Jul

Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island

By robin

Bozzone wins again

If there was a year long 70.3 series, Terenzo Bozzone would have wrapped up the title by now and could draw up a deck chair and watch the rest of the pro’s duke it out for second spot. Such has been his dominance of the racing thus far, that only Chris Lieto has come close to matching him.

Kiwi, Graham O’Grady, was first out of the water in just over 24 minutes, giving him a massive lead over the race favourites that included Richie Cunningham, Paul Ambrose and Bozzone. Usually one expects the flash swimmers to fade on the bike but O’Grady gave a good account of himself and didn’t step down from the battle that was developing between Tim Berkel, Cunningham, Rich Allen and Bozzone.

Up front though, Paul Ambrose was in a league of his own as he opened up a 3 minute lead on the chasers into T2. Berkel looked like chasing Ambrose until an incident with a press motorbike saw him drop back to the group and once again it was all set up for a mad dash to the finish as some of the best runners in the sport entered transition together.

Out of T2 it was Bozzone that made his intent known as he set about catching Ambrose. Behind Cunningham and Berkel appeared to be taking a little longer to get going after the battle of the bike and it was only after 5km that Berkel finally pulled level with Bozzone. The two then ran side by side, each taking turns to surge as they worked to close down Ambrose.

With just a few kilometers to go, Bozzone made the move that counted and raced away to yet another victory, while behind Berkel also made the pass on Ambrose to take second place.

In the women’s race it was Australian turned Austrian, Kate Major, that held on to a narrow victory over the fast closing Caitlin Snow, after spending most the day out front in the company of Michellie Jones and Sam Warriner.

Major a veteran of all forms of triathlon racing showed her experience and patience as she allowed the others to make the racing, knowing well that the heat would be a factor at the end of the race.

Women