The 2009 Life Time Fitness Triathlon kicked off in full gear on Saturday, July 11th as over 3,000 triathletes of all levels arrived on the starting line in Minneapolis, MN. Among those athletes were TYR-sponsored Andy Potts and Becky Lavelle, who each finished in the top three of the competitive professional field. The no wetsuit swim and no-drafting format race set the stage for Pott’s to prove his competitiveness against the internationally-represented field. In the swim portion, Australian Clayton Fettel and Potts finished 1-2, each wearing TYR’s new Tracer Sayonara. Jumping on the bike, Potts fell behind, having the sixth fastest split (57:45.9). In that time, Boulder, CO’s Matt Reed was able to claim the first place position heading into the run. Although pre-race predictions questioned Pott’s ability to out-run his competitors, he championed from behind to have the fastest split of the last leg of the race in 31:25.1. He would cross the finish second overall to Reed with a final time of 1:49:15.5. On the women’s side, Lavelle entered the race as the hometown favorite after having grown up in Minneapolis. Consistency throughout the entire race proved to be instrumental to Lavelle’s third place finish. She was third out of the water with a split of 19:28.7, as well as third on the bike (1:02.29.6). With the fastest T2 split in the pro female category, she persevered through the run to finish at 2:02:39.3. She was out-raced by Sarah Haskins and Julie Bibens. Both Potts and Lavelle will race next at the Life Time Fitness Triathlon in New York City scheduled for July 26th. Check back into TYR.com for a race recap on their performance, as well as all of TYR’s sponsored triathletes.