See the news release from Ironman.com below:

Andrew Messick. Photo courtesy of the WTC.

Recent meetings between World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Messick, and International Triathlon Union (ITU) President, Marisol Casado, have opened the door to the possibility that the Ironman organization might “in future organize the ITU’s own long-distance world championships on its behalf,” according to a release distributed by the ITU today.

Discussions were also held about bringing the two organizations rules in line and working on joint projects to develop the sport in new countries. A further technical meeting to discuss the issues is slated to take place in the next month in San Diego, Calif.

The meetings mark a major turnaround in the relations between the two organizations – this was the first time Messick and Casado had met since Messick became WTC CEO six months ago. Referring to past confrontations between the ITU and WTC, Casado said that those issues were in “the past: when we sit together, we don’t see any problems to work together,” and described her meeting with Messick as “very pleasant.”

The two also downplayed any apparent conflict between the WTC’s 5150 series, announced last year, and the ITU’s World Triathlon Series (formerly the Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship series).

“We look forward to growing the relationship with ITU and working together to further the sport of triathlon,” Messick said after the meetings. “We’re determined to continue these discussions and come up with some joint strategies to improve our sport.”

To get some insight into who the Brownlees are and how they train, Inside Triathlon magazine editor-in-chief Courtney Baird traveled to England over the winter. The following is a sneak peek, in the form of a gallery, of what she found.

To read more about the Brownlees, pick up a copy of Inside Triathlon magazine today. It’s on newsstands now.

To subscribe to Inside Triathlon magazine, click here. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

By Courtney Baird

Photos by Dave Tyrrell and Delly Carr/triathlon.org

Matt Chrabot wins his second ITU world cup in Huatulco. Photo by triathlon.org and Rich Cruse.

In a spectacular comeback in the final two laps of the run, Chrabot reeled in South African Richard Murray to claim the title with a time of 2 hours and 37 seconds.  Murray hung on for silver while Portugal’s Bruno Pais returned to the podium with bronze, his first World Cup medal since 2006.

“Even before the race, the challenge was just staying cool so even after I finished swim warm-up I sat in the water as long as I could,” said Chrabot.

With soaring temperatures and intense heat, the men ran into the Santa Cruz bay for the 2-lap 1.5km swim.  Slovakia’s Richard Varga set the early pace, taking the swim prime and entering T1 first.

Early in the bike, 25 men came together to make up the lead group, which included Chrabot, Brent McMahon(CAN), Ivan Rana (ESP), Joao Silva (POR), Manuel Huerta (USA) and Leonardo Chacon (CRC).

Chrabot was in a mini break and just as they were about to swallowed back in by the chase, he went down, unable to avoid a crash in front of him.

“I had to stop to fix my brake pads but I managed to get back in the game,” said Chrabot.

At the end of the tough 40km bike in which they had to climb the big hill eight times, Austrian Franz Hofer was the first into T2 with Italy’s Alessandro Fabian about four seconds behind him. Hofer’s lead was short-lived though as Murray went out hard and rocketed to the front on the first lap.  He took a 14-second lead over Ivan Rana.

As Rana faded back and by the midway point of the run, Murray was leading by 30 seconds and looked like he might become just the second African triathlete to win a World Cup title.  But Chrabot was bearing down on him and gunning for his second World Cup title.

In the third of four laps, the American had cut Murray’s lead in half.  And on the final lap, Chrabot reeled him in and ran away for his second victory in Huatulco and third straight trip to the podium.

Race recap provided by the ITU. Click here for a full race recap.

Click here for a recap of the women’s race.

The biggest stars of ITU Triathlon have a message and now they are ready to share it, after the official launch of WADA’s Say NO! To Doping campaign video in London.

A year out from the London 2012 Olympic Games, the new campaign is an initiative of WADA for athletes to show their support for Anti-Doping.

The initiative was first launched in partnership with the International Ice Hockey Federation and saw players complete the warm up with green pucks.

The ITU has picked lunchboxes, shoelaces and swim caps to carry the message in triathlon. The lunchboxes were first launched in Sydney, where some of the world’s greatest triathletes gathered together to create the campaign video, and in London last weekend a host of athletes used the swim caps and shoelaces in their warm-up for the 2012 Olympic preview races.

