Saturday, May 21st, 2005 - Auburn, CA

Race Report from Triathlon Informer

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NEVEU, DEBOOM WIN IN AUBURN

In its third year, the Auburn Triathlon found itself with another name change—to a duathlon.

Heavy rainfall in the days before the race caused runoff to flow into Lake Clementine, contaminating its clear waters and causing the temperature to plummet below 50F. In its place, race director and former pro Brad Kearns started the day with a 3k run, giving the elites a five-minute head start over a field of some 500 age-groupers.

With strong runners like Olympian Simon Whitfield of Canada, Sweden's Clas Bjorling and American Josiah Middaugh in the field, it was certain to be a fast start to the chilly mountain morning. It was Middaugh who came into transition first, with a 9:53 opening 3k. Middaugh would continue to forge ahead into the lead on the bike, with France's Cyrille Neveu (right, in photo by Tony Svensson at trimarket.com), who lives on the famous ski station of Alpe d'Huez, moving into second early into the ride. At about mile 22, Neveu was two minutes in arrears to Middaugh, with American Joe Sanders in third.

On the return, Middaugh had built that lead to some four minutes, but it was to be short-lived on the run. Neveu attacked hard on the brutal trails used for the Western States 100 endurance run, dropping Middaugh and coming through the first lap with nearly a minute on Sanders. Meantime, Bjorling was doing his usual scorching run behind the leaders, moving up four places to finish second on the day with a 1:21 run.

But it was Neveu, a former world long-course champion, winner of one of the world's toughest iron-distance races, Embrunman in France, and the second-place finisher at Ironman South Africa this spring, who came home first with more than five minutes in hand over Bjorling. Middaugh held on for third, with Colorado's Thaddeus Reichley fourth and Whitfield fifth. Sanders ended the day as a DNF after taking a wrong turn on the run.

At the finish, an elated Neveu thanked organizers for a great race and said he was pleased with his result, which came after 10 days of hard training on the Ironman course in Kona. "I took some chances on the bike and paid for it," a spent Middaugh said at the finish.

For the women, American Nicole DeBoom (left, in photo by Tony Svensson at trimarket.com) worked hard to defend the title she won here last year amid rain and chilly temperatures. While she wasn't first into transition—that honor went to eventual fifth-place finisher Kimberly Hager—she quickly moved into second behind a hard-charging Marilyn MacDonald of Canada.

MacDonald, winner of last year's Ironman Malaysia, held a lead of one or two minutes on DeBoom throughout the ride and was the only pro woman to dip under three hours, but dropped back on the run as DeBoom charged ahead. Behind them, American Kristianna Gough moved up through the field on the run, posting the day's second-fastest split, a 1:37 to DeBoom's winning 1:36. At the finish DeBoom said she'd never raced a duathlon and couldn't have imagined that last year's race could be topped in terms of difficulty—but she had changed her mind!

The race doubled as the U.S. pro long course championships, and so those honors went to DeBoom and to Xterra ace Josiah Middaugh, who now becomes the first athlete to hold simultaneous off-road and long-course championships. There's more here: www.auburntriathlon.com.

RESULTS
Auburn Triathlon
Saturday, May 21, 2005; Auburn, Calif.
(3krun/56miles/13.1 miles)

MEN
1) Cyrille Neveu (FRA) 4:11:04 (10:14/2:37:44/1:23:04)
2) Clas Bjorling (SWE) 4:15:50 (10:00/2:44:23/1:21:25.5)
3) Josiah Middaugh (USA) 4:19:00 (9:53.6/2:35:12/1:33:53)
4) Thaddeus Reichley (USA) 4:21:35 (10:03/2:43:49/1:27:41)
5) Simon Whitfield (CAN) 4:23:24 (10:13.7/2:42:43/1:30:25)

WOMEN
1) Nicole DeBoom (USA) 4:48:50 (11:15/3:00:58/1:36:3)
2) Marilyn MacDonald (CAN) 4:53:06 (12:19.2/2:58:31/1:42:14)
3) Kristianna Gough (USA) 4:53:21 (11:25/3:04:32/1:37:22)
4) Amy Cashion (USA) 4:59:30 (11:11/3:03:55/1:44:22)
5) Kimberly Hager (USA) 5:02:39 (11:04/3:11:48/1:39:45)

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