ITU World Cup Mazatlan
Mazatlan, Mexico
Sunday, April 24, 2005
1.5k swim, 40k draft legal bike, 10k run
Complete Results: Women, Men (pdf)

Women
1. Vanessa Fernandes 2:01:56
2. Jill Savege (CAN) 2:03:51
3. Joelie Franzmann 2:05:07
4. Magali Messmer (SWE) 2:05:07
5. Julie Swail (USA) 2:05:45
6. Sheila Taormina (USA) 2:05:59
7. Anneliese Heard (GRB) 2:06:05
8. Samantha McGlone (CAN) 2:06:58
9. Kerry Lang (GBR) 2:07:11
10. Ainhoa Murua 2:07:44

Men
1. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:50:32
2. Matt Reed (USA) 1:50:47
3. Mark Petzold 1:50:55
4. Jan Frodeno 1:51:06
5. Antonio Da Silva 1:51:14
6. Shane Reed 1:51:34
7. Cedric Fleureton 1:51:42
8. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 1:51:44
9. Brent McMahon CAN) 1:51:49
10. Sebastian Dehmer 1:51:58

Men
In the men's event the jammed pack field had to rely on their body surfing skills to negotiate the 1 metre surf that set several good flat water swimmers back on their heels. Shane Reed of New Zealand had the skill and some luck during the swim as he caught a great wave on both laps and exited the swim with a 15 second lead on the rest of the field.

Andy Potts, Hunter Kemper and Brian Flieschmann of the USA, France's Stephane Poulat, Rasmus Henning from Denmark, Brent McMahon from Canada, and German teammates Maik Petzold and Jan Frodeno plus Reed brothers, Matt and Shane, swept through transition and onto the bike leaving an unbridgeable gap for the chase group.

There was lots of action in the chase groups as Simon Whitfield, Canada's Olympic Champion and Simon Thompson of Australia pulled the 3rd chase pack to the 2nd and finally the 1st . However the huge chase pack that results by the 6th lap was no match for the well oiled machine at the front. Andy Potts dropped off the leaders with a flat tire, but was able to change it in time to hop onto the chase group.

By the bike to run transition, the group of 8 at the front who were in control and increasing their lead on every lap, had a 1:40 lead of the huge chase pack. The German duo of Frodeno and Petzold wearing an innovative pedal adopted for their running shoes were the first out of transition. Followed by McMahon, Kemper, Henning, Poulat, the Reed brothers and Fleischmann.

The two German lads, USA team-mates Reed and Kemper stuck together through the first 2.5km, but by the halfway point experience started to play a roll as the thermometer rose to 31oC. Kemper effortlessly glided to the front and never glanced back to see the increasing space between himself and his challengers. He romped home to take his first podium since 2003, and in his words, “it was so nice to take the win without a sprint finish, I just enjoyed the wonderful spectators.” Matt Reed was not pressured for his 2nd place win either, as Maik Petzold stole the final step on the podium from his team-mate. The run story of the day was Antonio de Silva from Brazil who overcame that deficit
after the bike to place 5th.

Women
Sheila Taormina of the USA, the current World Triathlon Champion, took her familiar
spot at the front of the 2-lap, 1500m swim, and managed to duck through the big surf on her way out to the turn buoy. Scotland's Kerry Lang, in her first World Cup event, was able to cling to Taormina's toes, along with Julie Swail of the USA, Anneliese Heard of Great Britain and Joelle Franzmann from Germany.

Once onto the 8 lap, 40km bike, a tight group of 8 settled down at the front and went to work to hold off the challengers. Portugal's young superstar, Vanessa Fernandez, Canada's Jill Savege, Switzerland's Olympic bronze medalist, Megali di Marco caught the train with the leaders and they made a clean break from the rest of the field.

Joanna Zeiger of the USA, Japan's Shizuka Kutsuna, Lucie Zelenkova of the Czech Republic and Canada's Christine Jeffery just missed the leaders and tried desperately to get a working group going through the first couple of laps. Zeiger fell victim to the Montizuma's revenge on the 4th lap and the group disintegrated falling back into the second chase group.

The gap to the leaders increased steadily over the final laps on the bike, despite efforts by Canada's Samantha McGlone and Spain's Ainhoa Murua to stay in contact. At the bike to run transition the leaders had a 3:17 lead on the chase group, which was too much for even the best runners amongst the chasers.

Franzmann was first onto the 4 lap, 10km run course, with di Marco, Fernandez, Savege and Taormina on her heels. But the Portuguese phenomena who has stood atop several World Cup and World Championship podiums in the past, pulled away from the field building her lead on each lap. She was instantly adopted as a Latin cousin by the thousands of Mexican spectators who lined the course and filled the stadium to capacity. Jill Savege was the only one who was able to hold onto Fernandez for a short period but even she gave up the challenge for the top of the podium after the 2.5km mark.

Fernandez dashed home with a 1:55 second win over Savege. Franzmann ran a solid 10km to reach the podium for the first time in her career, and break her string of 4th place finishes. Magali di Marco was 4th rounding with Julie Swail rounding out the top 5.