Race Preview: Will anyone chase down Van Lierde or the Brownlees at the Abu Dhabi Triathlon tomorrow?
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Frederick Van Lierde had a perfect race in 2013, staying with the leaders before attacking on the bike and holding strong to the finish (Photo: Wouter Kingma)
If anyone’s going to trouble the top three podium finisher’s from last year’s race, it’s James Cunnama (RSA). Like Britain’s Jodie Swallow, who’ll be contending in the women’s long course, he’s coming to the race having already secured victory at Ironman 70.3 South Africa this January. This will be his Abu Dhabi triathlon debut and with the prestige and attention the race tends to generate it’s likely that he’ll want to ensure his form as a competitor for victory here too. We won’t be surprised if he launches his attack later in the bike leg, before putting in a strong run to claim a very possible podium place.
Defending champ, Frederik Van Lierde (BEL), will be entering into his season with Abu Dhabi his first race of the year. He’s still favourite and as Ironman World Champion will be gaining the lion’s share of the attention in the lead up to the race – whether this is a help or a hindrance remains to be seen. He’s strong in all three disciplines and put in a consistently powerful and well paced race last year.
Eneko Llanos has an incredibly strong run and was in great form last year, winning Ironman Asia Pacific Championship and then the Ironman European Championship later that summer. It’ll be interesting to see whether he’s maintained that form over the winter. The long bike leg will suit former pro cyclist Tyler Butterfield, who took bronze in last year’s race and then came seventh in Kona later that year. He’ll need that strength to contend with Cunnama this year.
The men’s short course is likely again to be a Brownlee-dominated affair with Alistair returning to race for the first time after injury compromised his 2013 season while Jonny will be making his Abu Dhabi debut – it’ll be interesting to see how he fares in the stepped-up distance. Uplace-BMC team members Bart Aernouts (BEL) and Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) are the two most likely to contend for podium places. Aernouts put in a top-ten performance at Kona last year and as another former pro cyclist the long bike leg will suit him well. Schildknecht was on top form last year as well, nabbing gold at Heilbronn Triathlon, Ironman South Africa and Ironman Switzerland as well as silver at IM 70.3 South Africa. For both of these it will be interesting to see how the additional support from Uplace-BMC affects their performance. We’re likely to see a boost from both athletes.
Check out our preview of the women’s race here.
