Triathlon South America 2010 – Part Cinco

I woke early and got to the race site early enough to watch the age groupers event first. It was a small field of ~60. There was a current pushing the mass of swimmers off the first buoy and I made a note to tell the elites when they came down later.

I went for a run to the bike turn around just to assess the exact location and the course was what we expect except more narrow – two lanes divided by a line of cones making for less room to pass and no room for mistakes in this draft legal format. As I ran back I identified what was the most dangerous spot on the course – a mild descent into a 90 degree right turn  that was a bit slick and had a super narrow, one lane exit. As I stood to watch a couple of age groupers go through one of them over shot the corner and wound up on the other side of the cones in on coming traffic. He returned to his lane unscathed but it was clear this spot would be an issue for the pros.

The elites arrived and I hung with their bikes during their warm up. They racked ‘em and I found a spot on the wall beside the board walk to watch the women start. Jasmine Oeinck was fist out of the water with a group of 6. She rode with intelligence, leading into every dangerous section (there were many on this technical course)

Margie Shapiro was out of the water about a minute down on Jasmine’s group but crashed on the first lap. She popped up quickly, got back in the hut and closed the then 2 minute gap down to 40 seconds before stepping off for the run

Margie ran into 2nd place. Jasmine hung in for 5th.

Ian