By Cameron Elford
Vancouver, BC (June 10, 2007) -- The city of Vancouver is known for many things: its laid-back West Coast vibe; its striking location, framed by the North Shore mountains to the east and Strait of Georgia to the west; and, now, as the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
But the city is also a hub of resourcefulness and creativity: Greenpeace was begun in Vancouver in 1971; every year, dozens of top movies and TV shows are filmed here; and the International Triathlon Union, founded in 1989 and the driving force behind triathlon's inclusion in the Olympic Games, is headquartered here under the presidency of Les McDonald, who was the 2007 inductee into Triathlete magazine's Hall of Fame.
As such, it was a surprise that this spectacular, scenic city did not have a World Cup race of its own, especially given the increasingly frenetic scramble for Olympic-qualifying points as athletes from around the world jockey for position (through their performances in the ITU's global World Cup series with 2007 stops in the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Canada, USA, Japan, Asia and Europe) on their respective national teams during the countdown to Beijing 2008.
All that changed, however, with the Vancouver World Cup on June 10, an Olympic-distance race that was the sixth stop on the ITU's 2007 World Cup series(the event marking the first time since 1991 the city has played host to a World Cup race, although the resort area of Whistler, two hours north of Vancouver, hosted a handful of ITU events in the mid-1990s. The 2007 Vancouver race also served as a test event for the 2008 ITU short-course world championships, which will be held next year on this course on the weekend of June 6-8.
Top women racing the Vancouver event included hometown favorite Lauren Groves, who trains in Boulder, Colo., under former ITU world short-course champion Siri Lindley; plus Aussies Rina Hill and Erin Densham, Joelle Franzmann of Germany, Jill Savege of Canada and Samantha Warriner of New Zealand.
The men's field was headlined by 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Canada plus top American Andy Potts, the 2007 U.S. national champion who also won the coveted Escape from Alcatraz title last weekend in San Francisco, Calif., against a powerful men's field, and Colorado's Matt Reed. Other top men here included 2004 Athens Olympian Simon Thompson of Australia and fellow Aussie Brendan Sexton. Both men finished in the top 10 at the 2007 World Cup opener in Mooloolaba, Australia.
Beginning and ending in Vancouver's West End, a leafy, bucolic neighborhood bordered by English Bay and renowned Stanley Park and intersected by fashionable Robson St., at noon, following the age-group waves, the pro women dove into chilly English Bay for the 1.5km point-to-point ocean swim that exited at Second Beach in Stanley Park. (The pro men followed three hours later, after the conclusion of the women's race.) The 40km bike course then wound through eight loops of the beautiful West End before finishing with a 10km out-and-back run through Stanley Park and the seawall, much of which was damaged by severe storms last winter and remains under construction.
Despite heavy rain, for which Vancouver is well known, the day before the race and intermittent showers throughout the morning during the age-group event, the overcast skies largely held back with the notable exception of a brief deluge during the women's event, which slickened roads and increased the challenge of this already technical criterium-style bike course.
Once out of the water, both the men and women quickly coalesced into packs on the bike, with the USA's Sarah Haskins and Sara McLarty bursting to an early advantage over a chase group that included Warriner, California's Becky Lavelle and Canada's Jill Savege, among others. By T2, the American breakaway had stretched its lead to nearly 90 seconds, but Warriner was quickly making up ground and had moved into in third, just over a minute behind leader Haskins, after the first of three run laps. And Warriner continued to power through the flat 10km course, pulling back McLarty on lap two and cutting Haskins' advantage to 30 seconds heading into the final 3.3km lap.
"I got off the bike, and I was pretty cold," said Warriner. "But I kept seeing Sarah, and I was determined to catch her. After the first lap I knew I was gaining, and that was enough for me to think, 'Right, if you want it, you're in this position you've got to take it,' and I went for it."
On the final run lap Warriner's dogged determination paid off as she moved past Haskins, and the American was unable to respond. "When I passed Sarah, I heard someone yell, 'Get on her shoulder!'" said Warriner, "And I thought, 'No!' I didn't know how far in front I was and I had to keep working and working to get that extra distance because I didn't want her to come back on me."
In second place behind Warriner was Haskins, while Densham used a powerful run to take third.
Whitfield back on topThe men's race was similarly decided on the run. With favorites Whitfield, Potts and Reed out of the water and onto the bike in a tight pack of seven athletes, it quickly became clear that this select group would produce the race winner. After organizing into an effective paceline on the second lap, the leaders put time into the chasers with every lap, ultimately hitting T2 with a two-minute advantage.
Potts, Reed and Whitfield then started the run shoulder-to-shoulder, although Reed, by the second lap, slowly began to lose touch with the quick-running duo.
"The deal is that swimmers like him [Andy Potts] aren't supposed to be able to run, and he's breaking the rules, so I'm going to accuse him of cheating," joked Whitfield of Potts. "I got him with maybe a K [kilometer] to go."
Still, Potts was unrelenting, battling Whitfield all the way to the finish such that Whitfield had to quickly glance over his shoulder in the finishing chute before raising his arm in the air in celebration as he crossed the line.
Potts took second place, just two seconds back, while Reed finished in third.
For Whitfield, the win marks his first World Cup title since 2004. "I'm ecstatic to be back on top. It's been two-and-a-half years of work on my swim."
But, for Whitfield, today's swim was anything but routine. "The beginning of the swim I felt like I had to calm myself down," said Whitfield, whose partner, Jenny, is expecting their first child. "Jenny called this morning to wish me luck, and I saw her number on the phone and I thought, 'Whoop, here we go -- so I had to calm down a bit on the swim.'"
2007 Vancouver ITU World Cup
Vancouver, Canada
June 10, 2007
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km runWomen1. WARRINER, Samantha (NZL) 2:03:25
2. HASKINS, Sarah (USA) 2:04:01 +:37
3. DENSHAM, Erin (AUS) 2:04:11 +:46
4. FRANZMANN, Joelle (GER) 2:04:36 +1:11
5. MAY, Elizabeth (LUX) 2:04:52 +1:27
6. IDE, Juri (JPN) 2:04:58 +1:33
7. NIWATA, Kiyomi (JPN) 2:04:59 +1:34
8. GROVES, Lauren (CAN) 2:05:14 +1:49
9. MCLARTY, Sara (USA) 2:05:56 +2:31
10. GROFF, Sarah (USA) 2:06:05 +2:40
Men1. WHITFIELD, Simon (CAN) 1:49:16
2. POTTS, Andy (USA) 1:49:18 +:02
3. REED, Matt (USA) 1:50:11 +:55
4. BRUKHANKOV, Alexander (RUS) 1:50:35 +1:20
5. TICHELAAR, Paul (CAN) 1:51:29 +2:14
6. FLEISCHMANN, Brian (USA) 1:51:40 +2:25
7. JENKINS, Colin (CAN) 1:52:08 +2:52
8. THOMPSON, Simon (AUS) 1:53:15 +3:59
9. SEXTON, Brendan (AUS) 1:53:28 +4:13
10. GLUSHCHENKO, Andriy (UKR) 1:53:44 +4:29