Chrabot Rips Up IRONMAN 70.3 Racine
Leave it to the Midwest summers to deliver a storm-filled delay in the middle of July. The 10:20am start gave our pros a little extra time to digest a second breakfast, soak in the idea of riding 30 miles and running the full 13.1, and figure out a way to take down the most dominant 70.3 racer of the year: Lionel Sanders.
After Sanders took off from the start, the chase was on and it didn’t take Colorado’s Matt Chrabot long to start chipping away. By the last few miles, Chrabot had taken a commanding lead thanks to his fastest run time of the day of 1:12:55 and hit the finish line alone for the win in 2:43. Sanders held on for second, finishing in 2:20:57, and behind him was Boulder’s James Hadley. Hadley’s second fastest run split of the day, 1:14:36, helped him finish on the final podium spot, a place he is becoming quite familiar with these days.
The rest of the Colorado men finished strong with Paul Matthews finishing fifth (2:26:06), Robbie Wade in sixth (2:27:16), Justin Metzler in seventh (2:28:05), Drew Scott in ninth (2:31:14), and Richie Cunningham in 11th (2:32:50).
The Colorado women turned in strong performances in the shortened Racine race as well. Second and third place IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder finishers Jeanni Seymour and Lesley Smith finished fourth (2:41:15) and sixth (2:46:19) on the day. Great work, ladies!
Middaugh Magnificent at XTERRA Mountain Championship
Josiah Middaugh continued to show his XTERRA dominance as he took home his fourth straight win on the XTERRA Beaver Creek course. Living just one mile down the road, you could say that he literally raced in his backyard, but the competition came from all over.
Middaugh came out of the water less than two minutes down, a gap he is more than capable of making up, and the reigning world champ did just that over the rest of the terrain. Middaugh put his biking legs and skills to the test, turning in a time of 1:08:56, which he then followed up with a 38:51 run to help him claim the title with 30 seconds to spare over Boulder’s Sam Long (2:10:36). Rounding out the podium was Costa Rica’s Rom Akerson (2:12:21).
Boulder’s Ben Hoffman finished a strong fourth in 2:13:31 while the birthday boy, Leon Griffin, pushed hard at the end of the run to solidify a spot in the top five on the day in 2:14:24. The rest of the Colorado crew included Branden Rakita in sixth (2:16:38), Greg Bennett in seventh (2:18:00), Brad Zoller in eighth (2:19:13), Brian Smith in tenth (2:20:53), Thomas Spannring in 11th (2:22:33), Michael Weiss in 12th (2:23:50), Cody Waite in 15th (2:26:01), A.J. Baucco in 16th (2:34:14), and Joshua Merrick in 18th (2:47:07).
On the women’s side, Boulder’s Maia Ignatz finished on the podium in third place in a time of 2:42:37. Representing the rest of the Colorado pro women with strong showings were Elizabeth Gruber in fifth in 2:52:34 and Rebecca Blatt in 12th in 3:17:56. View Colorado Triathlete’s photo gallery of the action.
Evoe Sixth at IRONMAN UK
Boulder’s Patrick Evoe traveled to England to take on the technical course at IRONMAN UK over the weekend. After a solid swim of 54:10, it was on to the 100-plus turn bike course through the backroads of Bolton.
“I definitely had a rough time on this technical bike course. This was not an easy bike course, but the crowd support was great along both the bike and run portion of the race. The Brits know how to cheer and support a race,” said Evoe.
After hitting T2 in eighth with a 5:10:09 bike, Evoe was able to hit the ground running and began to climb his way back into the race. Thanks to his 3:03:15 run time, he was able to jump up a couple of spots and finish in sixth on the day in 9:14:33.