The video features athletes from eight different countries, Alistair Brownlee, Helen Jenkins, Javier Gomez, Mariko Adachi, Laurent Vidal, Jessica Harrison, Kris Gemmell, Emma Moffatt, Paula Findlay, Andrea Hewitt, Henrik de Villiers and Bevan Docherty pledging their support, across five different languages English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Afrikaans, to Say No! to Doping.

And as well as pledging their support, the world’s best also had more of a message to share. Alistair Brownlee, who went on to win in stunning style in London, said health and fairness were paramount to him in triathlon.

“I think sport to me is all about number one, being healthy and then playing fairly and racing on a fair playing field. I think the health thing is probably the biggest thing actually, I do sport every day because I like to be healthy, I enjoy the health, it’s just the worry of taking drugs for myself and everyone else’s health, that is a big big thing,” Brownlee said. “And then of course playing fairly as well is important, you want to be racing people you feel are on the same playing field as you and that’s what is important.”

Read more: Triathlon.org

British brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, two of the world’s top triathletes, can take a big step closer to the Olympics at this Sunday’s Hyde Park Triathlon in London.

Finishing on the podium will be enough for either of them to meet British Triathlon’s selection criteria for the Games.

Alistair, 23, won the world title in 2009 and is widely tipped to win gold over the same Hyde Park course at London 2012. But Jonny, 21, is hot on his heels and rapidly improving.

The pair recently finished first and second at the European Championships, held in the Spanish home town of their closest rival, reigning world champion Javier Gomez.

Here, the brothers reveal all about life competing alongside each other – with some help from Gomez.

Introduce each other…

Jonny: This is Alistair Brownlee, the current European champion, the grand final winner in Budapest in 2010, and the European champion in 2010 as well. And he’s most famous for being Jonathan Brownlee’s brother. (Not really).

Alistair: And this is Jonathan Brownlee, current European [awkward pause] second-placer. Previous European junior champion and U23 World champion, and up-and-coming Olympic hopeful. He’s also my brother and he does a bit of history studying every so often. Outside of that, he’s a semi-professional triathlete and a semi-professional Football Manager player.

Read more: BBC Sport

It’s really starting to get down to the business end of the 2011 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series and what better way to kick that off than one of the biggest events of the entire year, London.

Not only is this weekend’s round crucial in determining who will be the 2011 ITU World Champions, it’s the first and last time athletes will be able to race the exact London 2012 course before next year’s Olympic Games and a bevy of National Federations have set it as a major—in some cases automatic—qualifier. Also, the top three finishers from the women’s and men’s races will secure their countries automatic Olympic spots. With all that at stake, it’s not surprising the London fields are loaded with talent. What’s more, all that talent will be aiming to peak at exactly the same time. What does that all mean? Get set for fast, furious and thrilling racing this weekend on the Olympic course.

London has been on the Dextro Energy Triathlon Series calendar since the series began in 2009, but this year’s course is new. It starts with a one-lap swim in The Serpentine in Hype Park, the bike leg circles past Constitution Hill and Buckingham Palace, before the 10km run that finishes back in Hyde Park. It’s been designed with plenty of viewing points for fans and the athletes will pass back through transition over ten times during the race.

Visit ITU.org for complete previews for the men’s and women’s races.

Photo: Delly Carr/Triathlon.org

Paula Findlay will travel to London this week to defend her title in the World Championship Series triathlon on Saturday, but there’s a chance a lingering hip injury will keep her out of the race.

Patrick Kelly, the Edmonton athlete’s coach, said Monday the right hip injury that forced the 22-year-old Findlay to withdraw from a World Cup race in Edmonton on July 10 is not yet 100-per-cent recovered.

“There has been some improvement,” Kelly said in a telephone interview from the French ski resort of Les Angles in the Pyrenees. “It’s a tender area that can be slow to recover, but it is showing good improvement.

“It is not clear yet if she will be able to go in and be competitive on race day.”

Findlay first injured the hip during a training run in Victoria on June 30. A small tear in her right rectus femoris muscle, which is involved in hip flexion, was diagnosed about a week later, days before the Edmonton race.

Read more: Edmonton Journal

RELATED – 2012 London Olympic Medal Contenders: The Women

The ITU’s international triathlon circuit, which includes the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series, World Cups and Continental Championships, is also the battleground for Olympic qualification. The two-year period, from June 2010 until May 2012, is an intensive journey for athletes, who compete for themselves but also for their respective countries to secure berths for London 2012.

