Gentle, Long Clinch CLASH Miami Crowns
On an incredibly hot early March day in south Florida, Ashleigh Gentle and Sam Long proved the cream of the crop at CLASH Miami.
Women’s Race
Sara Perez Sala and Ashleigh Gentle lined up on the inside, and with a very quick start of the race, got the hole shot with the rest of the women stacked up on the inside line. Perez Sala opened the gap in the opening minute, with Gentle chasing, and everyone else spread out two by two through the first turn buoy. It was single file through the field for the rest of lap 1. Perez Sala led through lap one in 10:29, with a 36 second lead on the chase pack including Gentle, Pamella Oliveira, Chelsea Sodaro, and Emma Pallant-Browne.
Perez Sala comes out of the water in 21:55, and then spent less than 40 seconds in transition to head out on the bike. Chase pack 1:04 back, led by Gentle, with Sodaro, Oliveira, Pallant-Browne, Sonja Catano, and Samantha Kingsford. Dede Greisbauer was the best of the rest, with another 90 seconds or so back to the remainder of the women’s field. Oliveira had an extremely fast transition, wearing no swimskin, and made an early charge onto the bike, taking 20 seconds out of Perez Sala’s lead in the opening miles.
The mix of road course and NASCAR oval seemed to favor the athletes who raced shorter course in 2020 and 2021. Perez Sala maintained about a minute gap over Oliveira, with Gentle closing up the gap. The duo maintained a roughly 15 second lead over Sodaro and Pallant-Browne, who began to distance Kingsford and Catano. Unfortunately, the technical course bit race leader Sala, as she crashed out of the lead of the race by hitting cones. Gentle took over the lead of the race and never looked back. Gentle led at the end of the bike, chased by Sodaro (+1:34) and Oliveira (+1:39).
On the first lap of the run, as Pallant-Browne attempted to close gaps, she found herself on the side of the track halfway through the first lap of the run, completely laid out, apparently struggling with hydration. Through the first lap of the run, the order was Gentle, Sodaro (+2:08), and Oliveira (+2:28). Oliveira made the move into second during the third lap of the run.
The only athlete who looked comfortable in the heat was Gentle, extending her lead to over 3.5 minutes by the halfway point of the run. Sodaro was weaving between cones; Summer Deal and Sonja Catano were shown loading up on ice and Coke at respective aid stations and walking. The repeated phrase on live coverage was carnage. On lap 4, Sodaro pulled off course, spent. More than a third of the field had DNF’d by this point.
Gentle wound up shattering the course record by nearly 90 seconds, taking victory in 2:59:41. Oliveira, meanwhile, missed the turn into the finish line on the final lap of the run. She ran nearly through to the finish line, then had to turn around. Oliveira jumped the barriers and ran into the finish straight, crossing the line second, barely in front of Maja Stage Nielsen. In a testament to the difficulty of the day, 50% of the field did not finish.
Women’s Results
1. Ashleigh Gentle 2:59:41
2. Pamella Oliveira 3:07:50
3. Maja Stage Nielsen 3:08:08
4. Samantha Kingsford 3:09:08
5. Sonja Catano 3:16:17
6. Lisa Becharas 3:19:26
7. Bruna Mahn 3:20:59
8. Lara Gruden 3:25:43
Men’s Race
Aaron Royle started in the same place as Sara Perez Sala did, and immediately charged to the front of the thrashing swim pack. Chaos at the first turn buoy as Sam Long got caught amongst a sea of elbows and feet. Royle, Ben Kanute, and Jonas Schomburg started to string out the front of the group midway through lap 1. Schomburg and Royle pulled away during the swim, getting a 30 second gap to Kanute by the end of the swim. Chasing them was a group containing Thomas Davis, Matthew Sharpe, Jason West, Balazs Csoke, and Andreas Dreitz.
However, Dreitz immediately found himself falling further behind with a flat front tire exiting transition. The big group of strong bikers including Magnus Ditlev, Andrew Starykowicz, and Justin Metzler was +2:20, with Sam Long approximately 10 seconds further back.
On the early miles of the bike, Royle and Schomburg rode legally together, as Kanute attempted to bridge up to the front. Ditlev had charged up to 13th and Long to 16th, taking 20 to 30 seconds out of the front riders. And by a quarter of the way through the bike, Kanute had charged through Royle and Schomburg into the lead, and Ditlev and Long were into the top 10 of the race.
At halfway, Kanute continued to ride away from Royle and Schomburg, with Ditlev and Long leapfrogging them. Chris Leiferman and Tyler Butterfield had joined Antony Costes and West in the chase group. And with three quarters of the bike complete, Long and Kanute had gone up the road, opening up over 20 seconds on Ditlev and nearly two minutes on Royle and Schomburg. Leiferman and Costes rode together another 40 seconds behind, with West dropping backwards.
Long led the field into transition after an unbelievable 1:19:18 bike split. Kanute followed 23 seconds later (but managed to get 5 of them back with an under 20 second transition). Ditlev was third, 31 seconds behind Kanute. Schomburg, Royle, and Leiferman were three minutes behind the lead. Costes was in 7th, 3:15 arrears. West, Butterfield, and Youri Keulen rounded out the top 10.
The early mover on the run was Dreitz, finally cracking back into the top 10 after chasing for the entirety of the bike. Long was running 10 seconds a kilometer quicker than Kanute, who was also ceding ground to Ditlev. Midway through lap 2, Ditlev passed Kanute for second place. The big race was for the remaining paying places, with fourth through tenth place all within 55 seconds of one another.
Halfway through the run, Long held a 45 second lead on Ditlev. Kanute held third, 1:17 off the lead. West was fourth, 90 seconds behind the podium. Butterfield was 5th and had separated himself from the group of Keulen, Leiferman, and Schomburg. Royle had faded to 9th, 90 seconds behind a paycheck.
Ditlev had a very diificult sixth lap of the run, steadily dropping through the field and in danger of falling out of the money. West closed to within 50 meters of Kanute in a fight for second. Reaping the rewards of Ditlev’s difficulty: Jackson Laundry, Schomburg, Leiferman, and Reinaldo Colucci, all locked in the battle for the last few paying places.
Long flew to the finish, running 56:59 for the over ten mile course and wrapping up a 2:39:55 day at the office. West clinched second place with a 55:04 run, with Kanute wrapping up an all American podium. Keulen closed quickly for fourth, and Butterfield took fifth.
Men’s Results
1. Sam Long 2:39:55
2. Jason West 2:41:47
3. Ben Kanute 2:42:31
4. Youri Keulen 2:42:51
5. Tyler Butterfield 2:43:18
6. Jackson Laundry 2:45:40
7. Reinaldo Colucci 2:46:29
8. Jonas Schomburg 2:46:34
