Race Previews

Big Numbers. Great Fields...

Sunday, 05 July 2015 06:10

GRANITEMAN XII PREVIEW - Last year, Graniteman-Clearwater drew a little over 300 participants. This year, the event's 12th anniversary, that number will jump to more than 500. How cool is that, especially in today's racing climate?

We love to see this kind of stuff!

Another thing we love to see are competitive fields, and this year's G-Man Olympic (1.5-46K-10K), the first year for this distance, has an awesome field, especially on the men's side. Four of the Top 5 guys from last year's sprint race are returning and they are all stronger and faster than ever. 2014 winner Casey Miller is coming off a win at Average Jo. Last year's bronze medalist Larry Hosch just collected his first career win at ZTRI. Fourth and fifth place in 2014 went to Ryan Wippler, who also won his first career tri earlier this season, and Wade Cruser, who totally rocked out at Buffalo and Gear West, will be more competitive than ever, too. And they'll have to be, because this year's field will also include Brett Lovaas, who has 30ish...

career wins, Scotty Myers, who was victorious at St. Paul last season, and Bennett Isabella, who has to be considered the current frontrunner for the 2015 Most Improved award.

We're picking Isabella to win.

The women's Olympic-esque race will be competitive, too. We think the podium will, in any order, consist of Andrea Myers, Wisconsin's Jayme Wyss, and Sheena Dauer, who is also on the Most Improved radar. Our gut tells us that Dauer will join Isabella in the Winner's Circle.

Predicting this year's G-Man Sprint winners appears to be a no-brainer, at least as far as the women are concerned. Last year's runner-up, Cheryl Zitur, who ran away with the Master of the Year award in 2014, is the clear fave, unless CR-holder Nicole Heinginger decides to return.

The guys are harder to figure out. We think that a young muscular guy from Alexandria named Brian Storhaug (photo above L), who impressed us at Buffalo Sprint (2nd place finish), will come out on top and claim his first career multisport win. That would be cool.

Can you still get in? Yup. We think that registration closes on July 7, so act quickly, okay? RACE WEBSITE

ED. (See Casey Miller's COMMENT below.) - Looks like we have a new favorite to win G-Man Sprint.