National Federations are striving for the maximum quota of six (three men and three women), while some emerging countries are making a desperate effort to secure at least one spot. Athletes, through the ITU’s events, shoulder the burden to earn precious Olympic qualification points to gain berths for their country, although even if they secure a spot for their nation, it doesn’t mean they’ll get to go themselves. The majority of Olympic slots are decided through the ITU Olympic qualification points list, and final slot allocation won’t be determined until May 2012.

National Federations can also gain spots if one of their athletes wins a continental championship, through a special qualification event in London in August, and through New Flag slots – in which the ITU awards berths to one country per continent, that would otherwise not have a slot.

The Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Hamburg last week had some impact on the current simulation table, a list showing the tentative number of spots each country has provisionally earned at this point.

Read more: International Triathlon Union

Brad Kahlefeldt wins Hamburg. Photo by Delly Carr and triathlon.org.

“I thought I’d just go for it in that last K and see what happens,” Kahlefeldt told an ITU reporter. “…I’m very happy.”

But perhaps the biggest breakthrough of the day went to Clarke, who is attempting to make Great Britain’s Olympic team, probably the most difficult team to qualify for in the world. His finish put him second in the overall series rankings, ahead of both Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee.

“I’m absolutely over the moon. I don’t know what to say. I’ve been dreaming about this for so long,” Clarke told an ITU reporter.

Australia’s Chris McCormack, who had a 15-second penalty and did a load of work on the bike, finished in a respectable 26th, greatly bettering his DNF in Kitzbühel, where he couldn’t keep up with the swim pack and started the bike in nearly last place.

RELATED: Chris McCormack Talks Kitzbühel

The day started off with Richard Varga of Slovakia swimming a blistering 16:50 1.5K, with reigning world champion Javier Gomez of Spain 13 seconds behind him and reigning Olympic champion Jan Frodeno 13 seconds off Gomez, leading the main pack of swimmers.

With Varga out front, Gomez, Frodeno and two other athletes attempted a breakaway. But they were quickly joined by a group of about 15.

McCormack, who had a good swim for him, led the chase pack early on in the race. It was about 30 seconds down on the group Gomez was riding with.

McCormack’s efforts helped the chase pack catch the lead group about a third of the way into the bike.

PHOTOS: Chris “Macca” McCormack

With only a few kilometers left in the bike leg, Frodeno had a mechanical issue with his bike. Although he started the run about 2 minutes down on the lead pack, he decided to run the 10K anyway, rousing the crowd with every lap.

With about 5K to go, Gomez, Kahlefeldt, Joao Silva of Portugal, Clarke, Hauss and Sebastian Rank of Germany separated themselves from the rest of the group.

Gomez, who typically surges at this point of the race and puts in a blistering few kilometers, never made a move, and with about a K to go Kahlefeldt, Hauss and Clarke surged, and Gomez, Silva and Rank couldn’t answer.

Hamburg was a day of breakthroughs, including for Great Britain's Will Clarke, who is leading here. Photo by Delly Carr and triathlon.org.

The Australian, Frenchman and Brit ran with each other until about 300 meters to go, when Kahlefeldt started his sprint and separated himself from the Clarke and Hauss.

Gomez, who finished sixth, took over the World Championship Series lead, but he was disappointed with his overall result.

“I’m not really happy, but I’ll just think of the next one,” Gomez told an ITU reporter, also remarking he felt bad on the run and couldn’t find his second gear.

American Jarrod Shoemaker finished a disappointing 47th.

Finish

1.         BRAD KAHLEFELDT  AUS     01:44:08

2.         WILLIAM CLARKE     GBR     +00:01

3.         DAVID HAUSS            FRA     +00:01

4.         SEBASTIAN RANK     GER     +00:04

5.         JOAO SILVA    POR     +00:08

6.         JAVIER GOMEZ          ESP     +00:11

7.         TIM DON        GBR     +00:25

8.         RETO HUG      SUI      +00:27

9.         JONATHAN ZIPF        GER     +00:36

10.       SVEN RIEDERER        SUI      +00:48

26.       CHRIS MCCORMACK AUS     +02:05

47.       JARROD SHOEMAKER           USA     +05:24

Overall series leaders

1.          Javier  Gomez             ESP                 2027

2.          William Clarke           GBR                 1935

3.          David Hauss               FRA                 1907

4.          Sven Riederer            SUI                  1857

5.          Alexander Brukhankov        RUS                 1819

6.          Dmitry Polyansky      RUS                 1814

7.          Alistair Brownlee       GBR                 1690

8.          Jonathan Brownlee   GBR                 1480

9.          Brad Kahlefeldt         AUS                 1386

10.       Joao Silva        POR     1155

Leading stars Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffatt are hoping training together will prove a hit going into this weekend’s next leg of the triathlon world championship series in Hamburg.

