New Zealand triathletes James Elvery, Tony Dodds, Dylan McNeice and Tom Davison will be on the start line at the latest ITU Triathlon World Cup Series at Holten in Holland this weekend.
The fifth race in the ITU World Cup Series begins a big month of racing. Following this weekend's World Cup, the planet's top triathletes will head to Hamburg, Germany for the fourth round of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series on 17-18 July, and then to London the following weekend for the fifth round of the Series. The month of exciting racing action finishes up in Immenstadt, Germany on 31 July and 1 August for the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships.
Everything kicks off this weekend in Holland with the Holten World Cup, on a course that hosted the ETU European Championship last season. Headlining the men's race, scheduled for 11:45pm NZT time on Saturday, is Aussie youngster James Seear, the reigning U23 World Championship runner-up. Seear is having his best season to date in 2010, finishing third at the World Cup opener in Mooloolaba, Australia and 12th at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Sydney.
A strong Russian contingent of Yulian Malyshev, Ivan Vasiliev and Ivan Tutukin are sure to be in the mix as well. Malyshev is coming off of the best season of his career in 2009, in which he won two Premium European Cup titles. Others possible podium contenders include Ruedi Wild of Switzerland, Joshua Amberger and Jamie Huggett of Australia and Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil.
Of the Kiwis, Dodds goes in with the highest world ranking of 62 while Elvery and McNeice will be hoping for strong performances to pick up valuable ranking points and with them, starts in bigger races later in the year. All have been training in preparation for this return to Europe and a busy time in the racing calendar.
Tom Davison is a work in progress, the young Christchurch triathlete is looking to gain valuable international experience as he finds his feet in elite company. He has already raced well in professional club racing in Europe this year and finished 10th in the recent Philadelphia triathlon (reduced to a Duathlon) but this will be another step up for the member of the Tri NZ 2016 Potential Group and former Youth Olympics representative.
One week after the Holten World Cup the world's best triathletes will take to the streets of Hamburg for the fourth round of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series. The event will take place alongside the Hamburg City Man Triathlon, which is the world's largest age-group triathlon with over 12,000 athletes slated to participate.
Live text and timing updates from Holten will be available at triathlon.org/live. Free live video of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Hamburg will be available at triathlon.org/tv.
About the city:
Holten is a small town in the Netherlands with a population of only 9,000. It's home to the country's second largest WWII cemetery and is also the hometown of Olympic 1500m speed skating gold medallist Mark Tuitert.
SCHEDULE:
Elite women start - Saturday, July 10 - 9:30pm NZT
Elite men starts - Saturday July 10 - 11:45pm NZT
