At the weekend, some of America’s best triathletes descended upon the Old Man Winter Rally in Lyons, Colorado.
Morgan Pearson, Gwen Jorgensen and Summer Rappaport (competing under her maiden name, Cook) each took on the 50km off-road bike race. With snow, climbs, gravel paths and red rock canyon on offer, it promised to be a stiff winter test.
In the women’s race, Rappaport won the silver medal in a time of 1:26:22, some 2 minutes 38 seconds down on the winner. 2016 Olympic champion Jorgensen followed home in third place, 1 minute 52 seconds behind Rappaport.
Both results represent strong performances and indicate that Rappaport and Jorgensen will be in strong cycling shape once they make their respective season debuts. Rappaport has not yet confirmed her new coaching situation since leaving The Triathlon Squad. However, it is becoming apparent that the bulk of her current training is being done under Ian O’Brien’s eye.
Rappaport’s most recent WTCS medal came in Hamburg in 2021.
Meanwhile, in the men’s race, Morgan Pearson won bronze. His time of 1:20:05 was just 19 seconds behind the leading pair who were separated by two tenths of a second.
As with Rappaport and Jorgensen, Pearson’s result is a good marker of his form as he builds towards the new season. He is due to start at WTCS Abu Dhabi in less than four weeks. The conditions will be considerably different there, though, than in Colorado.
After medalling at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2022, Pearson will likely have another medal on his radar.
Cycling fans will also notice an old face further down the results. Taking 9th place in the 50km was none other than Jens Voigt. Now 51, Voigt was a former hour record holder in track cycling and won two Tour de France stages in his career. If nothing else, his performance in Colorado shows that he has lost none of the drive of old that earned him the reputation as one of the toughest athletes in the peloton.
You can view the results of the Old Man Winter Rally here.
Rappaport gets constantly dropped in World Triathlon racing and a local bike race in Feb is a vague indicator for bike shape imo. I would more likely interpet that Jorgensen still has a long road ahead if she loses close to 2mins to Rappaport in such a bike race…