Strong Field for Toyota Opener
The Slowtwitch live coverage season gets underway this Sunday at the Nautica South Beach Triathlon in Miami.
Notwithstanding the packed calendar of pro races around the world this weekend, the 7-event Life Time Fitness and Race to the Toyota Cup series debut will attract a stacked field. An eclectic list of both short and long course athletes are aggregating in Miami for the event.
The early season has already produced some standout performances, specifically a pair of stellar results last week turned in by Andy Potts (pictured) and Andrew Yoder. Potts bested a top field at Oceanside 70.3, leading wire-to-wire and legging out a 1:12 half.
While Potts is a strong biker, he's almost unmatched as a swimmer-runner. The young and still improving Yoder has a skillset that—for spectators—is complementary and will make for a tactically interesting race. The Pennsylvanian is a strong swimmer-runner, but it's on the bike that he's golden. While Potts was dominating the 70.3 in California, Yoder decimated a strong field including Chris Lieto and Terrenzo Bozzone at the Kemah Tri in Texas. And he did his damage on the bike—no small feat when racing Bozzone (2nd) and Lieto (3rd).
Also in the Nautica field will be Matty Reed—who always rises to the occasion in this series' races—and Michael Weiss, a long courser who's demonstrated very good bike form this early season. Short course standouts Filip Ospaly and Dirk Bockel will also challenge, as will Ben Collins, Cameron Dye, and John Kenny, who may give Potts some pacesetting help in the swim. Watch for neo-pro Kaleb VanOrt if he's close going into the run.
Sara McLarty will almost certainly see the lead in Miami—as is usually the case whenever she races—but Sarah Haskins is the woman with the palmares in this field. These two will battle the Wassner sisters—Rebeccah and Laurel—and Becky Lavelle will challenge.
Our coverage will kick off at 6:45am Eastern on Sunday Morning. There will be prompts to our live coverage via the Slowtwitch home page.
