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Subaru Muskoka Chase...How do they come up with the “Spread?”
By Devashish Paul
6/18/2008 |
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Those who closely follow the sport of triathlon know about the history of the town of Huntsville Ontario in the Muskoka Region 2 hours North of Toronto. Going way back to 1990, this was the series Championship event for the Canadian Triathlon Series, followed up the next year with Triathlon Nationals and then in 1992 with ITU Worlds.
If you are a customer of North America sports, Muskoka is where Graham Fraser and his team got the taste of “big time triathlon”. From the early roots in the Muskoka the gold standard for race management has proliferated around the continent thanks to Graham and his team with Ironman and 70.3 events in Lake Placid, Oceanside, Madison, and Panama City Beach to name just a few.
But Muskoka, did not just launch some big time racing through the continent. Rolling the clock back to 1992, and the ITU World’s, this is where Michellie Jones and Simon Lessing won their first World Championships. Their Hall of fame careers that are closing in on 2 decades and they can still win. In the Junior field that day a young Spencer Smith took the gold. Another remarkable career that got its start in Muskoka was Thomas Hellriegel known as a long course man, but having finished 6th in 1992.
Fast forward 16 years. Mitch Fraser, Graham’s brother now runs the Subaru Triathlon Series in Ontario, which has seemingly turned into a breeding ground for a succession of top flight Canadian female pros. The successes of athletes like Lisa Bentley, Lori Bowden, Melissa Spooner and many others can be traced to their age group and early pro days in Ontario. Lisa’s been supporting this series for almost 20 years now and still pushes every one of the pro women if they want to beat her on her own “HOME TURF”
For the past few years, the Muskoka Triathlon has featured a “chase format” with the pro women departing a several minutes ahead of the pro men, with a differential largely determined by the previous year’s spread and the strength of field. However you cut it, the spread seems to work out perfectly every year, with the men closing the gap in the final kilometer of the run or the women just holding off the male horses to collect the prize.
Some of the remarkable winners of this race include Simon Whitfield, Samantha McGlone , Miles Stewart and Craig Alexander. While this year’s race did not include some of the returning champions, (some of whom have opted to visit Muskoka in September for the new 70.3 and associated prize purse), it did include a strong field of Canadian pros, who previously have pushed the likes of Crowie and Sam to the line. As usual a smiling Lisa Bentley was signing autographs in the Subaru booth, happy to have put last year’s foot problems behind!
The Muskoka Chase Triathlon is a non drafting 2K swim/55K bike/15K run and being about 50% over Olympic distance hits the sweet spot for that athlete that can go hard for the 2-4 hour zone. It is no problem for the 70.3 athlete to step down to and no issue for the ITU World Cup racers to move up to.
Under sunny skies and perfect temperature, the women took off 18 minutes ahead of the men, with Jen Coombs setting a fast pace, quickly dropping Lisa Bentley and Cynthia Wilson who had recently finished in the top 10 at both St. Croix and St. Anthony’s. Cynthia attempted to hang with Lisa, but lost contact. However she did set the fastest bike split at St. Anthony’s and despite dropping a chain at T1, quickly went to work pulling Lisa back at around 20K but unable to catch Jen Coombs, who leading from the front, pulled into T2 with a 1:30 lead. Could she hold on.
Meanwhile on the men’s side, Sean Bechtel set a crazy pace on the swim, but Buddy Green fly buy, with Jamie Stephenson in tow. Last year’s runner up Wolfgang Guembel fell behind early but was not out of contention coming into T1. Bechtel seemed content to cruise into T1 with Jamie Stephenson in tow. Onto the bike, Bechtel took the lead by gradually building into a steady pace. Stephenson was in contact for some time, before eventually being overtaken by Guembel and Dave Sharrat. But realistically, this was all warm up. Ryan Grant and Nigel Gray all put down the accelerator on the bike with neo pro Ryan Grant actually setting the fastest bike split on the day, thanks to some excellent guidance from his coach, 1997 IMC winner Noel Harrington.
By the time the men entered T2, the women were miles up the road. The men were just trying to close as much time gap as possible without shredding the legs for the run, where the real “chase format racing” begins. While time gaps into T2 are known by the men, it is not until they hit the run turnaround at 8K where the real gap can be visualized.
