Race Previews

Footballs & Shirtless Guys...

Tuesday, 01 September 2015 06:10

The 15th annual ST. CROIX VALLEY TRIATHLONS in Hudson, Wisconsin, and the 2nd annual HOPKINS ROYALS TRI are slated for next Saturday. They are the only races of the weekend, so we certainly hope that you'll be supporting one of them, as either a participant, volunteer or spectator.

The Hopkin's event was founded by, and is directed by, Doobie Kurus (photo L), who is an awesome dude. Do you know him? He's the guy who carries a football, Adrian Peterson-style replete with Stiff Arm etc., across the finish line of the events he races in. The first time you see this you wonder if Doobie forgot to take his meds, or conversely, that he over-self-medicated. After that, though, you just think it's cool, because it is....

Doobie's race filled early and, like the St. Croix Valley events, takes special care of newbies. Gotta love that!

So, let's make some predictions.

- SUZIE FOX will win the race, torch the CR and in the process, gain entrance to a very select sorority: Minnesota women who have won 10 races in a single season. This tiny group includes Heather Lendway, Cathy Yndestad, Becky Youngberg and Jenny Wilcox.

- Defending champ ERIC HENDRICKSON, plus BRETT LOVAAS, TRAVIS MILLER and PHILIP ENGLISH will comprise the men's Top 4, while ANDY ZABEL and CHRISTIAN OESTEICH fight over the 5th spot. Who will win? We're leaning toward Lovaas because we were impressed with his 2nd place effort recently at Maple Grove Sprint. And if he wins, it will be the 30th W of his multisport career. We like milestones.

 - We think the following athletes will win their respective AGs: LOVAAS and CATHERINE LEE (40-44), SARAH MERCER and MIKE BLAIR (45-49), ROBERT KAUFMAN and CINDY CRAWFORD (50-54), JEFF MELBY and BETHANY COLLINS (55-59), KENT SCHWITZER (60-64), JAMES BARTHEL (65-69). Our goal is to bat .500 here. Our fingers are crossed.

- We also predict that Catherine Lee's cool husband, TERRENCE, will be at the race and take some really nice photos, which we hope he shares with MTN. Some of the photos will feature ELLIOT, Terry's and Cathy's daughter, who is "as cute as a bug in a rug," which evokes weird images, doesn't it?, but we all know what it means. Elliot is really, really cute.

When we peeked at the St. Croix start list last week, we were pleased to see that more than 400 people were already entered. Remember, the race limit is 500 and Hopkin's enrollment is closed. We'd love to see this annual classic, the event that extended Minnesota's multisport season by two weeks when it was launched in 2001 (prior to 2001, Turtleman in mid-August was the last race of the season) reach its enrollment ceiling.

So, let's predict.

Saturday's Olympic field will be among its most competetive ever. Here, based on the list we perused, are our podiums:

Men: 1. BRIAN SAMES, 2. RICH HEILMAN, 3. SCOTT MYERS.

Women: 1. DANI VSETECKA, 2. STEPHANIE DELLARIA, 3. ANDREA MYERS

- Who will win the Sprint race? We're picking JOHN TAIPALE (pronounced "Type-ah-la" - it's a Finnish deal) and EMY EVERHART. A win for Emy, who like John, is a totally nice person, would be the first of her young multi career. We like breakthroughs.

- We also predict that if JIM MCDONNELL signs-up, he'll win the 60-64M category and he won't wear a shirt.  RACE WEBSITE

UPDATE: Dani V has contacted us. She is injured (a leg thing, we think?) and won't be racing, thus Stephanie Dellaria is our new pick to win.

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