Tichelaar, Zeiger Do Damage in the Desert
A hearty crop of elites jumpstarted their '08 seasons at TriSports.com's Desert Classic Duathlon Sunday. Canadian Paul Tichelaar outlasted the men's field for the run-bike-run victory in 1:24:33, while Boulder, Colorado's Joanna Zeiger beat all women on the 3.5-mile-21-mile-2.7-mile course with a smashing 1:38:29.
Tichelaar's hot second run brought him back from a seventh-place start to scoot past second-place finisher, American Jordan Rapp, for the win. Hot-wheeling David Thompson of St. Paul, Minnesota, also dug deep to recover from a 10th-best opening run, busting out a 51:32 bike split to finish third overall in 1:26:14.
Zeiger led the women's race virtually wire to wire, save finishing the first run one second behind eventual race runner-up, top American duathlete Anne Curi-Preisig, who hung tough to cross the line just ver two minutes back of Zeiger. Nipping at the frontrunners' heels the whole day was XTERRA racer Jennifer Tobin, who came in just 14 seconds after Curi-Preisig for the bronze.
This event qualified the top elites for the International Triathlon Union short-course duathlon world championship.
TriSports.com Desert Classic Duathlon
Phoenix, Arizona
Sunday, February 24
5mi R/21mi B/2.7mi R
Elite Men's Results
1. Paul Tichelaar (CAN) 1:24:33
2. Jordan Rapp (USA) 1:25:52
3. David Thompson (USA) 1:26:14
4. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:26:42
5. Joshua Merrick (USA) 1:26:43
Elite Women's Results
1. Joanna Zeiger (USA) 1:38:29
2. Anne Curi-Preisig (USA) 1:41:41
3. Jennifer Tobin (USA) 1:41:55
4. Elizabeth Fedofsky (USA) 1:45:59
5. Teri Albertazzi (USA) 1:46:19
