ITU World Cup Season Continues in Alicante

The 2013 World Cup season continues in Alicante this weekend, with big fields turning out for the second event in Spain this year. It’s the first World Cup event in the coastal city and the course will take in a two-lap 1.5km swim in the Port of Alicante, followed by a hilly and technical six-lap 43km bike course and finishes with a four-lap flat 10km run.

The start list in Elite Women includes the Netherlands Rachel Klamer, Italy’s Alice Betto, the Czech Republic’s Vendula Frintova, Great Britain’s Katie Hewison, Austria’s Lisa Perterer, Australia’s Felicity Sheedy-Ryan, South Africa’s Gillian Sanders, Belgium’s Katrien Verstuyft and Germany’s Rebecca Robisch. Frintova is already a World Cup winner, while Klamer picked up the elite women’s 2013 European Championship title.

In Elite Men line up includes World Cup winners Mark Buckingham (GBR), Brendan Sexton (AUS) and Simon De Cuyper (BEL), as well as Italy’s Davide Uccellari, Germany’s Gregor Bucholz, Russia’s Igor Polyanksiy and Andrey Bryukhankov. There is also a big team flying the flag at home in Spain, including Francesc Godoy and Jesus Gomar.

More than 200 compete in triathlon festival in rain

WORTH TWP — More than 200 participants show up at Saturday's Mighty Moraine Man Triathlon Festival despite of heavy rains.

The event which was held at Moraine State Park featured a Half-Ironman race — which is a 1.2 mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run — and an Olympic distance triathlon — which is a .9-mile swim, a 27-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run.

Joella Baker, race director, said rain can slow racers down, particularly when biking. She said that one person quit the race because the rain was too heavy and some people had mechanical problems with their bicycles.
But most racers stuck it out.

“Despite the rain, it's going very well,” Baker said.

This was the first time for the event, which had the first Half-Ironman ever in Western Pennsylvania. The park has made a five-year commitment to hold the event.

Racers swam in Lake Arthur. The bike course took racers outside the park and up toward Slippery Rock, while the running was on trails in the park.

The races were designed for both beginners and experienced competitors. Baker said she was amazed by the number of beginners who attended.

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