Docherty continues hot form in California

Kiwi triathlon star Bevan Docherty enjoyed his second straight win to claim the IRONMAN 70.3 Vineman in northern California today.

The IRONMAN New Zealand champion set a new course record at the event in Sonoma County as he prepares for September IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas.

Docherty disposed of a classy field that included compatriot Terenzo Bozzone, leading Australians Joe Gambles, Tim Reed and Luke Bell, American star Jordan Rapp and three-time British Olympian Tim Don.
The New Zealander, who won the recent IRONMAN 70.3 Boise, clocked 3:45.10 to win by more than two minutes from Reed and Bozzone.

“Training had been going really well leading into this race so I was really looking forward to testing my form,” Docherty said. “I didn’t plan to race as hard as I did today but doing that sets me up to handle situations when I need to really dig deep and go to my limit.”

Docherty made his move early in the bike, pushing clear of the pack and jumping to a lead of nearly three minutes off the 90km bike. Bozzone and Reed worked hard on the run to reduce the gap to under a minute but Docherty soaked up the heat and pushed clear for the final two minute margin.

“At the five mile mark I decided to test everyone. On-one responded so I just put my head down and sent to it. Fifty miles is a long way to time trial but once I was clear of the chase group I got into a rhythm and pushed as hard as I could.

“It is not an easy run so I paced myself accordingly, I felt stronger as the run went on and once I hit the turn at the nine mile mark I knew I had it in the bag.”

Bozzone said he was content with his third placing and where his form and fitness is at leading into the final build up for the world championships in eight weeks.

“I tried a couple of times to get the group working on the bike to close the gap but it seemed everyone was content with sitting in. It is something I still can’t understand as we had a couple of minutes on two of the stronger runners and Bevan was riding away to take the title,” Bozzone said.

He returns to New Zealand for a two-week break before building for the world championships.

It proved a double success for IRONMAN New Zealand champions, with the women’s winner in Taupo this year, American Meredith Kessler returned after a serious crash recently to claim the win today.

Results:
IRONMAN 70.3 Vineman, men: Bevan Docherty (NZL) 3:45.10, 1; Tim Reed (AUS) 3:47.14, 2; Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:47.21, 3. Also Jamie Whyte (NZL) 4:05.16, 17.
Women: Meredith Kessler (USA) 4:12.18, 1; heather Jackson (USA) 4:15.09, 2; Amy Marsh (USA) 4:19.45, 3.