Winners of BE THE FIRST

Our BE THE FIRST contest was a huge success. We received so many great submissions we couldn't pick just one winner. We're happy to be sending the first 2012 Helix wetsuits in the northern hemisphere to two lucky athletes. Below are the winning submissions:

Igor Belakovskiy of Concord, MA sent us a beautiful shot of Walden Pond.

"It looks very calm and peaceful here, but trust me, at 5:30am on any summer day it's anything but. From May to September, Walden Pond, is a haven for hundreds of Boston-area triathletes and open water swimmers. From Olympians to Team in Training first timers, fromsprint triathletes to Ultraman competitors, Walden really hassomething for everyone. And if you get there a little early, or stay alittle late, you get to see the pristine beauty that Henry DavidThoreau experienced in the 1800s. What's not to love?"

We love it Igor! The second photo had the staff here at blueseventy pooling with jealously (no pun intended). What an awesome backdrop for a pool! Kevin Dessart of the Colorado Springs Swim School sent us this photo of the Wilson Ranch Pool.

"I think the picture speaks for itself. It's absolutely beautiful and if you can't get motivated to swim at the base of the Rocky Mountains, you should choose another sport!"

Agree. Congratulations Igor & Kevin. Enjoy the 2012 Helix! We loved so many of the photos and videos submitted we wanted to share some our favorites below. Click on the slideshow to see the highlight reel. Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry. Happy swimming!

Gina Crawford sets new course record at IM Wisconsin

blueseventy athlete Gina Crawford pulled out a stunning victory at IM Wisconsin on the weekend, setting new course records along the way.

Gina dropped us an email today with her race report:

Hi blueseventy,
I am happy that I won Ironman Wisconsin in the weekend, setting a new course record by about 10 minutes, which was actually my own course record set back in 2007.

I wore the new Helix suit which I love with the flexible arms. The second half of the swim was crazy as we had to pass what seemed like thousands of age groupers and then we had to get over the other side of them to swim to the exit while they turned around another buoy to do another lap.

I lost the pack amongst the mess but after a quick transition (a very long run up a car park ramp to get to the transition) I was in the lead and stayed there all day. I broke the bike course record and came off the bike with a 13 minute lead and then hung in there on the run.

So I am super happy to be back in shape and in form again after a long winter where I got pretty unfit. I then had spent August in Australia and I felt like I was in good shape for this race.

I now will travel to Hawaii tomorrow and I hope to see you there soon. I caught up with Guy in the weekend and he was telling me all about the new swim suits. Can't wait to try them out!

Cheers,

Gina

Gina posted a bike time of 5.12.50 which put her in a great position to set a new course record of 9.27.26, nearly 10mins quicker than her previous course record she set in 2007. “I felt great coming out of the swim... My race plan is always when I feel good I just push it as hard as I can and I was really happy with my bike. Then I got to the run and finished with a pain in my side with 10 miles to go so I was really happy.”

You can read the full race report on Ironman.com

Michael Adams leads out of the swim at Windsor

Michael Adams of GBR recently joined the blueseventy team, and dropped us a note after showing off his new Helix in style by leading out of the water by nearly half a minute ahead of Richard Stannard.

Hey,

Had a great race today. Stannard was there in his new 2XU Project X, we've only raced a few times before and I wanted to really work hard in the water. Got a cracking start, straight into the lead. From there I just got my head down and got into my rhythm.

At the turn buoy (900m) I had a look around and it looked like Stannard was in 2nd place around 35m behind. By the swim exit it was more than 50m, at the T1 timing mats (after a 200m run) it was a 25 second gap.

Ran through transition in first (my suit pulled down so you could see the blueseventy logos on my trisuit :) ) and out onto the bike first. Took the chasing group of Stannard, Jenkins, Noble and Halksworth 1km of the bike to catch up.

Bike was solid, stayed at/near the front and once the group got bigger it slowed down a bit so I broke away for a stint at around 35km. Jenkins rode the group back to me after about 90secs but I tried off the front again. Was nice to feel good enough to push the pace off the front.

Was pretty tired through the run but just kept moving, had worked super hard swim/bike.

Great day, can't wait to see the TV footage. Hopefully got some good airtime for you guys.

All the best,

Mike

ps. some pictures for you :)

www.mikeadams-triathlete.com

Olympic rematch to be held this weekend in UK...

This coming Saturday (13th of September) sees a re-match of the inaugural Olympic 10km Open Water swim event. David Davies, Thomas Lurz and Olympic champion Maarten van der Weijden will be battling for glory in the first "Great North Swim" (www.greatswim.org), located in the famous Windermere Lake, England's largest lake.
Joining them will be a host of Olympic stars and over 2000 members of the public taking part in a one mile challenge in 14 degree waters. Upon questioning about the upcoming race, van der Weijden seemed very relaxed and was looking forward to the swim in his new blueseventy Helix wetsuit. Our man on the ground, Dean Jackson, will be there taking pictures and giving us a report from the scene.
Will Maarten again reign supreme, will David Davies choose a better swimming line? Will the newly crowned European Champion Lutz execute revenge?
Yes, it's all happening in the north of England...

A perfect sunrise at the Accenture Chicago Triathlon

Andrew McQuillan took this magic sunrise shot of Sean Conroy getting ready for his race last weekend.
Sean took 5th overall, 1st in his class and 34th out of the water in his blueseventy helix.
Congratulations Sean, and thanks for the pic Julianne!

Do you have a cool blueseventy race shot? Send them to alex@blueseventy.com to be put up on our blog...

Starting line at the Military World Champs in Estonia

WIN a blueseventy prize pack!

Guess the elite triathlete wearing his helix tst in this photo to win a blueseventy prize pack worth $150. Submit your answer as a comment to this post. The first correct answer will win the prize!
The prize consists of a blueseventy transition bag, visor, race belt and a pair of vision goggles. Judges decision is final and the competition closes when the first correct answer has been posted. An email address for blueseventy will be posted to the winner for redeeming the prize.

blueseventy suits rock Wildflower and St. Croix

Water temperature and locations may have differed, but the performance advantage was the same as the North American triathlon season began this past weekend. Two flagship events on the calendar kicked off in similar style, with blueseventy suits leading the fields out of the water in both men’s and women’s fields of the St Croix 70.3 race, and the Wildflower Triathlon.

The St Croix Ironman 70.3 Triathlon held in the Virgin Islands, always has warm water temperatures that make wetsuits illegal, but wearing the FINA approved pointzero3+ suits made by blueseventy allowed Bryan Rhodes and Julie Dibens to be the clear leaders out of the water in their respective fields.

In California, at the AVIA Wildflower Long Distance Triathlon, cooler water temperatures meant the bulk of the field were choosing to wear wetsuits, and course-record holder Terenzo Bozzone and Linda Gallo who had the fastest women's swim split were both wearing the newly released Helix full suit from blueseventy.



Brian Rhodes in his pointzero 3