Olympic Champion, Alistair Brownlee, will contest the Hy-Vee 5150 US Championship this weekend alongside London 2012 team mate, Stuart Hayes in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Tim Don, a winner of this event in 2010, is also set to start alongside Bath’s Mark Threlfall.
This will be Brownlee’s first race since the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the format will offer a slightly new challenge as drafting isn’t allowed on the bike section. Athletes will need to maintain a seven-metre gap between each other during the cycle leg unless they are overtaking.
The format may be different, but the main competition remains the same with Javier Gomez, Olympic silver medallist, also on the start list. Olympic bronze medallist Jonathan Brownlee, however, is not racing.
Alistair Brownlee said: “It’s good to get back to some racing and to do something different. Everything this year was about the Olympics and I hadn’t really planned what I’d do afterwards, so when I got the invite to go to Des Moines I thought it would be something good to do.
“I’ve not raced much in the States, and the non drafting format is something new for me, but the distances are the same and there will be a lot of familiar faces on the start line.
“After this I have a few races in France and I’d like to support Jonny at the Grand Final in Auckland but it’s been so busy since the Olympics that I’ve not really sat down and planned things out properly. We’ll see how things go.”
Liz Blatchford and Jodie Stimpson will contest the women’s race, where they will come up against Olympic gold and silver medallists, Nicola Spirig (Switzerland) and Lisa Norden (Sweden).
The Hy-Vee 5150 US Championship takes place on Sunday 2 September. For more information, see http://www.hy-veetriathlon.com. $151,000 is on offer for the winner of the men’s and the winner of the women’s event.
