Jarrod Shoemaker Places 12th at Madrid ITU Triathlon

In the men’s ITU Triathlon World Championship Series race in Madrid, Spain, American Jarrod Shoemaker had the second fastest run split of the day at 30:49 o propel himself from 27th place after the bike to a sprint finish with Australian James Seear for 12th place overall in a very deep men’s field. First place finisher Alistair Brownlee’s blistering 30:31 10 km that blew apart the group of ten that came into T2 off the bike together.

Alistair Brownlee across the finish line first at Madrid ITU Triathlon World Championship

Australia’s Courtney Atkinson and defending champion Javier Gomez and were able to match Brownlee’s relentless run tempo for the first of four laps, but fell off the pace over the final 5 km to claim the second and third podium positions. The mens field featured a deep pool of talent including 2008 ITU Triathlon World Champion Tim Dom from Great Britian, Jan Frodeno, the 2008 Olympic Gold medalist and last year’s returning Madrid ITU Triathlon champion and home country favorite, Javier Gomez.

FInish line at Madrid ITU Triathlon Men's Race - May 31st, 2009

The course featured a 2 lap swim course with two tight turns, an eight loop bike course with a challenging climb and a 4 lap run through Madrid’s Caso de Campo Park with temperatures that pushed 30 degrees Celsius or 86 F for those of us that missed that day in high school science class.

Fellow American teammates Mark Fritta and Joe Umphenour had a tougher day, with Fritta dropping out after 4 laps on the bike due to mechanical issues and Umphenour missing out on the break group on the swim and  being unable to rejoin the main group on the bike despite working hard on the front of the second chase group.