Race Previews

Danny & Janny Faved At Liberty...

Friday, 10 June 2011 03:00

Gear West Bike Photo - Dan Arlandson winning the 2008 Full Vineman.

Liberty Preview - The 13th annual Minnesota Multisport Awards will be presented next November. Its program will be expanded to include male and female Long Course Athletes of the Year.

Such recognition is long overdue....

This announcement should be good news for guys like Dan Arlandson and Josh Riff and a gaggle of other Minnesotans who love four-plus hour races. Riff, who won the Liberty Half last year, will not be at this year's race on Saturday, however. In fact, we may not see him till late in the season. Expanded work and family responsibility stuff is limiting his training and weekend availability.

Arlandson, on the other hand, will be at Liberty this weekend. And the two-time Full Vineman champ will be the clear men's favorite. A win in a time that approximates or betters Jeremy Sartain's 2007 CR (4:11:07) will make him the early frontrunner for the inaugural LDAOY trophy. One or two more wins or podiums in prominent long course races this season could ice it for the quiet 34-year-old Mendota Heights resident.

Who will push Dan on Saturday?

We sure hope John Shelp will. And we suspect that Todd Landgraff, who raced brilliantly here in 2010, finishing 3rd and setting a stunning PR (4:25), which he later lowered at Chisago (4:20:47) will.