Reed, Haskins lead Toyota Cup series
LOS ANGELES, California — The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon Series Race to the Toyota Cup has finished the regular season and this Sunday in Dallas the best short course non-drafting triathletes in the world will duke it out in the playoff.
After last weekend's Toyota Cup fourth round in Los Angeles, U.S. stars Matt Reed and Sarah Haskins hold substantial points leads, but are within range of their closest pursuers thanks to the double points format in place for the Dallas finale.
The Men
Reed leads the men's contest, with 28,000 points thanks to a 10,000 point win at Minneapolis, 8,000 points for his third place at New York, and 10,000 points for his win at Chicago. With only the best three of four results from the regular season counting, Reed skipped Los Angeles to rest up for the showdown at Dallas.
Reed's closest pursuer, and realistically the only man who could overcome tall man Reed's lead, is three-time defending champion Greg Bennett. Bennett accumulated 25,000 points with a third place at Minneapolis (8,000 points), a win at New York (10,000 points) and a fourth place at Los Angeles (7,000 points). Bennett was fighting a long-term injury and barely made the Minneapolis start and was happy with his third place finish. Recovering fitness quickly, Bennett looked like the undefeated Life Time Series champion of 2007 with his dominating win at New York. But the next weekend, Bennett got hit by a car on a training ride and spent the next five weeks recovering and missed the Chicago round which Reed won. Besides the injury itself, Bennett put himself at a disadvantage by missing the Chicago round because Chicago had no international stars, who were involved in the ITU World Championship Series title chase. At Los Angeles, ITU stars Javier Gomez and Filip Ospaly showed up and finished 1st and 3rd, taking points away from Bennett.
Going into Dallas, Reed has a 3,000-point lead. At stake are 20,000 points for a win, 18,000 for second, 16,000 for third and so on. That means that Reed can guarantee a series win by finishing no worse than one place behind Bennett. Bennett can win if he finishes two places ahead of Reed.
Winning the finale will prove more difficult now that Gomez, the 2008 ITU World Champion and 2007 and 2009 ITU World Championship silver medalist, and impressive winner at Los Angeles, will likely be in the field and considered a heavy favorite for the $20,000 first prize.
Reed must be considered the heavy favorite for the $20,000 bonus for the Toyota Cup Series points championship, with $8,000 for second and $6,000 for third.
The women
Thanks to wins at Minneapolis and Chicago and her second place finish to ITU star Lisa Norden at Los Angeles, Sarah Haskins has 29,000 points and leads second place contender Becky Lavelle by 4,000 points. Lavelle, the 2009 Toyota Cup Series Champion, finished 3rd at Minneapolis (8,000 points) 2nd at New York (9,000 points) and 3rd at Chicago (8,000 points) but had one of those off days at Los Angeles. Trailing Lavelle by just 1,000 points is rising New York star Rebeccah Wassner, who earned 24,000 points with a 4th at Minneapolis (7,000 points), 1st at New York (10,000 points), and 4th at Chicago (7,000 points).
In order to win the Toyota Cup series championship, Lavelle must beat Haskins by two places. While they would be tied in series points if Lavelle did manage to beat Haskins by two places at Dallas, the win would go to Lavelle because the first tie breaker would be the results at Dallas.
Wassner can win the series only by beating Haskins by three places and topping Lavelle by one place in the Dallas results.
Unless Haskins has a mechanical difficulty or crashes, she should remain a prohibitive favorite based on superior speed and consistency in all forms of Olympic distance racing this year. While ITU stars Lisa Norden, Daniela Ryf, and Nicola Spirig may be favored for spots on the podium, the Toyota Cup Series points chase is really a match race between Haskins, Lavelle and Wassner.
