Better check the under the cushions to find some pennies, it's my fave time of the year. What? Why? Because for only 45000 or so US dollars, Bike-y, or any of you, can buy your way into the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona this October. Yep, the annual "charity" auction (i refer to it as a way for really rich people to sneak into the race) is on, where 6 slots are up for grab in weekly eBay auctions. This week's auction doesn't end until Saturday night, so some of you can still buck up and get in. Let me know how it goes...
Speaking of Ironman, the spring Ironman series is in full swing. Cam Brown (7 in a row) and Jo Lawn (6 in a row) won Ironman New Zealand in March, while Chrissie Wellington (she's now 3 for 3 in Ironman) and Patrick Vernay won Ironman Australia in April. Then Ironman South Africa was won by Stephen Bayliss and Bella Comerford (by 5 seconds). Ironman Arizona also had a close finish with Jozsef Major winning (the Top 4 were separated by 70 seconds or so) the Men's race and Erika Csomor beating Michellie Jones by 11 minutes in the womens race. Finally, last weekend the inaugural Ironman China event was won by Belinda Granger and Olaf Sabatschus.
Okay, what does that tell us about what will happen in Kona? Ummm, nothing. Lots of Europeans and North Americans have yet to race this year at the full Ironman distance, and last year at this time we hadn't heard of Chrissie Wellington and Sam McGlone was a complete unknown. The only result that surprised me a bit was Erika Csomor winning Arizona (she also won 70.3 at Oceanside) so she is obviously a contender this fall.
Here's a good news/bad news story. It's expected that Andy Potts will race Kona this year in his first attempt at 140.6 distance. Really cool. However, unless he has a great day soon, he won't be in Beijing. In Tuscaloosa last weekend (part 2 of the USA's "Haul to the Great Wall" Olympic Qualifying Program) Andy Potts finished 2nd to Matt Reed for the automatic spot. Julie Swail Ertel (who was an Olympian on the US Water Polo team in Sydney) got the Women's spot. That leaves one race for the final spot (the ITU race in Des Moines) and there a lot of top competitors who need a spot, including Hunter Kemper (#1 in the world 2006) and Andy Potts on the mens side, and Sarah Haskins (#8 in the world 2007) still looking to get there. Should be fun to watch...
On the Beijing front, there are two Canadian updates this week. One, Colin Jenkins, who may get the third discretionary Canadian spot due to his great swim/bike abilities, has started a blog about his Road To Beijing on Slowtwitch. Here's Part 1 and Part 2. Interesting life of a pro triathlete. His Canadian teammates Kyle Jones, Brent McMahon, and Bike-Y fave, and St Albert 10 miler winner, Paul Tichelaar are racing this weekend in South Korea. Also racing on the womens side are Kirsten Sweetland (first race in 2008) and Lauren Groves. And as I just found out, Chrissie Wellington is also racing this race! So it will be an interesting day in South Korea. Watch live on triathlon.org or on-demand Monday during work hours at WCSN.
Sunday is also the day for the coolest-named bike race, Liege-Bastogne-Liege (second place goes to Fleche Wallone). This year there lots of big names favored to win the 261 km (with 12 climbs!) race in its 94th edition. Favorites include Damiano Cunego, Paolo Bettini, Davide Rebellin, Frank Schleck, Thomas Dekker, Cadel Evans, and Alejandro Valverde. Pretty solid group, could make a Top 5 at the Tour out of that group.
One last pro cycling/doping update. Ivan Basso will be back in the peloton in 2009, as he signed today with Team Liquigas. Good for him as he will have served his 2-year suspension for "attempted doping". Hmmm. Anyhow, if he comes back and is competitive it will be good for the sport.
I'm going to round out this week's by being lazy and posting two cool stories I found the last while. One is of Ironman interest (a Sports Illustrated feature on the 1983 Kona race) and the other is looking forward at a cool up-and-coming US cyclist whose parents were both World Champions. Both are worth reading. And on the Canadian non-Bikey side, here is a cool new Nike video featuring Steve Nash, just in time for the NBA playoffs. Pretty cool i thought.
Enjoy...see you on Friday!
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