Inaugural Laguna Lang Co International Triathlon 2013

The Team here at Saigon Cycles had a great 4 days from the 10th to 14th April ’13, providing bike support for the Inaugural Laguna Lang Co International Triathlon. The course involved a 1.8km swim, 62km ride and 12km run.

The Team arrived on the Wednesday the 10th and got right into setting up the marquee which was situated between the transition and the finish line. The best front row seat to catch all the action was had right from the Saigon Cycles tent.

The weather on the other hand was not so co-operative, with blustery winds and light showers on and off. Everyone was praying for better weather, if the rough seas persisted the organisers were talking to cancel the swim and replace it with a 6km run. No one wanted that.

After a quite Thursday momentum started to build on Friday as people started arriving and required their bikes assembled, gears tuned and brakes adjusted etc. So it was all hands on deck!

The sales team were busy taking care of all the last minute items people required Co2 cartridges, patch kits, gloves, tubes, tyres, pumps. The Team brought a great selection of accessories.

By Saturday things were really starting to heat up, with a constant queue of bikes requiring servicing, including tune ups on Di2 equipped bikes, which we at Saigon Cycles really enjoy working with. The weather continued to improve throughout the day on Saturday and race organisers were more positive that the swim would take place but would make the call early Sunday morning.

The big day arrived and the weather was great for the event, okay not sunny by any means but not raining and not too windy and the seas were much calmer than the previous days.
Down at the swim start everybody was assembled with Chris Lieto, Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack, Radka Vodickova, Belinda and Justin Granger, Fredrick Croneborg, Massimo Cigana all at the front.

First to hit the beach after the swim was Chris Lieto and Macca, they wasted no time in transition and were out on the bike still close together. Kristoff Van Hout and John Robert Mucha who were racing for Saigon Cycles came out of the swim only about 6 min behind the pros, great swim guys!

First in off the bike Massimo and Croneborg were a good 5 or 6 minutes in front of Lieto with Macca a further 5 min behind.

Kristoff and John both did a 1 hr 53min bike which was 25th and 26th fastest out of 62 participants.

Meanwhile along side of the individual Triathletes, the Saigon Cycles relay team were racing. A superb swim completed by Bonnie Coles who came out 4th from the water out of the relay teams, put the team in a great position for Kimberly Ames who did the 2nd fastest time on the bike (fantastic ride Kim!) Overall they were now only 9 min off the lead team. An extremely fast run by Marcia Adams who completed the run 22 min faster than the overall 2nd place relay teams runner, SEALED THE VICTORY for the girls and SAIGON CYCLES! Congrats!

Back to the individuals race Massimo was first to the finish in a time of 2hr:28min followed by Macca 2hr:39min and third Justin Granger 2hr:49min.

The top female finisher was Radka Vodickova 2hr:52min and rounding out 2nd and 3rd were Belinda Granger 3 min behind followed by Sarah Wheeler.

Kristoff finished 2nd in his age group and John 1st in his age group.

Congratulations guys and girls you made us here at Saigon Cycles very proud to be associated with you!

We will be back next year!