#6

The numbers are up, and I'm number 6 for the race. Here's the field:

1 - Victor Zymetsev - Ukraine, defending champ, 7 time Ironman Champ
2 - Tom Evans - Canada, 2nd here last year, uber biker and swimmer
3 - Micheal Lovato - USA, 3rd here last year, tough dude, (starting to see a trend here in the numbers?)
4 - Bryan Rhodes - New Zealand, uber swimmer, and 5th here last year
5 - Steve Larsen - USA, this guy can ride
6 - Me

So it's clear they use the numbers to seed us for the race, and base it first on place last year, then how they think it will go, so Larsen got the #5 over me, as they expect him to beat me. That's fine with me. That's why we do the race.

Larsen is definitely a guy capable of doing some damage in this race, maybe a dark horse even for the win. There are a few other guys who are pretty good and might be overlooked...

Courtney Ogden - Australia, solid athlete, good swimmer. I expect him to be near the front. Finished 2nd at 2006 Ironman Canada.
Olly Piggin - Canada, Don't know much about him, other than that he outsplit Evans on the bike and run at a recent half in Canada, nearly running him down! If he can keep us close after the swim, he can shake things up.
Lewis Elliott - USA, If he is on, he's tough! Strong rider who just needs to put together a run leg. If he does, he'll be up there.
Blake Becker - USA, He seems to be improving well, and coming off a big win at Rockman half in Chicago.
Mike Neill - Canada, Coming off a big win at Gulf Coast half.
Scott Curry - Canada, Top 5 performances in Ironman are nothing new to him.

Honestly, this field is even tougher than last year! Pretty amazing since they split the fields last year and offered more prize money, making it a men's championship.

I normally find you can take the top guys in the field and cut them in half. Some are dealing with injuries, some are just not as fit as they could be. Others will have a bad day, mechanicals, sickness, or something else will go wrong. (Me, last year with the bee sting.) Others will not execute a good race strategy and struggle. And there's always a guy or two who are ready to really break thru. Back in 2006, that was me at Florida.

I have a sense of what will happen in the race, and will share that in a later post. More announcements coming soon, but no pics since my damn camera battery is dead and I forgot the charger! I'll work on it though.

Vance