Miazga Makes It Three
Canada’s Emily Miazga conquered a world-class field and tough conditions to win her third multisport world title at the Speight’s Coast to Coast.
In a race billed as the best female field ever, the West Coast-based Canook held off attack after attack to win the 243k race across New Zealand’s South Island to eventually triumph by a comfortable nine minutes. But the end result didn’t do justice to the race within.
On the West Coast’s Kumara Beach start line, Miazga faced 2007 world champion Fleur Pawsey (ChCh) and four-time world champion Jill Westenra (Wgtn, 2000-2003) and a former world championship runner Elina Ussher (Nelson). But the entire field also faced tough conditions with low river levels and a headwind the entire way.
As expected the race started aggressively on the opening 55k cycle with only Miazga and Westenra managing to make it into the front bunch with the top 20 men. This factored heavily later in the race with Fleur Pawsey, Elina Ussher and Nelson’s Fleur Lattimore pushing themselves to the edge to get back in contention during the 33k mountain run over Goat Pass on the Northern tip of the Southern Alps.
It was Fleur Pawsey who Miazga beat by just 43secs in last year’s world title race at the Speight’s Coast to Coast, and it was Pawsey who emerged as the biggest challenge during the run. Pawsey joined Miazga and Westenra shortly before halfway in the gruelling run and wasted no time in upping the tempo. Miazga responded and the two exited the run 5min ahead of Ussher, Lattimore and Westenra.
Ussher, wife of three time world champion Richard Ussher, had battled bad cramps early in the run because of the cold river crossings but recovered to feature strongly in the kayak. Likewise Westenra, and these four closed on Miazga, with Ussher actually taking the lead after Miazga took a wrong line through the shallow braids of the upper Waimakariri River.
“I just went the wrong way,” she shrugged on the finish line after winning in 13hrs 39min 33secs. But only after strong challenges from both Ussher and Westenra on the final 70k cycle to the Sumner Beach finish line in Christchurch.
Miazga clawed back to the lead during the kayak, while Westenra closed on both of them and as they started the ride only three minutes separated the three. Westenra struck first, passing Ussher in the first 20k and then charging after Miazga. By 35k she had closed to two minutes and her fearsome cycling reputation looked set to see her through to the lead.
Westenra last raced the Speight’s Coast to Coast in 2004 and returned this year intrigued by the increasing depth in female multisport. At 44 she could have become the oldest winner among men or women to win the world title One Day race. But it wasn’t to be.
With 30k to ride Miazga found something extra in the tank and slowly but surely the gap started opening up again.
“I was just thinking that I didn’t want Jill to do to me what I did to Fleur last year,” said Miazga. “I couldn’t let her get close enough to win in the last kilometre.”
In the end she needn’t have worried. As Miazga pushed harder Westenra started to tire and with 10k she finally knew she had it won.
“Man, that was by far the hardest race,” she said of her third world title at the Speight’s Coast to Coast. “I spent the whole day defending attack after attack. First Jill really attacked the first ride, then Fleur (Pawsey) attacked the run, and then Elina came through on the kayak, and then Jill attacked again on the last cycle. It was just so tough all the way.
The torrid racing took its toll, however, with her challenges all wilting in some fashion toward the finish. Westenra was nine minutes adrift, while Ussher came in almost 25min later in 13hrs 54min 19secs and Pawsey almost another 20min further.