The fourth round of the unofficial North American 70.3 championship series. This is the headline race of the weekend with interesting battles in both the men’s and women’s fields.

Women

The women’s field is headlined by Taylor Knibb but Holly Lawrence comes into the race as the top ranked athlete, as Knibb only has two ranking races. They are joined by Jeanni Metzler, who came 3rd in 2021, and Lesley Smith, who finished 2nd last season. Boulder is a silver tier race and the SOF for the women is 76.13.

Knibb made a delayed start to the season at WTCS Yokohama where she came away with 3rd. She picked up an illness in Japan and opted not to race Cagliari. This will be her first middle distance race since winning the world championship and it is a race she should dominate. She could choose to swim with Lauren Brandon or simply breakaway from the field. It will then be a very lonely day. She is the strongest cyclist in the sport and could put over 5 minutes into the entire field. She is still coming back from foot surgery and hasn’t spent loads of time running. However she should have enough of a lead off the bike to secure the win.

It should be an interesting battle for second between Holly Lawrence and Jeanni Metzler. Lawrence has had a disappointing start to the season by her standards, 4th at IM 70.3 Oceanside and 10th at the European Open. I’d be shocked if she doesn’t make the podium in Boulder. Metzler has impressed in her return to racing, winning in St George and making the podium in Chattanooga. They are fairly evenly matched athletes across the swim, bike and run so they could be spending a lot of time together. I’d have to give the edge to Lawrence to take 2nd ahead of Metzler.

Predictions:
1. Taylor Knibb
2. Holly Lawrence
3. Jeanni Metzler

Men

The men’s race features many of the same faces from St George and Gulf Coast; Lionel Sanders, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley are all on the start list. They will be joined by last year’s winner, Matt Sharpe, who is returning to racing after suffering a collapsed lung. Sam Appleton is another athlete to look out for, he is coming off IM Australia where he secured his Nice slot with 3rd. Other athletes who could feature during the race are Dylan Gillespie, Tim O’Donnell and Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez. As with the women’s race this is in the silver tier but has a higher SOF at 82.29.

This race will most likely be a battle between Long and Sanders. Despite Long winning in St George and Gulf Coast, I still struggle to look past Sanders when previewing a race. Sanders got the better of Long for so long that it is taking time to believe Long is the stronger athlete. If I’m wrong again for Boulder I’ll think about changing my outlook. Long has out swam Sanders in their last three meetings, however Sanders was only a few seconds behind at Gulf Coast. I’m expecting Sanders to have stepped up a level since Gulf Coast. In that race he couldn’t follow Long on the bike which ended up costing him the win.

I expect to see Trevor Foley, Sam Appleton, Tim O’Donnell and Tomas Rodriguez battle it out for the final spot on the podium. Appleton is a month on from his IM so should be plenty recovered, but he struggled against many of these athlete at Clash Miami. O’Donnell lost significant time on the run at Gulf Coast so will need to be in better form if he wants to make the podium. Rodriguez ran the fastest split at Gulf Coast but lost too much time on the bike to feature. This leaves Foley. He impressed in St George with the fastest bike split and a solid run, it will come down to how much time he loses in the swim. With his bike and run pedigree he is my pick for 3rd.

Predictions:
1. Lionel Sanders
2. Sam Long
3. Trevor Foley