Colorado Triathlon Team Rebuilds Faster Than Expected
Broderick’s Win and Wane’s Podium Spot Pace the Team to Third
By Adam Hodges
race day story | additional coverage | results | team history
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In the men’s race in Lubbock, Cédric Wane—who had won Lake Havasu a month prior—was aiming for a top ten individual finish among what he knew would be some tough competition.
Wane came out of the water a few minutes behind the leaders and immediately went to work on the bike. “I tried to hang in there as much as possible before starting the bike,” said Wane. “I was definitely looking forward to bridging the gap with the leaders and trying to win the Blue bike [a prime awarded to the top bike split].” Wane posted the second fastest bike split, which helped him move up seven spots in the race, although he lost out on the prime for the new bike by a mere eleven seconds.
Moving onto the run, Ricci shouted to Wane that he was two minutes behind the leader. At that point, Wane noted, “I had a mix of feelings—disappointment, excitement, frustration. I couldn’t decide whether it was a big or small gap. I was determined to give it my best though.”
That he did. Although Wane later felt he ran too conservatively over the first 5k, he had cut the gap down to thirty seconds by that halfway point. In the end, he posted a 34:39 10k. Overall, that put him on the podium, only 29 second off of the winning time of UC-Berkeley’s John Dahlz, and nine seconds away from the runner-up, Navy’s Derek Oskutis.
“On race day, everyone seemed to race as well as they could have and in the end the team result is better than we thought we were capable of,” Ricci said. “It just shows that hard work, sacrifice and believing that you can achieve something can pay off—and for us, it did.
“Most importantly,” added Ricci, “we are fortunate to have great leadership on this team—Daniel Bjugstad as our President, Joe Britton has been on this team for years as a PhD student, and Jordan Corbman contributes so much of his time as well. Dan sets the tone with his organization, Joe keeps everyone in line and Jordan is the guy who keeps it loose for all of us.
“In addition, Ashley Walker, our number two female, comes to practice each day, does the workout and never complains about how hard it is. She sets an amazing example for our younger athletes by balancing work toward her PhD, training consistently, and racing at a high level.
“You can't coach those intangibles and I feel very fortunate to have such great leaders on this team like Dan, Joe, Ashley and Jordan. That makes my job much easier. I am truly blessed to coach such an incredible group of student athletes who want to work hard and strive to achieve great things, not only in triathlon, but in life.”
The future of the CU Triathlon Team has yet to be written, but you can be sure one goal figures prominently in their minds: regaining that coveted collegiate championship in the years to come. But regardless of results, the team’s program with Coach Mike Ricci has already upheld CU’s tradition of being a hotbed for the continued development of new multisport talent.
Look for the team at the Kansas 70.3 and 5430 Sports Wild on Windsor Olympic distance triathlon this summer—two races that will be holding collegiate divisions.