Paul Ambrose and Christie Sym Podium at Ironman 70.3 Racine

Paul Ambrose gave away one minute in the swim and two minutes on the run to Estonia’s Marko Albert to finish second overall. This year Ambrose has won Ironman Australia, had a 5th in a stacked field at the 70.3 in California and was a close second to Joe Gambles in the Syracuse 70.3 recently. He is always there. His usual race fast bike time was not quite there but he hung in and came home for another payday.

Possibly the unlucky award would go to Tim Reed for this race. He punctured and lost time then came back and ran himself in to third with his trademark fast run. Reed ran four minutes faster than Ambrose and two and a half minutes faster than Albert. Puncture aside Reed rode a 2:07 and, along with Craig Alexander, had pulled away from Ambrose and were closing in on Albert when he punctured.

Reed was gutted as he was really pumped about his form leading in to this race. “After a few minutes of exploring my expletive vocabulary. I sat on the side of the road and waited for the support vehicle. We fixed my wheel and I figured I may as well get some hard time trialling in and then run from transition back to my home stay’s place. However after 10kms of running there were guys in sight so I hung in there. You never know who’s going to pop in these hot humid races.”

Right behind Tim Reed was fellow Australian and Aeromax Team stable mate Joey Lampe. Lampe is a young guy who is building his experience fast. He has a killer swim and we have watched his run times slowly dropping over the last two years. The first thing you notice about Lampe is that he is a big guy and a very (outwardly) quiet demeanor. Coach Grant Giles has a lot of great things to say about the future that Joey has.Lampe is slowly finding his feet after

Rounding out the Aussie / Kiwi contingent in the men’s field was New Zealand’s Shannon Stallard followed by Craig Alexander who just had an off day. These things happen and always with Crowie there are bigger goals foremost on his mind and in his training program.

It is good to see Sydney’s Christie Sym firing again. Sym came third behind female winner Jessica Jacobs who had to overcome a swim deficit and put in a strong bike / run combo to take the title. Second was Dede Griesbauer. Sym finished only 12 seconds ahead of Kristin Andrews who was bearing down on her very fast. Sym had to fight hard to keep the podium.

Also finishing well was Rachel Paxton who has been steadily improving throughout the season also under the watchful eye of Grant Giles at Aeromax Team.