Race Previews

Graniteman Turns 10!

Monday, 07 July 2014 09:10

GRANITEMAN - CLEARWATER PREVIEW - This event, the original Graniteman, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this weekend. It's first five editions were staged in Rockville, after which it relocated to its current home in Clearwater. One of four races that will happen on Saturday--No races are slated for Sunday. What's up with that?--G-Man is the only one that is not experiencing declining enrollment.

Bill and the G-Man Events Gang must be doing something right.

Who do we think will win at Clearwater?

The obvious choice for women, based on the enrollment list we perused, is Nicole Heininger, the 2013 Minnesota Rookie of the Year, who is coming off a big victory at Lake Waconia. A win on Saturday would be the fifth of her young career....

The remainder of the women's podium, we believe, will go to accomplished masters, Cheryl Zitur and Jen Neuman (photo below), both of whom have a win this season.

For the guys, we think that 2013 Rookie of the Year nominees Casey Miller and Larry Hosch will duke it out for the Top Spot. These guys have faced each other twice in the past. The first time was at this event last year, where Casey placed 4th and Larry 5th. The second time was at Apple last May. Casey won that head-to-head, too, albeit by only eleven seconds.

Does this mean we are picking Miller to win on Saturday?

Not necessarily.

We did some math. Miller has raced nine times, winning thricely. We totalled his places and divided them by nine. His average placing is 4.8. Hosch has raced 11 times in the last two years. Though he has yet to win, his average placing is 4.3.

Does this mean anything? Probably not. But a second look at the resumes reveals that, generally, Hosch raced in more competitive events than did his fellow ROY nominee.

Finally, we were impressed with Hosch's runner-up effort at Z-Tri last Friday, and with his 2nd place finish at Graniteman - St. Cloud on June 23, where he was 3:59 faster than he was in '13.

We think that the Miller-Hosch battle on Saturday will be hard-fought. We'd be surprised if the ultimate margin separating these guys was more than 20 seconds. And we think that it is Larry's turn to win.

We also think that the final men's podium spot will go to David Jensen. RACE WEBSITE