Janus Charity Challenge

The Janus Charity Challenge People's Choice Award is a competition between five of the sport's biggest stars and their respected charities. blueseventy is pleased to be involved with two great charities involved this year: David Thompson's World Bicycle Relief and Andy Pott's Eleonore Rocks.

David Thompson hammers in the blueseventy Elite Tri Suit

World Bicycle Relief specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle programs by providing supply chain management, technical knowledge and logistics expertise to poverty relief and disaster recovery initiatives. Since it's founding in 2005, World Bicycle Relief has distributed over 75,000 bicycles and trained over 700 field mechanics. You can find out more about World Bicycle Relief here.

Professional triathlete David Thompson aka DKT races in blueseventy apparel, wetsuit, swim skin and goggles. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota David has forged strong relationships with the mid-west triathlon community always being the hometown favorite at the Life Time Fitness Minneapolis Triathlon. His focus for 2011 is the Hy-Vee 5150 Series Championships and the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series. Follow DKT at his blog.

Professional triathlete Brooks Cowan races for the blueseventy sponsored Eleonore Rocks Triathlon Team

Eleonore Rocks' mission is to make a positive impact on the lives of sick children and their families. ER donates rocking chairs and provides support to impacted families. ER directs its efforts toward the birthing units and hospital rooms in the NICU. Eagerly anticipating doing everything in ER's power to make the lives of terminally ill children and their families the best they can be. You can find out more about the Eleonore Rocks foundation here.

blueseventy is the Eleonore Rocks Triathlon Team's official wetsuit, swim skin and goggle sponsor. Made up of over forty athletes from all over the country they range from professionals to passionate fundraisers for the foundation.

Joining David and Andy are Hunter Kemper (supporting A-T Children's Project), Matt Reed (supporting the Blazeman Foundation for ALS) and Becky Lavelle (supporting Jenny's Light). Whether it’s the athlete or the charity that inspires you, a vote for your favorite competitor can make the world a better place, and the race a better race.

To show your support, simply CLICK HERE and cast your vote today! Voting ends October 1st. The $20,000 charity prize purse will be divided among all charities based on the number of votes each athlete/charity receives by the U.S. Open Triathlon in Dallas.

London's Dextro Energy Paratriathlon.

Blueseventy Athlete and Silver medalist Lauren Steadman reports on London's Dextro Energy  Paratriathlon.


A massive Congratulations to You Lauren.. Well done. 

My race was at 4 on Sunday so i had time to fully prepare and  felt quite professional in my cycles uk kit that was kindly donated to me, i also managed to watch the men's elite, to see how they tackled the course.. but how fast were they... it was impressive! Once they'd finished their race it was time for the Paratriathlon :S nerves were high but i set all the transition area up and placed my bike in the stand and pulled on my blue seventy wetsuit which was my race, racing in the suit but it felt incredible in the water and fitted perfectly! I was ready. I went and warmed up in the Serpentine- it smelt horrid and was all green but it was warm so there was a positive side! 

 

The gun went and i was off, the swim is my strongest area due to my swimming background so i knew i had to gain a lead here. I was first girl out and gained a 2 min lead over the previous world champions and then through to transition was first out on the bike and lead on the bike for the next 4 laps. The bike felt comfortable to ride and i felt pride to ride the moda around the course, and with a bit training and race practise the results can be improved further! And finally came the run the last leg, i was 2 mins 50 secs behind the world champion and had a 2 min lead over the girl in third, so i pushed as hard as my legs would carry me hoping to hold onto second and get closer to girl in front, and when i crossed the line... relief passed over my body- i had done it, my second triathlon secured second in the world, it was a priceless feeling...standing on the podium was a great moment with a silver medal around my neck and the crowd cheering! However this couldn't have been achieved without all the support i received and the fantastic equipment i was supplied with to race- Thank you! 

thank you again for everything you have done for me, i can't describe how grateful i am to Blue Seventy!! 

Thanks,

Lauren Steadman

 

Berkel defends Challenge Copenhagen title

Berkel beats Johnsen in dramatic and close iron-distance racing at KMD Challenge Copenhagen

The final 8 kilometres were run shoulder to shoulder as defending champion Tim Berkel from Australia and home town favorite Jimmy Johnsen of Denmark battled it out for a close and very exciting finish infront of over 100,000 spectators in ecstacy in downtown Copenhagen today.

