Race Previews

Love for the Buffalo Triathlon

Monday, 30 May 2016 06:10

BUFFALO TRIATHLON PREVE - There are no shortage of outstanding triathlon venues in Minnesota. In fact, we doubt that any other state has as many great tri sites as ours does. It just doesn't get any better than Timberman's Sugar Lake venue, Heart of the Lakes in Annandale and the new site of the Brewhouse at Island Lake. In the Metro, there's Lake Marion, Lake Waconia and Lake Minnetonka, among so many others. And the Waseca Tri in southern MInnesota is special, too.

And there are sixty other great tri/du sites in our state.

At, or near the top of the "GVL" (Great Venues List) is Sturges Park in Buffalo, home  of the Buffalo Triathlon, which will celebrate its 13th anniversary next Sunday. That place looks like it was designed with triathlon in mind. It's picturesque and shady, and features an awesome amphitheatre. It is not only a great venue for racers, there isn't a more spectator-friendly race site anywhere....

Stuges Park is not only a great place to stage a triathlon, it is the place were some of the most exciting and inspiring racing has taken place for the last decade-plus. And we're not only talking about it's Olympic distance race. A glance at results tells us that the Buffalo Sprint is the most competitive "companion" race in Minnesota.

Sunday's race will, once again, feature a plethora of talented athletes, so, for poops and  giggles, let's make some predictions, based on the list of entrants we saw last week.

Olympic Triathlon - Amateur race record (1:55:51- 2014) holder Matt Payne will be there. It would be foolhardy to bet against him. A victory would be the 44th of his career, and his 3rd in as many starts in 2016.

The race for 2nd should come down to a battle between last year's runner-up Josh Blankenheim, and the fastest rising star on the regional scene, Wade Cruser. Having raced three times already (two wins and a 3rd), Wade has all of his rust knocked off. Josh hasn't raced in a multi yet this year, thus we give the slightest edge to Cruser.

The women's race for 1st should be an epic battle between last year's 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Kortney Haag and Christina Roberts. Wait! Lisa Lendway is also in the field. We think that these ladies will comprise the podium, and they'll get a good push from Team Minnesota's Sheena Dauer.

Yes, we expect Greg Taylor, 62, to turn in a crazy-fast time. We suspect that he'll not only be faster than the sixty-genarians, he'll be the fastest dude over-50.

Buffalo Sprint - We expect to see another great battle for 1st between elite masters Cheryl Zitur and Laura Swartz. We won't bet against Zitur, espeially after watching her rock socks at Apple.

The men's sprint race is a bit harder to call. We expect Ryan Wippler, Brian Storhaug and David Phillips to battle for podium spots. Andy Wiberg is also enrolled, but the list we looked at did not specify which race he will do. If it's the sprint, he's our pick to win.

Also, we expect 2015 Junior of the Year nominee Kaytlin Garrison to win her division.

We fully expect several very competitive people to sign up ths week, which could blow some, but not all, of our predictions out the the water. We truly hope that that happens. After all, we're just doing this for poops and giggles, which is why we have a picture of a rode-hard-and-put-away-wet Mona Lisa at the top of the page.

A thousand-or-so athletes are expected to race. Will you be one of them? If you haven't signed up yet, we encourage you to do so at your earliest opportunity. (Online registration closes tonight!) This is an  event that shouldn't be missed. RACE WEBSITE

ED. We just learned that Sean Cooley has entered. On paper, the fight for Olympic podium spots will be between Payne, Blankenheim, Cruser, and Cooley. We're anxious to see how the race unfolds. Also, we wouldn't be surprised if Duluthians Nick Nygaad and Mike Ward, as well as Brooks Grossinger, Top 5 finishers last year, show up. That will make things even more interesting.