Latest News

Race preview January 21st

January 20, 2012 - Filed under: teamTBB

Comments (0)

The 2012 tri season is now upon us and the first race to start off the new year is courtesy of New Zealand.

Challenge Wanaka, New Zealand
Saturday January 21st
Distance: 3.8 km swim • 180km bike • 42.2km run

teamTBB - Germany athletes racing
Aaron Farlow
teamTBB - USA athletes racing
Scott DeFilippis

Scottie and Aaron are kicking off 2012 with a big Challenge at Challenge Wanaka. This Irondistance event is one of the hardest of the year and definitely one of the most scenic set in the beautiful south island of New Zealand. The course starts with a two lap fresh water swim in Lake Wanaka. The lake will be a cool 18 degrees and is usually choppy from strong winds. Onto the bike, it will be a hard one lap bike on rough NZ chip seal roads. The boys will face strong winds and some significant climbing that will make it hard day on the bike. The run is a jewel with two laps that run along the roads and trails through town and the river. It will be a beautiful end to the day and hopefully the boys can enjoy it.

The competition facing the boys will be tough as several top Ironmen athletes are on the start list. The contenders include Brian Rhodes, Kieren Doe, Jimmy Johnson, Peter Vabrousik, Jamie White, and Courtney Odgen. With this solid field, the boy's goal is simple: test their fitness, execute a solid race, and go for the win. Brandon will focus on taking care of all the little details that can derail a fit and strong Ironman athlete like fueling and pacing. Brandon't training leading into this event has been great and this will be his final race for 2011. He plans to put it all on the line.

Scottie is very excited for his first race of 2012. Coming off what was probably the best camp of his career in Gran Canaria, he is anxious to get his season started early. Back in July a few days after his crash, Scottie set his sights on this race and hopes to have a crack here at starting his 2012 season off with a bang. He is looking forward to racing what is supposed to be one of the tougher and most beautiful Irondistance races in the world!

Like Scottie, Aaron is also very excited for this race, his first of 2012. After a good year last year he said he was looking for improvement and always chasing the win. Aaron reported that he has sorted his nutrition problems from IM Busso and has had some good preparation leading into the race, being based at altitude in Thredbo for the past three weeks with Dave and Caroline. Once again this year Aaron hopes to continue to improve over the year leading into the Hawaii Ironman World Champs. Challenge Wanaka will be a great way to start his 2012 seaon and build form for the rest of the year. Aaron hopes to see where he is at now and continue to build his momentum. Follwing this event, Aaron plans to continue his racing domination with Ironman New Zealand, Ironman Melbourne, Ironman Port Macquarie, 70.3 Singapore, and Challenge Cairns.

Good luck Aaron and Scottie! Get after it and bring home a podium for teamTBB!