Fast swims were followed by fast bike times, and after Jimmy Johnsen caught Tim Berkel coming into the final 8 km on the run, the two triathletes tried to do serious damage to each other's legs in the final kilometres - each trying to get the gap that would secure the win.

Finally in the last few km Tim Berkel found the extra speed and pulled away from Johnsen and got a good lead very late in the race which he held on to, to take home his second consecutive title at KMD Challenge Copenhagen. Tim's finish time: 8:11:15 included a 4 minute penalty for drafting, but a 48:24 swim, 4:33:18 bike and 2:46:16 run were enough to take the win.

"I'm over the moon to defend my title because I've never done that before. I love this beautiful city of Copenhagen and the crowd was amazing again this year. Jimmy made me work hard today, I was grinding my teeth towards the end and was going as hard as I could," the happy two time winner Tim Berkel said after the race.

Like many other pros during the race, Berkel incurred a 4 minute time penalty for drafting, but rather than deflate him he launched into run frustrated and determined to not let it hold him back.

"I was a little disappointed of the penalty. I felt good on the bike and Bastie and I rode away towards the end so the penalty was very frustrating. After I served I started running angry and ran a ridiculous pace and had to calm myself down and settle in at a slower pace. I had Jimmy and Dejan breathing down my neck, so I got my nutrition and water in and I think Jimmy had worked hard to catch me. I managed to pull away towards the end but that last 8 km is something you don't wanna do in an iron distance race," Berkel tells us.

For Jimmy Johnsen it was as close as it could be for him to win a race on home soil, but the strong Dane had to settle for second place only 35 seconds back after one of the most exciting iron-finishes of the year. Jimmy Johnsen swam 47:40, biked 4:36:55 and ran a 2:44:02 marathon. The top two athletes recognised great performances from the opponent and hugged at the finish line while third placed Dejan Patrcevic (CRO) crossed the line just in front of Danish future hope Mads Vittrup-Pedersen who took 4th with an amazing 2:38:59 marathon.

Biking powerhouse Björn Andersson (SWE) had a solid swim in 3rd position, hammered the bike for a 4:19:47 best-of-the-day bike split, but faded heavily on the run and withdrew after about 28 km of the run.

Another sub-9 win for Keat in repeat
The women's race was much less close as last year's winner Rebekah Keat from Australia hammered the course like it was 2010 and finished off with a 3:05:02 marathon to reclaim her title with a blistering 8:52:42 finish.

It was her fifth iron distance race under 9 hours, two of them in Copenhagen.

"I tried to focus on having a solid swim and not having to work too hard on the bike. I wanted to try to get my run legs back in this race and run around the 3 hours that is my level so that was great. Each lap the crowd just got bigger on the run, the second lap was good, third amazing and fourth incredible, I have never seen a crowd this big and it was fantastic today," Keat says.

"Despite my big lead late in the run I'm not the type that's backing off, it's not in me, and I always run as hard as I can. I wasn't happy with my last two 3:13'ish marathons, so I wanted to show I could run fast. I'm happy about my marathon performance today but would love to crack three hours again."

Photo credit: Paul Phillips/Competitive Image.

Olympic selection race

Well it was an all Brownlee affair at the London ITU World Series race. 


The race that would see athletes get there first chance to qualify for there respective countries Olympic teams.
The location : , London, 
The task : , Qualify for your countries Olympic team.
The Goal:  For most athletes it was to make the top ten and be the first or second of your countrymen/woman in order to Qualify. 


For Great Britain , you had to finish in the top 3 overall...Not an easy task unless your last name is Brownlee!!


Blueseventys Alistiar Brownlee took the win over  Alexander Brukhankov (RUS)  and younger brother Jonathan Brownlee 


Alistair was off the front on the bike , which is highly unusual for the main pack to let the fastest runner in the field get away. 
I guess with Olympic spots on the line , the goal of winning the race becomes second to the goal of coming top 10 and securing your spot. 


Words from Alistair
“It was great, I couldn’t have asked for more,” Brownlee said. “I think it stayed at 10 or 15 seconds for a couple of laps and then it just went 30, 45, 60, I couldn’t quite believe it to be honest. I knew that we were in danger of being attacked on the bike and I think to be honest me being away served its purpose better than anything.”

Well done Al... Great race
Well done to all the qualifying athletes from all nations.