Hayes and Stimpson take on Mooloolaba
ITU Triathlon World Cup starts this weekend in Oz
The first ITU Triathlon World Cup event of the season takes place in Australia this weekend with Britain’s Jodie Stimpson and Stuart Hayes racing in Mooloolaba, Queensland.
Known for having great crowds and a challenging course, both Stimpson and Hayes are looking forward to a tough race in Mooloolaba.
Stimpson, who recently won the Devonport OTU Sprint Championships in Tasmania said: “Mooloolaba has one of the hardest bike courses on the World Cup circuit, followed by a difficult run which has a killer hill.”
Many of her team mates in the Darren Smith international training group will also start on Sunday. She added: “A lot of the D-Squad will be making the trip to Mooloolaba and racing, so it will be a good squad race again, and I’m looking forward to tearing it up with the squad.”
Those team mates include Germany’s Anne Haug and Ireland’s Aileen Reid, and there will be tough competition from top ranked Andrew Hewitt of New Zealand.
The men’s race on Saturday features Olympic silver medallist, Javier Gomez and 2012 Mooloolaba winner, Laurent Vidal of France. London 2012 Olympian, Stuart Hayes will start his first major race of the season as he prepares for the ITU World Triathlon Series opener in Auckland next month.
The Mooloolaba course covers a 1500m river swim followed by a slightly longer than standard bike ride and a 10km run along the sea front. The event would usually feature a sea swim, but this has been altered due to prevailing surf conditions.
The men’s race takes place on Saturday at 3pm (local time) and the women’s at 12.15pm on Sunday.