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The Crank

• The Ironman in Lanzarote was confusing. How is it that an athlete can be stationary for over 30 minutes and still win the race? It is baffling and more to the point what was happening to the rest of the women's field? We are talking about some good athletes too as the Lanzarote women's field was very strong. Without being too harsh on Catriona Morrison's win the other females in that field must surely be asking themselves "What the?" after this race. A really remarkable outcome and there might be several of the pros thinking that they let that win get away.
• The big time trial at the Tour of California was a bit of a bust with random timing and the fact that the Chris Lieto, the big show, had a puncture and could not finish the course. The route itself was a fairly challenging prospect. Still it was cool to see Chrissie in her Liquigas kit and also watching Macca with the foot down is always a fearsome sight.
• Eneko Llanos is quietly building a career that is soon going to be the envy of just about every triathlete in the world. He is simply on a brilliant roll right now. He showed he has he tactical nouse to outwit the uber bikers (see Abu Dhabi win) and this weekend he was calm in his approach knowing he had the best run leg in the field. Memo to the rest of the world, Llanos is a real threat come October.
• Michael Raelert, the 70.3 World Champion has told firstoffthebike that he is not going to Kona this season. The talented German says he wants to go the Big Island in complete shape to race to win. He also went on to say that he thinks a sub 8 hour Ironman race is possible. Stay tuned for our chat with him.
• The big news in the cycling world was the whole Floyd Landis - Lance Armstrong saga. While riding the Big Bear stage this week The Crank saw a car fly past with "Floyd Sucks" painted on the back window. Enough said.