Ellice the best of the Kiwis as Brownlee destroys the field in San Diego
Monday 22 April 2013, 2:31AM
By Triathlon NZ
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It was a largely disappointing day for the New Zealand men at the ITU World Triathlon Series race in San Diego, with just Clark Ellice performing up to expectations with a strong 12thplace in a high quality field.
The race was dominated in spectacular fashion by Alistair Brownlee (GBR), the London Olympic Games gold medallist simply smashed the opposition, winning as he pleased with a 20 metre walk to the finish line ahead of Richard Murray (SAF) and Joao Silva (POR).
Tri NZ National Head Coach Greg Fraine reflected first on the performance of Clark Ellice and then Ryan Sissons who came home in 21st place after missing the lead group out of the water. And with the pace on throughout, he was never in the hunt.
“That was an awesome race by Clark, he is stepping up and showing us what he is made of which is good, that is what we want to see from him and he raced strongly again today,” said Fraine.
“We know what the issues are in the swim for Ryan, there are two possible things it may be and we will work on that for the summer, it is a long way to the end of the year to London.”
“I don’t think it is a confidence issue for Ryan, he maybe is looking for a little redemption after his start to the season but he knows with the run today that he is there and thereabouts, he needs to make that pack though. The fact he made it in Auckland and had the mechanical issues has led to some frustration and anger and that in itself is good, we want to see that at the end of a race like this because we don’t want him to be complacent at all.”
Ellice was pleased with his performance, one that moves him to 8th on the overall World Triathlon Series rankings.
“You know when Alistair turns up it is going to be quick, the guy is a terminator he comes out and destroys the field, the way he finished he made it look easy, when you get a guy like that you know it is going to add some speed into the mix.
“I’m definitely happy with the result here though, it is a classier field than Auckland not being a straight flat out runner but being able to produce a run like that today after having a go on the last two laps on the bike, I am happy. I will go into some more strength work now and look forward to Madrid with a hillier bike course which is more suited to me. There are a lot of positives I can take out of today but I just want to get into that bloody top ten, it will come, you have just have be persistent. I am definitely getting close to the top ten; I will just keep ticking along.”
Brownlee was just supreme though, in an amazing first ITU race since winning gold in London last year.
“It’s only this last week I have started to feel good on the run, that is why I tried to push on the bike to see if I could win it there, I honestly didn’t know what to expect, I actually started pretty slow, the first ‘k’ I tried to go pretty easy, and then push on after that.
“I was pretty nervous as well to be honest after not racing properly since last summer, I didn’t know what to expect, I was on the start line thinking it is good to be back, with all the nerves, standing on the start line thinking this is what I do. I felt pretty good, obviously Jonny wasn’t racing which makes a big difference and Javier Gomez wasn’t on form and they are the two big competition really so I had it a bit my own way I suppose. If Javier was on form it might have been a bit different. But yeah, that was fantastic I am really happy with that.
“I purposely didn’t go too fast on the first couple of ‘k’ on the run; I found myself getting through the first lap comfortable and then push on a bit. I didn’t know if I had that ability to really push on, I have seen a few people blow up on this course, Jonny did a bit last year, some of the women yesterday so I was a bit careful with that, mainly I think because it is so flat and fast. I just went out and ran at my own pace and couldn’t believe there was no one there after 1500m.
“I think I was holding it in a bit before the race because I was a bit nervous but as soon as I actually started racing it was very much the kind of thought ‘this is where I belong’ you know, I really genuinely enjoyed it.”
23 year old Kiwi Bryce McMaster finished 31st after swimming and riding impressively but then suffered from cramps on the run.