Posted: May 14, 2005

Triathlon: Bastos Starts Season With Second At Lake Chatuge Middle-Distance Tri

HIAWASSEE, Ga. (May 14, 2005) Professional triathlete Felipe Bastos (Breathe-O-Prene/Energice), 24, last Tuesday made a quick decision to race today’s Lake Chatuge Challenge half-iron distance triathlon (1.8 km S/90 km B/21.1 km R), and “it was the prettiest race I have done in my career,” he said after a grueling 4:28.39 second-place finish.

The picturesque, early-morning swim was flat, looped around an island, and landed Bastos first on the beach. The challenge started quickly thereafter. He lost both of his water bottles over access-road speed bumps early on, and was only able to recover one of them. And then came the Smoky Mountains.

“The bike was like the Pyrenees,” said the flatland, Gainesville, Florida, resident. “It was just relentless climb after climb for two laps.” He led for about the first 30 kilometers until the eventual winner, a former pro, caught him, and the two rode in contact for the next 15 to 20 kilometers. Bastos got dropped on a tough climb and fell back about two minutes and 30 seconds by the second transition.

He caught the leader halfway on the equally hilly, two-loop run. “It was up and down and up and down, and the other guy stayed behind about 30 seconds. We were running under 4 minutes per ‘k’ for the first lap. When he caught me with about three ‘k’ left to go, we ran together for a short period at a very fast pace, probably around 3:30 per kilometer. My heart rate was at 192 and I was going as fast as I could,” Bastos described. “The pace changed completely, and I totally ran out of gas. I jogged to the finish about a minute-fifty behind.” After not racing in six months, he was challenged but also awakened by the race, and said it will send him home with a benchmark of his fitness levels.

Bastos, a Brazilian native and Gainesville, Fla., resident, finished the 2004 season with a half-iron-distance personal best, winning Florida’s MiamiMan triathlon with a world-class 4:09.17, and looks to best that at marquee races in 2005 as well as enter the ultra-distance scene.

For more information on Felipe Bastos, visit www.Felipe-Bastos.com and his sponsors, Breath-O-Prene (www.accumedtech.com), Energice (www.energice.com), Elite Performance (www.eliteperformance1.com), RudyProject (www.rudyprojectusa.com), Paketa Magnesium Bikes (www.paketa.com), Rotors (www.rotorcranksusa.com), Continental (www.bikemine.com), Fizik (www.fizik.com), Zensah (www.zensah.com), Zipp (www.Zipp.com), Cycling Innovations (www.cyclinginnovations.com), Training Peaks (www.trainingpeaks.com), and Iron Guides (www.IronGuides.net).

For more information on the Lake Chatuge Challenge, visit www.gsmtc.com.