Reed, Haskins win Chicago
CHICAGO, Illinois — Matt Reed rebounded from a disappointing third place at last week's USAT Elite Nationals and Sarah Haskins maintained her top form aimed at the ITU World Championship Grand Final next month while scoring their first wins at the historic 27th Chicago Triathlon (click for the Live Coverage of the race as we called it on Slowtwitch).
Reed overcame a 47 seconds deficit to Potts and Cameron Dye after the swim with a dominating, race-best 54:52 bike and held on with a third-best 33:16 run to finish in 1:48:27, 57 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Chrabot. Tim O'Donnell, who emerged from the swim even with Reed and Chrabot but lost two minutes to Reed and a minute to Chrabot on the bike, posted a race-best 32:59 run which left him third—34 seconds behind Chrabot.
"Honestly I was running on empty after four races in a month – two back-to-back half Ironmans, and Tuscaloosa and Chicago" said O'Donnell. "That was all guts today."
Reed said he took great pride in winning the historic 27th Chicago Triathlon. "I've known about this race since I was a young kid," said Reed. "So I've always wanted to win it. I've looked up Chicago champions like Spencer Smith, Simon Lessing, Chris McCormack and Greg Welch and so to have my name on a list of winners with them is fantastic."
Haskins combined a race-best 20:28 swim with a second-best 1:01:41 bike and a second-best 36:45 run to finish in 1:59:48, 35 seconds ahead of runner-up Sarah Groff. Becky Lavelle, the defending Chicago champion, emerged from the swim 40 seconds down to Haskins and Groff, out rode Haskins by 5 seconds and Groff by 1:25 to start the run in second place, but faded to third with a 39:17 10k.
"It was great to win my first time racing in Chicago, but it was a disappointment that Julie Dibens crashed," said Haskins. "To be honest if Julie had finished it would have been an entirely different race."
Both winners benefited in part from unfortunate crashes that took out leading protagonists.
Just after Reed passed him about 8k into the bike, early leader Andy Potts crashed on Lakeshore Drive and was taken from the scene in an ambulance. Recent USAT elite national champion Matt Chrabot, who was dueling with Potts at the time, said that Potts looked down just as a much slower age group competitor rode into his path, the two collided and when they stopped sliding, Potts' Kuota bike lay smashed in the middle lane. First reports noted that Potts suffered extensive abrasions and bruises but witnesses said he apparently did not suffer any broken limbs. Later reports suggested Potts might have suffered other damage.
"I feel really bad that Andy crashed and I hope he is all right," said Reed. "I love racing against Andy because he's such a great competitor."
While Chrabot's dominant post-race feeling was sympathy for Potts, he was very satisfied with following his USAT Elite Nationals win with a second straight excellent performance. "I started the season with a light workload and I was nowhere on the map," said the 26-year-old pro from Virginia Beach, Virginia. "Early in July I ramped up my training big time and it's paid off big time."
In the women's race, Sarah Haskins emerged from a wind-whipped choppy swim in Monroe Harbor in 20:28, even with fellow ITU competitor Sarah Groff, with Julie Dibens roughly 30 seconds back. Dibens, coming into Chicago after a stirring win over Chrissie Wellington at the Boulder 5430 long course half Ironman, blitzed into a fierce 20+ mph north wind to put a wheel on Haskins just before colliding with an age grouper at the north turnaround on Lakeshore Drive.
"It was my fault," said Dibens, a two-time Xterrra World Champion, who said she suffered cuts and bruises and a sore elbow. "I had just caught Sarah (Haskins) and I was feeling very strong. Just then I rounded the sharp turnaround. There were some age groupers around and I reached for a drink from my bottle just as the age grouper swerved in front of me. We collided and I went straight into the cones and crashed."
Groff, too, was happy with her performance. "Last year Becky (Lavelle) passed on the bike and I thought there was no way I was going to close that gap," said Groff, who indeed surrendered the victory to Lavelle. "This year I knew I had to keep her relatively close on the bike and came into the run 40 seconds down. I think I passed her at the 2-mile mark and kept it a lot closer to Sarah (Haskins) so things are improving."
Chicago Triathlon
Chicago, Illinois
August 30, 2009
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k
Results
Pro men
1. Matt Reed (Boulder CO) 1:48:27
2. Matt Chrabot (Virginia Beach VA) 1:49:24
3. Timothy O'/Donnell (Boulder CO) 1:49:58
4. David Thompson (St. Paul MN) 1:50:34
5. Mark Fretta (Portland OR) 1:51:19
6. Paul Matthews (AUS) 1:51:54
7. Cameron Dye (Boulder CO) 1:52:12
8. Michael Raelert (GER) 1:52:37
9. Richie Cunnigham (AUS) 1:53:07
10. Chris Foster (Redondo Beach CA) 1:53:15
Pro women
1. Sarah Haskins (Colorado Springs CO) 1:59:48
2. Sarah Groff (Colorado Springs CO) 2:00:23
3. Becky Lavelle (Los Gatos CA) 2:02:45
4. Rebeccah Wassner (New Paltz NY) 2:04:11
5. Jenna Shoemaker (Boulder CO) 2:07:31
6. Laurel Wassner (New Paltz NY) 2:08:38
7. Kerry Spearing (CAN) 2:11:05
8. Emily A. Cocks (Chicago IL) 2:12:00
9. Jocelyn Petrella (Boston MA) 2:13:39
10. Heather Leiggi (Bryn Mawr PA) 2:16:44
