Race Coverage

A Great Race "Broke Out"....

Sunday, 16 August 2020 23:10

GRANITEMAN CLEARWATER COVERAGE - Men's Race -  Sunday was a great day for racing, and sure enough, a great race, as the late Rodney Dangerfield might have said, "broke out."

It happened in the scenic rural environs west of bucolic Clearwater, thus it's name: Graniteman Clearwater.

It's amazing to us that even when a race unfolds as you might expect it to, it is still exciting as heck to witness.

The predicted winners prevailed in both the overall and most of the age group competitions, but it was still thrilling to watch. That's triathlon. It's cool people doing extraordinary things is tight clothing.

Sophomore pro TED TREISE understands that his main job right now is to prove that he deserves his license, which in the early stages entails that he not allow elite amateurs to beat him. He also knows that it is especially hard to accomplish that in Minnesota, where the top amateurs are among the best in the country. Beating 2019 Most Improved winner JOSH MORK, current Most Improved frontrunner JOE ADRIAENS, and North Dakota's fastest rising male star, AJ MANNING, meant that he couldn't cruise.

The hammer needed to be down from lake to banner....

Mork's swim/bike combination is formidable, and he'd need his best effort to stay in the game with Treise. He needed to not only beat Teddy into T2, he had to put at least 90-seconds into his adversary  if he was going to break the "not allowing amateurs to beat him" streak.

That wasn't going to happen.

Ted overtook Josh early in the run and went on to crush the course record. But his mark will stand as a pro best, thus STEVE SANDER's nine-year-old amateur CR was allowed to stand until Mork made the final turn off the bridge. Sander's mark went down hard, his 1:05:10 succumbing to Mork's 1:04:20.

Treise, who's career win total is now five, posted a 1:03:10. Josh's amateur title is the 8th of his career, and 2nd in as many starts in 2020.

Adrianens, whose glowing wife EMMA is scheduled to give birth to twin boys in the next couple of weeks, posted solid splits throughout, yielding a fine 1:05:51 and the final virtual podium step.

Fatigued from his 2nd place finish the day before at Young Life, Manning had to settle for fourth. His prolific 2020 racing now features a win (Green Lake Sprint), two 2nds (Big Lake and Yound Life) and a 4th (Clearwater). Good stuff.

2019 Master of the Year nominee and apparent shoo-in for a repeat nod, MIKE BUENTING, 46, rounded out the Top 5, doing so in a Masters Record 1:07:17.

EVIN and LARRY and their crew put on an incredible event for the 287 participants. 

The equally terrific women's race will be discussed in the next MTN post. Stay tuned.  RESULTS