Race Previews

Cinco to Celebrate Diamond Anniversary...

Wednesday, 03 May 2017 23:10

CINCO DU MAYO PREVIEW - Yucky weather in the recent past makes folks reluctant to sign up for races in the near future. When this was written, temps were in the 30s and snowflakes the size of kumquats were falling out of the sky. But according to weather.com, an irrefutable source of unassailable information, the conditions in the Stillwater area, where the 10th edition of Cinco Du Mayo Long Course and 8th annual Cinco Sprint Du will be staged, will be borderline lovely next Saturday, when those races will be contested....

So, we encourage everyone who hasn't registered already to do so ASAP. Remember, this event offers great courses, gorgeous scenery, race staff wearing sombreros and a post race taco feast suitable for a conquistador.

Now for the fun part. Predictions.

Long Course (3 - 20 -3):

2016 Most Improved winner WADE CRUSER is a clear choice for the men. He's the defending champion who proved last year that he's arguably one of the top five amateur duathletes in the US. We were shocked when USAT did not name him a DOY HM. He had raced in three dus, winning convincing in two of them and placing 3rd behind Payne (two-time USAT DOY, 2016 DOY HM) and Parish (2012 DOY, 2016 Elite DOY) in the other.

We think that CHRIS TATTON will take the silver on Saturday. These choices are based on the early registration list we saw. There's an excellent chance that competitive athletes have or will sign up since then. In fact, we strongly believe that the eventual women's winner will be a later sign up.

Short Course (2 - 10 - 2)

If elite level athletes are not later registrants, we suspect that ANDY ZABEL and ROB MADWICK are destined for podium spots. If Andy's good friend and fellow St. Cloud area guy LARRY HOSCH decides to carpool, we think he will be the guy to beat, unless he goes long, then we'd pick him to slide into the silver medal position behind Cruser.

And we'd be surprised if MITCHELL CLAYTON, last year's Junior of the Year and short course winner here, didn't show up. If he does, he'll be our pick to repeat, unless Hosch pops in, that is.

Should be a great race.

As with the long course event, we think that a later registrant will take the women's title. If that doesn't happen, though, our pick to win is an exciting young talent named MACY IYER (photo R). She's only thirteen but shows signs of developing into a true star. She won her AG last year, but didn't demonstrate her true talent, as she did at Apple Kids. A year older, stronger and wiser, we hope to see a spectacular effort from her, one that might lead to a JOY nomination at season's end.

About 150 participants are expected on Saturday. Race management and us here at MTN would love to see that number swell to 200. We're hoping you'll help us make that happen.  RACE WEBSITE