GLOUCESTER — Prior to yesterday's first-ever Gloucester Triathlon, race co-founder Janda Ricci-Munn laid the favorites to win the inaugural event.
As it turned out, Ricci-Munn was quite the prognosticator, as both of his favorites, Lowell's Ethan Brown and Maynard's Alicia Kaye came away victorious in the event.
Brown finished with a time of 58:24, 41 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tony Delogne (59:05), the 2005 Iron Man Triathlon winner. Wenham's Dean Phillips placed third (59:26).
Kaye, a British Columbia native, finished with a time of 1:04:34, besting Kim Webster (1:07:04), Lyne Bessette (1:07:10), a former Canadian Olympic cyclist and Beverly resident. Kaye's time was not only best in the women's division, it was the eighth-best time overall.
"I felt really good today," said Kaye, who won the Cohasset Triathlon earlier this summer and finished second at the Marlborough Triathlon three weeks ago. "It was a tough race course and there was a tough female field but I was feeling it. I think knowing that I had so many tough competitors behind me made me push myself even more."
Brown also agreed that the race course was tough.
"I'm pretty exhausted right now," said the 24-year-old Brown after he finished the race. "It was a tough run and a difficult course, a lot of hills. I was able to do what I needed to in each leg to come away with the win."
For Brown, the win was his second sprint triathlon victory in three weeks, as he was the victor at the Marlborough Triathlon on July 26. He is a professional triathlete and accomplished distance runner who competes on the International Circuit and is hoping to compete in the 2012 Olympics.
Brown cites that living in Massachusetts is a huge advantage when it comes to training.
"There are a ton of great races in the area," Brown said. "I don't have to go to Europe to find tough competition, it was tough enough here."
The opening swim started off as expected, with Brown opening up an early lead. The second competitor out of the water, however, was Kaye, who not only blew away the entire female field, but bested all but one in the male field. Delogne came out of the water third as the three headed to the bike portion of the race.
"Ethan is a phenomenal swimmer," Phillips said. "He and Tony got a sizable lead on me out of the water so I knew I had to push hard going into the bike."
The bike leg, which is Phillips specialty, also went as predicted. Brown and Delogne got off to early leads but were quickly caught up to and passed by Phillips, who holds multiple cycling time trial records.
"(Dean) flew by us like a bomb," Delogne said. "The guy is amazing on the bike and we knew we would have some catching up to do once the run started."
In addition to the men, Kaye also knew she faced a challenge on the bike, as Bessette is the strongest biker in the field. The former Canadian Olympian, however, never did catch Kaye on the bike.
"I was biking scared," Kaye said. "I knew Lynn (Bessette) was going to make up some ground on me. Luckily I had a great swim and I was able to turn it on during the running leg, overall I couldn't be any more satisfied."
While Kaye cruised to victory in the women's division, Brown, Delogne and Phillips had a fight to the finish. Brown and Delogne finished the bike leg at the same time and began to catch Phillips.
Finally, two-thirds of the way through the final leg, Brown passed Phillips, with Delogne pulling into second place just before the final straight away. Brown admitted that he was a little nervous after finishing half of the running leg.
"In Marlborough I passed Dean half way through the run," Brown said. "I was a little nervous when I reached the half way mark and didn't see him. Dean is unbelievable on the bike and he really made myself and Tony work extra hard on the run, luckily for me it worked out in the end."
