Rachel and Paul continue the success story of Abu Dhabi Triathlon Team (07.08.2011)
At the moment the entire team seems to have a successful flow. Rachel Joyce won the TriStar111 Estonia and she broke the old course record. Paul Ambrose became 3rd at the Ironman 70.3 Boulder.
After a busy early summer Rachel took some weeks off to recover and train. Her first race after the break should be the TriStar111 Estonia which also should be a test within her Hawaii preparation. And the test worked well! Rachel’s swim start was not as fast as expected but she could overtake some of the women who started in front of her. As the bike course was tough she began the cycling with the handbrake on. That was a smart decision. After 52 km she already was in the lead. The crowds at the start of the run gave her a big push for the hilly course and in the end she won the race by more than 9 min in front of the Finish women Merja Kiviranta and Tjina Boman. With Rachel’s great performance she also broke the course record.
Days before the Ironman 70.3 Boulder it was not clear if Paul could race. The clamp of his seat post got lost on his last trip. It had to be shipped from Germany. 3 days prior the race the part was there and Paul could do his last preparation. Again he swam pretty fast and he came out of the water with the 3rd-best time. He started the 90 km bike stage together with the New Zealander Bryan Rhodes. They pushed hard but they could not follow the 2 guys in front of them, Joe Gamble from Austria and the South African Ray Tissink. In the second transition area Paul was just a few minutes behind the 2 leaders. Everything was still open. But Gamble flew over the half marathon and nobody could beat him today. Tissink ran just a few second faster than Paul and he got second. With a good run Paul finished 3rd and took his 4th place on the podium in an Ironman 70.3 this year.
