On a beautiful morning in Boulder, nearly 600 multi-sport athletes invaded Boulder Reservoir for the kick-off to the Colorado Triathlon Series hosted by Without Limits Productions.
The Colorado Triathlon featured a non-traditional sprint distance (17 mile bike instead of the standard 20K), an Olympic distance, a duathlon, an aquabike and a relay.
With the water temperature at Boulder Reservoir hovering around 66 degrees, the Olympic distance athletes got started first with a 1,500 meter swim. Taking off in waves based on gender and age, the sprint distance athletes followed with a 750 meter swim. Once out of there water and onto the bike, athletes were treated to rolling course (and a strong southerly wind) around north Boulder of either 17 miles (sprint athletes) or 23.5 miles (olympic athletes). This was then followed by either a 10K or 5K run along the dam at the reservoir.
This race also adds a little flavor to the finish line by giving athletes the option to take the slip-n-slide chute!
In the olympic distance, Davide Giardini of Bolder took home the gold in a total time of 1:48:55. He was followed by Yoni Doran-Peters of Boulder (1:52:30) and Brad Zoller of Avon (2:00:02). For the women, Tori Beckwith of Palmer Lake took top honors in 2:14:37. She was followed by Steph Popelar of Elizabeth (2:15:53) and Jasmine Carlson of Pueblo (2:19:51).
In the sprint distance, Erik Peterson of Boulder was the victor, crossing the finish line in 1:09:58. Matt Bevil of Boulder (1:10:17) and Chris Schroeder (1:11:47) rounded out the podium. Lindsey Knast of Lafayette took top honors for the females in 1:24:11. She was followed across the finish line by Emily Osga of Castle Rock (1:24:33) and Josephine Jones of Denver (1:25:59).
The next event in the Colorado Triathlon Series is the Boulder Peak Olympic Triathlon on July 9.