baxter's Jacquelyn Bacigalupi (photo above R) picked up her first career victory. Her time was 50:18. Only nine women have ever gone faster in this three-decade-old race. Placing second was Kristina Swenson, 18, who's 52:50 was the 2nd fastest junior time in race history. 2013 HOLT Sprint winner Juli Currie, 44, took the final podium spot as well as the masters title. RESULTS