Top Professional Triathletes to Compete in Escape to Bermuda Triathlon

Oct. 14, 2008 - PRLog -- Some of the world’s leading professional triathletes and a host of overseas amateur triathletes will once again be in Bermuda to compete in the 2008 edition of the Escape to Bermuda Triathlon on Sunday 2nd November. The race, organized by IMG one of the world’s leading sports promoters,  consists of a 1500 meter swim from a government ferry to Dockyard, a 40km  bike ride across the island to St. Georges and a two loop 10km run around St. Georges finishing in the Town Square. This year’s event has attracted a bumper field of overseas and local participants in both the team and individual events with the overseas entries closing some months ago.

Leading the way amongst the professional male triathletes will be Australian Chris McCormack, the 2007 Hawaii Ironman Champion and perhaps the highest profile triathlete in the world. Macca, as he is known in the triathlon community, has had an extraordinary career. Macca, whose father hails from Scotland and whose mother was from a noble Maori bloodline, took the triathlon world by storm when in 1996 as a virtual unknown triathlete, he won both the World Championships and the World Cup Points Series over the same distances as the Escape to Bermuda Triathlon. Since then he has become a legend in the sport having moved up to the much longer Ironman distance racing in which he has won 11 titles including his victory in the famous Hawaii Ironman Triathlon in 2007. His achievements in the sport have been recognized by Triathlete Magazine naming him as triathlete of the year four times. This season he has already destroyed his competition at the prestigious Germany Ironman and the Wildflower Triathlon in the USA.
Amongst the women the USA’s Becky Lavelle returns to defend her title. Lavelle had an emphatic win in 2007 on the strength of a very strong bike leg. In 2008 she has already won one of the leading races in the USA, the Los Angeles Triathlon, and will start this year’s event as a slight favorite in a very strong women’s field. Lavelle, who is married to fellow professional triathlete Brian Lavelle who will be competing in Bermuda, was the 2005 US National Champion and accompanied the US team to the Beijing Olympics as the alternate for the women’s team. In the last few years she has also had some excellent results including wins at two of the biggest races of the year, Chicago and Escape from Alcatraz and a bronze medal at the Pan Am Games.

Although McCormack and Lavelle will start as favorites they will face strong challenges from an impressive list of athletes. Amongst the men the USA’s Jarrod Shoemaker, 18th in the Beijing Olympics just two minutes behind the winner, and  four of last year’s top five finishers are returning with Andy Potts, last year’s winner, the only one missing. Shoemaker’s strength is his very strong run, he won the very competitive Carlsbad 5000 meters run this year, and if he can stay in touch after the bike leg he will be in his element on the hilly St. Georges’ run course. New Zealand’s Matt “Boom Boom” Reed, third last year and now competing as a US citizen, has had an excellent season, the highlights of which included winning the US National Championships and Olympic Qualifier and a 5th place finish in the Triathlon World Championships as well as a series of wins in prestigious US races. Reed was considered a medal contender in Beijing but faded to 32nd. Simon Thompson of Australia (4th last year) and Brian  Fleischmann of the US (2nd last year) should also be in contention for a podium finish. The dark horse could well be the USA’s David Thompson. Thompson is an outstanding cyclist and runner and the hilly bike and run course is very suited to him. He finished fourth in the Escape from Alcatraz and won the Philadelphia Triathlon. However, Thompson’s late season has been hampered by injury and he may lack the fitness coming into the race. The early leaders after the swim should be France’s Benjamin Sanson, 5th last year, and the USA’s Eric Limkemann. Both have strong performances in 2008 but will find it hard to hold their lead for long after the swim.

With McCormack possibly still recovering from this past weekend’s Hawaii Ironman the race could be wide open on the men’s side.

On the women’s side the USA’s Sarah Groff and Mary Beth Ellis,  England’s Andrea Whitcombe and Jodie Swallow and last year’s runner up, the USA’s Rebecca Wassner, would appear to be the likely challengers to Lavelle and at press time there was still strong possibility that England’s Chrissie Wellington might be at the start line. Wellington stormed onto the triathlon scene in 2007 when winning the Hawaii Ironman as a virtual unknown. She proved herself again by defending her World Champion title at this past weekend’s Hawaii Ironman and if she enters the Bermuda race she will provide very tough competition if her legs have recovered. Andrea Whitcombe, ranked 8th in the world and Sarah Groff, ranked 6th in the world, will provide a formidable challenge to Lavelle. However they are used to racing in draft legal world cup racing from which their rankings stem ( meaning pack riding on the bike is permitted) whilst the Escape to Bermuda bike leg requires cyclists to be 10 meters apart thus not benefiting from drafting behind other stronger riders. Lavelle and Wassner mostly compete in non drafting racing which will give them some advantage. Wassner was only  1 ½ minutes behind Lavelle last year and has had a good year in 2008 suggesting she might well be in the mix for an overall win this year. Groff is the up and coming US superstar. In only her first season as a professional she finished 7th at the World Championships and 3rd in the US Olympic Trials. Whitcombe has had regular top ten finishes in Triathlon World Cup races in the past few years. As a junior Jodie Swallow was considered to be a potential Olympic gold medalist. From a swimming background (she was the UK 400 Individual Medley Champion) she twice won the Junior European Triathlon Championships and was voted junior world athlete of the year. She went on to win three UK National Triathlon titles and was a member of the UK team to the Athens Olympics. She has yet to win any major world medals as a senior but her two 4th place finishes in world cup triathlons in 2008 suggest she is finding the form to bring her into contention for a podium finish in 2009. Not to be overlooked is Mary Beth Ellis who finished second to Lavelle in the Los Angeles triathlon. Ellis showed that she is capable of doing well in non drafting races with a win in the Lake Stevens Half Ironman Triathlon and an impressive 6th place in the Life Time Fitness Triathlon which attracts one of the strongest fields in women’s triathlon.

In addition to the professional triathletes, local and overseas amateur triathletes will be competing for age group honours in both individual and team events. The Escape to Bermuda Triathlon will be preceded by the Bermuda Shorts Triathlon presented by Rubis on Saturday 1st November at Clearwater Beach in which Seniors will compete over 750 m swim, 20km bike and 5km run and juniors will compete over various distances.

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