A couple of cracking half-distance races feature this weekend, including a star-studded field at 70.3 Vineman and the battle of master and apprentice at 70.3 Jönköping.
Text by Jordan Blanco and Rob Sheeley | Lead Image By Witsup
Star-Studded Field Tackles Vineman 70.3
Text By Jordan Blanco
This weekend’s Ironman 70.3 Vineman race offers up a fantastic field with an array of international stars set to grace the picturesque course.
Great Britain’s Holly Lawrence is an athlete currently on form having won the iconic Escape from Alcatraz triathlon at the beginning of June and backed that up with her first win at an Ironman 70.3 event in Mont-Tremblant two weeks ago.
Lawrence is excited to be back on the Vineman start line after a DNF during the run in 2015.
“I’m looking to replace last year’s experience with a good memory of this race,” she told Witsup.
Lawrence attributes some of the improvement in her form to a change in coaching for the 2016 season.
“I’m back to being trained by TrainSharp (trainsharpcyclecoaching.co.uk) who are pure, scientific, no-nonsense bike boffs that have helped me put together some pretty calculated and consistent training,” she says.
“We’ve got tons more room for improvement so I’m pretty excited about where we can go!”
Part of Lawrence’s improvement and learning will come via more race experience, as it’s just the second season of 70.3 racing for the 26 year old.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learnt so far this year is not to freak out when shit happens,” explains Lawrence,.
“Meredith [Kessler] and I swam off course in St George 70.3 but I still pulled out a performance I’m really happy with! A lot can happen in a 70.3 as it’s a long way.”
Unfortunately, four-time champion Meredith Kessler has had to withdraw from the event. So far, 2016 season has not seen Kessler at her best, as she has been struggling with a nagging hamstring injury that appears to have hindered her usual, trusty run speed. There is little doubt that she will return in style in the not-to-distant-future.
Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen is making the trip from her training base in Australia for this race and is a major contender for the win. Steffen is focusing solely on the 70.3 distance this year with her sights set clearly on the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mooloolaba in September. She raced in California earlier this year at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside placing second to Canada’s Heather Wurtele with the fastest run split of the day.
Another athlete traveling from “down under” is Aussie, Annabel Luxford, making a rare appearance on mainland US soil. A regular on top of the podium over the 70.3 distance in Asia-Pacific, Luxford combines a lightning fast swim/bike combination with a solid run. While Steffen outran Luxford at the September 2015 Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast, the Aussie got the better of Steffen at last November’s Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney.
It would be foolish to bet against America’s Lauren Brandon for the first out of the water award at Sunday’s race, as even her husband, Barrett Brandon, has been on the losing end of that bet on numerous occasions. It’s usually a question of how much distance she can put between herself and the chasers into T1. Brandon acquits herself admirably on the bike and can be expected to be in the mix all the way into T2 but we have yet to see her demonstrate the run speed to podium against this world-class field.
Rachel McBride of Canada stood on the podium at Vineman 70.3 in 2014 but spent most of 2015 on the sidelines with an injured foot. A solid outing at the recent Ironman 70.3 Victoria, placing 4th, demonstrates that she is on the comeback trail and could figure in the race if her fitness has continued to improve.
Ironman 70.3 Vineman 2016 Startlist
BIB
LAST
FIRST
COUNTRY REP
35
Kessler
Meredith
USA
36
Lawrence
Holly
GBR
37
McBride
Rachel
CAN
38
Steffen
Caroline
CHE
39
Luxford
Annabel
AUS
40
Frederiksen
Helle
DNK
41
Brandon
Lauren
USA
42
Roberts
Lisa
USA
43
Spieldenner
Jennifer
USA
44
Watkinson
Annah
ZAF
45
Robertson
Jodie
USA
46
Buster
Anna
RUS
47
Cocks
Emily
USA
48
DiNicola
Courtney
USA
49
Goodell
Kimberly
USA
51
Hammond
Christine
USA
52
Hill
Alycia
USA
53
Hinz
Bailey
USA
54
Juhart
Monica
AUS (Australia)
55
Kosmo
Kelly
USA
56
Leiggi
Heather
USA
57
Lopez
Maria
USA
58
Luse
Nicole
USA
59
Madison
Mackenzie
USA
60
McCune
Emma
USA
61
Miller
Leslie
USA
62
Moench
Skye
USA
63
Pierce
Brittany
USA
64
Pomeroy
Robin
USA
66
Smith
Jessica
USA
The Master And Apprentice Set To Clash At Jönköping
Text By Rob Sheeeley
Sweden will be the European epicenter of half distance this weekend when it hosts Ironman 70.3 Jönköping.
This race features an intriguing scenario along the lines of master versus apprentice.
In the role of master is the recently crowned Ironman Asia Pacific champion, Jodie Swallow. When it comes to 70.3 racing, there is virtually nothing that Swallow has not achieved.
The 2010 world champion has won Ironman 70.3 South Africa six times and was also runner-up at the world championships in 2014. More recently she has won in Lanzarote in 2015.
Swallow dominated Ironman Cairns at her last outing in extremely trying conditions. It was an energy sapping performance but, with a few weeks of recovery, the consummate professional is likely to be firing on all cylinders here.
Swallow’s main combatant, filling the “apprentice” role, is Emma Bilham.
Bilham has not finished outside the top two places in her four races so far in 2016.
She trains under the watchful eye of master-mentor Brett Sutton, who also coached Swallow earlier in her career.
Bilham, also known as “Little Cabbage”, was victorious at her last start in the Challenge Galway half, defeating top-shelf competitors Lucy Gossage and Laura Siddall in the process.
Before that she finished second at Ironman Nice, a race that (by her own admission), she was underdone for.
Bilham’s other win came at Ironman 70.3 Barcelona in late May.
The upside to Bilham in a race like this is that she appears to have large scope for improvement. In the lead-up to Challenge Galway she wrote about the mental gains she had made in her approach to racing. This continual improvement could easily see her develop into one of the big-hitters of the sport, sooner rather than later.
Another athlete to keep an eye on is Brit, Kimberley Morrison. She is coming off a second at 70.3 Staffs and also won 70.3 Buenos Aires earlier in the year. Add to that a fourth at both Ironman 70.3 St. Pölten and Challenge Salou and she could well be competitive here.
The race certainly shapes up as an engrossing contest.
Ironman 70.3 Jönköping 2016 Startlist
50
Jodie
Swallow
GBR
51
Sara
Svensk
SWE
52
Lauren
Parker
AUS
53
Kimberley
Morrison
GBR
54
Jessica
Ahlund
SWE
55
Emma
Bilham
CHE
56
Julia
Montgomery
SWE
57
Åsa
Lundstrom
SWE
58
Kaisa
Lehtonen
FIN
59
Michaela
Herlbauer
AUT