When Lisa Bentley racks here bike the race starts. Coombs and Wilson were both running scared, not just in fear of Lisa but the men behind! Fear and money are both great motivators, and Cynthia Wilson used that to her advantage to pass Coombs early in the run on the hills out of town. As previously mentioned, this Subaru Series in Ontario has been the breeding ground for some of the top pro women in the sport. It seems that the reigning queens elevate the game of the up and comers. This time it was Lisa’s turn to push Cynthia and push her she did. Although Sean Bechtel passed Cynthia, in what is perhaps the first in the chase format, the woman’s leader passed the men’s leader BACK! Cynthia captured the essence of those moments in the following:
“….Then he was just in front of me and I was staying with him. We saw Lisa after the turn around; she was looking really strong. Sean then sped up and got some distance, then I stayed with him and was keeping the same distance again. He started to die around 11km and that's where I passed him. Then I gave it my all for the last 3k because I knew I was in the lead but I had to give it everything I had to stay ahead of the men”
And “give it her all she did”. Cynthia would actually outrun Lisa Bentley on a very tough hilly 15K course with a 57:21 split! While Cynthia and Sean were duking it out like the breakaway group in a TdF fight to the finish, Wolfgang was clawing back time and real estate. But would he have enough before hitting the finish? This is how he described it:
“I set out on the run with Sean and four women in front of me and I didn't see anyone till 4k. As I approached the turn-around I was anxious to see where everyone was in front of me. The first person I saw was Sean and he was moving fast so I figured it was a done deal. He had already caught all the lead women. Right behind hime was Cynthia so I figured she had just got passed. Down the road I could finally see the turn around and Lisa was just rounding. I figured I had about 400-600m to get up to Sean. I had to run so, so, so hard to get up to Lisa and she never lets anyone pass easily. Then my focus was on getting Sean and Cynthia in sight. As I got closer I started to feel like I was going to run out of room to catch them. However, I was getting AMAZING support from all the athletes running on the way out. I saw Nicole coming and she yelled across the road ("you can do this!!")... it was incredible! As I got closer I could see that Cynthia was not done fighting... she had over taken Sean and was dropping him. I was amazed. I could also sense that Lisa was not letting up from behind…
…I ran like I have never run before to get up to Sean.... and then I still had work to do to get to Cynthia. There was less than 2k to go and I was still back from Cynthia. I finally caught her with just 700m to go and I surged as hard as I could in an effort to make sure she couldn't come with me like she did with Sean.”
If there was ever any doubt in the minds of triathlon fans about the validity of the chase format, reading these first hand accounts from the pros fighting it out, should lift those doubts. Competition at its finest.
On the comeback trail, Lisa was glad with her success and said the following about her fellow competitors:
“…Run was great – love that course – again – all out for my speed less legs – but injury was good – just need to get the speed back – it is coming gradually every week. Basically – it was a 3 hr asthma attack! Great to see Wolfgang be persistent . Awesome race by Cynthia – great to have the Subaru Series honing a new athlete into a champion. It was a great bit of speed work in prep for Subaru IMC.”
Back in the age group ranks there were hard battles for 40 Ironman Canada, 20 Ironman Lake Placid, and 20 Ironman Florida slots. With perhaps the most stacked field of any age group race in Canada outside of the Nationals, the Mukoka triathlon provides a true gauge of fitness and where one sits in the pecking order. But the action in Muskoka is not finished for the year. Fast forward to mid September and Mitch Fraser’s team at Trisport Promotions will bring Ironman 70.3 Muskoka to 1600 athletes. Look for a field stacked with pro tuning up for Hawaii and Clearwater, including the ranks of Craig Alexander, Richie Cunningham and Simon Lessing.
Top 10 Chase Results, courtesy www.sportstats.ca
Place Bla DayTime Start Swim Tr1 Bike Tr2 Run Time Fname Lname Cat/Tot Category Numb
1 10:47:03 8:00:00 27:23 0:47 1:26:20 0:29 52:35 02:47:03 WOLFGANG GUEMBEL 1/17 MPRO 1
2 10:47:22 7:42:00 32:31 0:39 1:34:53 0:34 57:21 03:05:22 CYNTHIA WILSON 1/5 WPRO 16
3 10:48:17 8:00:00 25:15 0:43 1:25:20 0:29 57:00 02:48:17 SEAN BECHTEL 2/17 MPRO 11
4 10:49:15 7:42:00 31:20 0:47 1:37:14 0:40 57:55 03:07:15 LISA BENTLEY 2/5 WPRO 18
5 10:52:17 8:00:00 30:27 1:06 1:26:03 0:41 54:43 02:52:17 NIGEL GRAY 3/17 MPRO 3
6 10:54:24 8:00:00 25:18 0:43 1:31:43 0:35 56:40 02:54:24 JAMIE STEPHENSON 4/17 MPRO 275
7 10:54:42 8:00:00 32:15 1:07 1:24:26 1:06 56:55 02:54:42 RYAN GRANT 5/17 MPRO 268
8 10:56:03 8:00:00 27:22 0:47 1:27:30 0:32 1:00:26 02:56:03 DAVID SHARRATT 6/17 MPRO 5
9 10:58:56 7:42:00 28:04 0:51 1:37:29 0:45 1:10:34 03:16:56 JENNIFER COOMBS 3/5 WPRO 19
10 10:59:50 8:00:00 30:24 0:49 1:32:03 1:00 56:35 02:59:50 MICHAEL HAY 7/17 MPRO
About the Author: Devashish Paul is a master triathlete based in Ottawa, Canada who contributes frequently to xtri.com. Muskoka race weekend is a father’s day special for his family and he was on the line for his 12th race there in 12 years and 15th going back in 1990, cheered on by his son and wife. He’ll be racing next at the Peterborough Half Ironman Triathlon and Ironman Lake Placid. He finished 5th in the 40-44 division and 43rd overall, and like a good masters athlete is using the excuse of fried legs for a somewhat sub par run.
Photos Courtesy of Kevin Harrington, A Shot On Site Digital Photography
1. Wolfgang Guembel
2. Cynthia Wilson
3. Sean Bechtle
4. Lisa Bentley
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