October 12 & 13, 2013 – Palomar Mountain & San Diego, California
The 4th Annual ElliptiGO World Championships of Elliptical Cycling returned to Palomar Mountain in 2013, once again attracting an elite field of athletes determined to test themselves on the steep 11.69-mile course. Last year’s winner, elite masters runner Rusty Snow from Santa Barbara, California, successfully defended his title, clocking 1:11:53 to become the event’s first repeat world champion. In the women’s race, it was newcomer Sara Slattery who would ride to the win and a new women’s record time of 1:32:40. A professional 5,000 and 10,000-meter track athlete, she edged out Betsy Graney, the 2012 NCAA Division II Female Track & Field Athlete of the Year, while running legend and Olympian Mary Decker Slaney took third. In fact, both Slattery and Graney beat the previous women’s record time, with Slattery lowering the mark by more than 7 minutes.
The event drew more than 40 competitors from across the country as well as the UK. Unlike previous years when a small elite group would stay together to set a strong pace at the front of the pack, Snow jumped off the front of the group almost immediately and never let up during his ascent. Chasing Snow to the top was Jeremy Tolman, a sub-4 minute miler who would finish in second place at 1:20:27, and elite triathlete and author Matt Fitzgerald, who would finish third in 1:23:58.
Former NFL player, John Mistler, also qualified to ride in the World Championships this year and was excited to be a part of the event. He discovered the ElliptiGO through his friends Jeff and Jane LeGore, when he was looking for a way to exercise without aggravating an old knee injury. All three of them trained for the World Championships and qualified for entry with their 100-mile ride times.
As part of the weekend’s competition, many of these same competitors came out to race in a flat, 8-mile, Time Trial on Fiesta Island on Sunday morning. In this event, it was Tolman and Graney, both second-place finishers from the race up Palomar, whose speed finally lead them to victory.
We’d like to congratulate our champions as well as everyone who came out to conquer Palomar and test themselves on Fiesta Island. Each year the bar keeps going up, the caliber of athletes keeps increasing, and the winning time keeps dropping. We’re thrilled that this event has continued to grow and we’re excited to continue the development of this new sport. See you in 2014!
Below are the race results and a few photos. Thank you to Bill Pinnell for letting us use some of his photos from the day!
