I have ignored most of the 2010 ITU Season this year on Bikey, highlighting a couple breakthrough performances (Barb Riveros early, Paula Findlay late) that appeared to inject some new blood into the same old faces who seem to be on the podium race after race. For the women, it was Emma Snowsill, Emma Moffatt, Lisa Norden, and Nicola Spirig who battled it out all year for the overall title.
A quick recap of the year - Emma Moffatt repeated as World Champion in 2010. Unfortunately, she didn't have a banner year, winning a grand total of ZERO events in 2010. In 2009, she won 4 events and was the dominant female, but this year she had two 2nd place finishes and 2 3rd place finishes to outpoint the rest of the women. Canada's Paula Findlay was the only multiple winner in the World Championship Series, but the fact that she only competed in 3 out of the 7 events in 2010 left her far behind in the overall Series, finishing in 5th place on the season.
A couple questions: Am I the only one who thinks that the World title should go to someone to actually wins a race? And does the average fan really miss the "All or Nothing" one day, one race World Champion? I get that it's important to convince the best athletes to race all around the globe, but isn't there a better way?
Tremblay (13th overall in 2009) never real got on track in 2010, had a nasty crash in Madrid, and never really had a solid race all season long. The 28 year-old has always been a consistent racer, but will need to have a bounceback season in 2011 or her Olympic goals might be a longshot.
Sweetland suffered thru more injuries and sickness early on this season, and never really got on a roll like she has in the past. She got a flat tire in the WCS event in Hamburg, competed while sick in London, and then regrouped in August to finish 2nd overall at the Canadian Championships (less than a minute behind Findlay) before going to Budapest and finishing 2nd overall at the Under-23 World Championship race. With two career World Cup wins and still only being 21 years of age, Sweetland still has unlimited potential. Can she stay healthy for an entire season? And can she team up with Findlay to give Canada a one-two punch to take on the world?
Lauren Groves broke her collarbone in the offseason, but unfortunately it never healed, so she needed success in June and lost her entire season. She was 12th in the 2009 rankings, and has proven she can have big results in big races. Can she bounce back after losing an entire season? Let's hope so...
Canada's shining star for 2010 was Paula Findlay, who started off this season racing against second tier competition before shocking the world by winnning her first two World Championship Series races in London and Kitzbuhel before finishing a gutsy 5th overall in Budapest after having to play catch up the whole day...she'll enter 2011 as one of the favorites in every event she enters. And with her taking the winter semester off of university to prepare for her 2011 season, the 21 year-old will be looking to take her replicate her 2010 successes.
Findlay also took home some hardware in Budapest as the winner of the "Fastest Runner" award from the ITU. This season, the ITU gave an extra award (plus $5000 in cash) to the male and female who consistently had the best swim, bike, or run splits for the season. Findlay's blistering run splits won her the 2010 award, while Jan Frodeno won for the men.
A quick note on the other winners...the bike award went to Calgary's Lisa Mensink (who competes for the Netherlands). However, despite being rated as the top biker, her best overall finish was a 17th place finish. Lance was right - it's not about the bike. The top swimmer award went to Laura Bennett, who had another great season to finish the year as the 10th place overall female as a 35 year old! Nice work Laura...
So let's call this year a solid B+ overall, after an A+ by Findlay and a bunch of C's and D's from the rest of the girls...
Men's recap coming soon...
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