Race Previews

A Double Heckuva Great Race...

Saturday, 11 August 2012 02:10

Green Lake Preview - Three of America's premier 45-49 males triathletes reside in Duluth, Minnesota. Two of them--Brian Bich and Rhett Bonner--have their sights set on AG podiums at Nationals a week from Saturday. Both have won their divisions there in the past, and Bich made history there in 2011, when he placed 12th overall and became the first 45-plusser in the history of the storied event to break the 2-hour mark.

The third guy is Rod Raymond, and he won't be accompanying his hometown mates, or his girlfriend, for that matter, on their trip to Burlington, Vermont....

Instead, he will be co-directing the inaugural Duluth Triathlon, his town's first half IM, on that weekend. In between now and then, however, he will be racing at the 6th annual Green Lake Olympic Triathlon in picturesque, rural Spicer.

Rod is racing impressively this season. He set a course record at Eau Claire back on June 10th, and finished 2nd at Timberman. If he performs similarly in Spicer next Sunday, he may even upset pre-race favorite / defending champ Marcus Stromberg, who is also racing brilliantly this season. We believe that the younger (37) and ever-improving Stromberg will prevail, but the 48-year-old veteran will give him a heckuva race.

Both of these guys should be looking at post-season award nominations.

But wait! There's another guy who deserves to be part of the discussion. John Shelp. Podiums this season at New Bri and Timberman, and his 5th at Lake Minnetonka make him a clear Top 3 favorite. But John better bring it on Sunday or Mike Ward, who has won two of the three tris he's raced in this season and was 4th here last year, will land on the final podium step. Amending what was said earlier, this will be a double heckuva men's race.

The faves in the Olympic-ish (3/4-26-6) girl's race? We predict that a quadrumvirate of masters--Angie Hop, Jen Neuman, Veronica Bond and Julia Lyng--will duke it out for the Top 4 spots, with 5th place going either to 2011 Minnesota Rookie of the Year nominee Stephanie Peterson, or five-time GL Top 5er Laurel Sundberg. The only woman in this group who has yet to win a multi is Bond, who we believe is ready to change that.

We predict a victory for Veronica Bond.

While the Olympic-ish race has been around for a half dozen years, Green Lake's Sprint event has been contested for a half-dozen and a half years, which is a clumsy way to say "9." We suspect that the men's sprint podium will consist, not necessarily in this order, of Shakopee's impressive tri-rookie, Brian Sames, talented junior, Tyler Hecht, 19, of Somerset, Wisconsin, and Robert Brown, a three-time GL Sprint winner.