Showdown at L.A. Tri
In the penultimate race in the 2011 Toyota Cup Series, Sunday's Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon will be covered live on Slowtwitch.com, and will feature stout fields in both the men's and women's races.
Greg Bennett will try to notch his 4th L.A. Triathlon title. He's fresh off a huge payday at the HyVee Tri, and based on the fitness he showed there he's going to be hard to beat.
While Bennett enters as the favorite, it won't be a walkover. Cameron Dye showed sharp early season form before a crash on the bike at the Life Time Fitness triathlon set him back. If he's recovered that early form, he's almost certain to be in the lead, or at least in the hunt, off the bike.
Czech short courser Filip Ospaly has been near the front at every race this season. But the most likely challenger to Bennett may be the UK's Stuart Hayes, who, like Bennett, is very strong in all 3 disciplines, and wasn't far off Bennett's pace at HyVee.
Lisa Norden, last year's L.A. champ, comes in as the women's favorite, but Bennett's better half wll give Norden a run for her money. Laura Bennett has been razor sharp this season. Both will face a stiff challenge from Britain's Jodie Stimpson.
Wild cards in the field are Fraser Cartmell and Andrew Yoder, both of whom have the talent to win this race. Heather Jackson is a 70.3 specialist, but she's an especially strong cyclist and L.A.'s point-to-point bike ride does ascend. She may be the one woman in the field best able to challenge Norden's bike/run power, but Jackson will need to swim well to be a factor.
Of course, this being the L.A. Tri, the swim may be a factor., depending on the size of the surf and the strength of side currents.
The Slowtwitch live coverage of the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon presented by Herbalife will commence this Sunday, at 7am Pacific time.
