After some tough outings at early season races, Riptide got the lift it was looking for with outstanding performances at the Barkin’ Dog Duathlon held in Cherry Creek State Park this past Saturday.
After sweeping the Mile High Duathlon Series in 2008, Josh Merrick showed that he is still the class of Colorado duathlon with a dominating course record setting performance. Taking it hard from the gun, Merrick gained more than a 20 second lead on the first run. Next behind him were fellow Riptide athletes Jordan Jones at 22 seconds back and Tate Behning at 25 seconds pack.
On the bike Merrick continued his push, putting in the 2nd fastest bike of the day to enter the final run with over a minute lead on the field. Jones was gapped midway through the bike by Justin Hurd but battled back over the final miles of the 30k bike to enter the final run in 2nd place.
From there Merrick ran the fastest 2nd run of the day to finish in a new course record of 1:11:54, obliterating the previous course record of 1:13:59. Jones held on to 2nd place, finishing in 1:14:38. Behning meanwhile was running to the 2nd fastest final run to put himself into 5th place. From there Riptide had strong performances from Dan MacKenzie in 9th, Matt Balzer in 11th, and Cyrus Severance in 14th.
On the women’s side Jocelyn Petrella showed her fitness with a 2nd place finish. Petrella started quickly with the 2nd fastest women’s first run of the day. Onto the bike she held strong, only being passed by eventual winner Uli Bromme. With a strong 2nd run Petrella earned her podium finishing in 2nd. Amy Dannwolf also competed with a 12th place finish. Petrella is primed to race at the ITU Oklahoma City Pan American Championship next weekend along with Riptide athlete Pete Mallett.
With over 400 finishers, the Barkin’ Dog Duathlon is the largest duathlon in Colorado and is consistently the largest duathlon in the Western United States.
Merrick and Jones go 1-2.
Petrella finishes 2nd.
