Terenzo Bozzone (Auckland) continued his good recent form with another win on the 70.3 Ironman circuit, proving too strong at the Mont Tremblant event in Quebec, Canada this morning.
 Terenzo Bozzone crossing the line in Mont Tremblant, Quebec(Photo: Triathlon NZ; click to enlarge) |
Bozzone raced consistently throughout, posting the third quickest swim split behind fellow Kiwi Tom Davison (Christchurch), riding strongly and out pacing local hope Brent McMahon over the closing kilometres on the 21km run leg.
The win has even more significance given it is a dress rehearsal on next year's World Championship course.
"About a week ago Ironman announced that this race would be the venue for the Ironman 70.3 World Champs next year once it moves from Vegas and let me tell you, it was worth seeing the course first hand," said Bozzone.
"The swim was the usual 1.9km lake swim and there must have been 3 Aqua Sphere wetsuits in the front group. I snuck into 3rdspot and settled in there for the duration while fellow kiwi Tom Davison led pretty much from start to finish.
"There was a massive 1km run up to our bikes and Brent McMahon must have thought it was an ITU race cause he had the burners on full. But soon the front group formed and we had 6 guys up there. I tried to keep the pressure on as much as possible as I knew we had a few good runners further back in the field so I ended up leading most of the 90km super hilly bike, that was until Romain thought it would be good idea to attack me up the hills. I guess good on him for racing to his strengths, but after riding hard at the front that was the last thing I felt like responding to – especially in the last 20kms where it was near impossible to find any rhythm.
"I was a little unsure if I had left too much out on the bike and the run was going to be a bit of a mystery. McMahon who has been having a great year went out strong, I managed to get on his shoulder and let him repay the favour. He set a good fast tempo and at the half way mark we had managed to close the gap to Romain who had built a minute lead coming off the bike. The run was basically 5km hilly, 10km on a gravel trail then 5km hilly to finish off. I think everyone struggled a little those last 5km.
"I made my move with 2km to go and thought I would test the water and see what McMahon had in the tank and to be honest I was thankful when he didn't react and come after me. There were still a couple good hills before the race was over but the adrenaline and the lively crowd gave my legs a little extra gas to take it out."
