Cloverdale’s Rob Davis in race
A star-studded racing field and favorable weather conditions combined to produce a spectacular result on Sunday, as more than 2,300 of the world’s greatest athletes negotiated Sonoma County waters and backroads in the historic 25th running of the Ironman 70.3 Vineman Triathlon.
The race began at 6:30 a.m. at Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville with a 1.2-mile swim, continued with a 56-mile bike ride through Sonoma County, and finished at Windsor High School with a 13.1-mile run.
The event, which included hundreds of volunteers staged along the course, featured one of the strongest professional fields in race history, vying for $50,000 in prize money and coveted ranking points for the 70.3 World Championship later this summer.
San Francisco’s Meredith Kessler wrote another chapter in race history, capturing her record fourth straight Vineman 70.3 title in a fast 4:11:58. Kessler, who bagged a winner’s purse of $10,000, broke the tape just over a minute ahead of second-place finisher Magali Tisseyre (4:13:09).
Rounding out the top eight professional women were: three-time Ironman world champion Mirinda Carfrae (4:18:33), Emily Cocks (4:42:54), Laura Siddall (4:26:41), Lauren Brandon (4:27:54), Mackenzie Madison (4:30:45), and Emma-Kate Lidbury (4:31:26).
Recording split times of 24:06 (swim), 2:19:31 (bike), and 1:24:28 (run), Kessler’s four-peat proved to be among the most satisfying and humbling victories of her career.
“I think all of us out here create our own luck, but to do a four-peat you do need a little bit of luck mechanically and in terms of just feeling good on the day,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for nine years as an age grouper and now seven as a pro and I’ll keep coming back until these old legs fail me.”
Australian Sam Appleton made the most of his first race in the United States, blistering the Vineman course in a record time of 3:43:06, two minutes ahead of former Vineman and five-time World Ironman 70.3 champion Craig Alexander (3:45:24). Also cracking the top-eight for a share of $50,000 in prize money were: Kevin Collington (3:47:18, Timothy O’Donnell (3:49:16), Ben Collins (3:49:51), Mark Bowstead (3:50:21), TJ Tollakson (3:53:00), and Jake Montgomery (3:55:38).
Appleton, who spent the last few weeks training at altitude in Boulder, Colorado, recorded split times of 22:42 (swim), 2:03:17 (bike), and finished with an impressive half-marathon time of 1:13 40.
“I think this is a pretty good course, it isn’t an out and back like your typical triathlon course, you can get out of sight and I think that worked to my advantage a little bit,” Appleton said. “A two-minute lead is an awkward gap where if you’re feeling good it’s enough, but if you’re not, someone like Craig (Alexander) can take that away pretty quickly.”
Local finishers make
their mark
The Vineman featured many of the area’s best amateur triathletes, including local Windsor residents Jady Palko (60th, 4:33:08), Aaron Gallo (150th, 4:50:21), Lance Munselle (174th, 4:54:05), Caleb Martinez (225th, 5:03:04), Troy Tuscher (394th, 5:22:00), Andrew Ring (1180th, 6:22:32), Christina Gill (1613th, 6:55:40), Burt Hagberg (1691st, 7:03:27), Dan Russell (1709th, 7:06:00), Mike Prescott (1759th, 7:12:08), Lorena Ramirez (1851st, 7:25:41), Joy Prescott (1902nd, 7:33:03), and Kevin Bower (2043rd, 8:02:20).
Healdsburg’s Rod Matteri (283rd, 5:09:00), Elizabeth Mullen (615th, 5:39:26), Tom O’Hair (440th, 5:25:33), Doug Wilson (502nd, 5:30:41), David Tett (648th, 5:42: 15), Justin Moye (1114th, 6:17:59), Sean Harrell (1157th, 6:21:26), and Carla Frank (2152nd, 9:01:01); Cloverdale’s Rob Davis (660th, 5:43:27), Forestville’s Marco Calavetta (513th, 5:31:39), and Doug Bishop of Sebastopol (825th, 5:56:17).
One of the youngest competitors in the race was 17-year-old Alexander Salivanoff, an incoming senior at Rio Lindo Adventist Academy in Healdsburg. Salivanoff was the 226th athlete to cross the finish line, capturing the 19-Under age group with outstanding splits of 30:26 (swim), 2:31:56 (bike), and 1:52:19 (run), for an overall time of 5:03:14.
There were 2,167 official finishers in the race.
The Vineman series of races will continue on Saturday, July 25 with the 26th Full Vineman, Aqua Bike, and the 15th annual Barb’s Race, the only all-women’s 70.3 distance triathlon contested in the world.
