Race Previews

Totally Crazy Weekend!

Wednesday, 10 August 2016 01:10

MINI-PREVES - The most insanely busy racing weekend of the entire season is almost here. Next Saturday and Sunday, a total of SIX adult triathlons will be staged in Minnesota.
Don't believe us?
On Saturday, northern MInnesota communities will host the Northwoods (Nevis) and Rainy Lake (International Falls) triathlons...

On Sunday there's the YWCA Women's Tri, Green Lake, North Mankato and Wingman.

Not only is it busy here at home, the USAT National AG Championships are next weekend.

Crazy, right?

We haven't seen the enrollment rosters for all these events, but we are willing to make some predictions for some of them.

Let's start with NATIONALS. We hope to see at least three MInnesota men finish in the overall Top 20. The guys with the best chance of doing so are, in our opinion, Matt Payne, Kris Spoth,Josh Blankenheim and Wade Cruser.

Yes, we expect The Pain Train to rock a Top 10 finish.

We also expect to see a Minnesota woman in the Top 10. We're talking about Gaby Bunten (photo L). That young athlete is on fire this year and could win her AG and be a true contender for any but the Top 2 overall spots, which we think will go to Kirsten Sass (TN) and Alissa Doehla (NC).

FYI, Sean Cooley and Hanna Grinaker will not be racing at Nats. Too bad. We believe they would have rocked performances that would land them in their respective gender's Top 10

YWCA WOMEN'S TRIATHLON - We adore this event, and so do its participants. So much so, that several of those who raced brilliantly at Nationals last year are skipping this year's Championships in favor of YWCA. Foremost among those national class women are Christina Roberts, Lisa Lendway and Kortney Haag. RACE WEBSITE
 
NORTHWOODS - Once again, Brooks Grossinger will be the clear favorite. A win would be his 12th at this great event. Who will join him in the Winner's Circle? We believe that Narissa Marzolf (photo R), last year's runner-up, will be that person, unless five-time NW champ Michelle Andres decides to make an appearance, that is. RACE WEBSITE
 
GREEN LAKE - We are unwilling to pick the men's winners in either the Sprint or International-distance races at this time. We think those guys will be among the late registrants.

As for the women, we firmly believe that race record holder Sheena Dauer will win the Olympic-esque race, and that Jen Neuman, defending women's GL Sprint champ and winner last weekend at Big Lake Sprint, will win the shorter race. RACE WEBSITE

GL UPDATE - We just learned that Larry Hosch and Andy Zabel have registered, but we don't know which distances they will be doing. At this point in time, these guys are the faves.

ED. We had incorrectly posted that HITS-Waconia was on the 13th-14th. Our bad. We deleted that content. Those races are on the 20th-21st. Sorry for causing any confusion. Apologies to HITS.