The Australian pair spent 10 days working alongside each other following the last round of the series in Kitzbuhel, Austria last month.

Australia’s head coach Shaun Stephens said Olympic champion Snowsill had particularly benefitted from the link-up with Moffatt.

“Snowy has continued to train well at her training base in Germany,” Stephens said.

“Post Kitzbuhel, I took Emma Moffatt to train with her for 10 days and both girls benefited both physically and mentally from training together.

“I am convinced Snowy is in excellent condition and it won’t be long before we see her at her best again.”

Moffatt, who finished fourth in Kitzbuhel, goes into Sunday’s race sixth on the overall standings and in need of results to close the gap on current leader Paula Findlay from Canada.

Stephens said the reigning women’s world champion is poised to regain her dominant form from last year.

“Moffy has trained extremely well and is showing good form in both training and racing,” he said.

“Her fourth place in Kitzbuhel was a positive sign that she was in great condition four weeks ago and will definitely be looking to improve upon that in Hamburg this weekend after a very good training block.”

The Hamburg race is the first in the Australian Olympic triathlon team selection process ahead of next year’s Games in London.

Read more: ninemsm

The ITU World Cup circuit returns to Edmonton for the first time in four years, a perfect time to see home grown star Paula Findlay in the best form of her career.

The last time there was a World Cup event in Edmonton, in 2007, Findlay did race and did win, it was in the junior division of the PATCO Pan American championships. This time, she’ll return as the new darling of triathlon and current leader in the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series.

Expect crowds to be tightly packed around the course as everyone hopes to catch a glimpse of the ITU’s newest star on course, almost exactly ten years after the event that first put Edmonton on the triathlon map, the 2001 ITU World Championships. Edmonton hosted World Cup events from then up until 2007, with triathlon royalty Simon Whitfield, Bevan Docherty, Emma Moffatt, Loretta Harrop, Emma Snowsill, Hamish Carter, Andy Potts and Siri Lindley topping the podium. It’s also the site of one of the quirkiest ITU World Cup history facts, in more than 20 years of World Cup racing, only one event has ever had to be cancelled – that was the Edmonton men’s race in 2004 when a wintery blast hit the city. The event is the fourth World Cup event of 2011, and the only stop in Canada.

Click here for a complete preview of the women’s and men’s races as well as start lists.

Her slight frame and unassuming demeanor hide a fierce desire and ambition to compete and win.

And that’s exactly what Paula Findlay, the top-ranked women’s triathlete in the world, has done in taking all three events so far this season in the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship Series after winning two last year.

There is no Canadian female athlete setting a more torrid pace internationally this spring and summer in any sport than this 22 year-old from Edmonton who lives and trains in Victoria.

And now comes the inevitable question: Can she keep it going through to the 2012 London Summer Olympics?

“[London a year out] is adding to the intensity and this season is a bit crazier and more hectic with all the added media attention I’ve been receiving,” said Findlay, who broke camp in Victoria on Tuesday and headed to Edmonton for a hometown ITU World Cup race on Sunday.

“It’s surprised me a bit. But it’s about finding balance,” added Findlay, about the sudden demands on her time.

Not that being world No. 1 doesn’t have its compensations.

Read more: Times Colonist

Macca won Challenge Cairns, an iron-distance event, just two weeks before making the start in Kitzbühel. Photo: Lucas Wroe

Less than two weeks after winning Challenge Cairns, his result in Kitzbühel was less than auspicious. McCormack, who was the 1997 short-course ITU world champion and who was unfairly left off of Australia’s 2000 Sydney Olympics team, had trouble swimming with the pack and was in nearly last place as he started the bike. He dropped out midway through the bike and Tweeted, “Joined @simonwhitfield on the side of the road here in Kitzbuhel. Empty tank for me today 13 days after Ironman. Kids r fast. I had nothing.”

Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee won the race in a display of sheer domination, leading nearly wire to wire.

In the following interview with Inside Triathlon editor-in-chief Courtney Baird, McCormack talks about his experience on Saturday and what to expect from him as the year progresses. He is currently training with the Australian national team in Aix-les-Bains, France, as he prepares for the Dextro Energy World Championship Series race in Hamburg, Germany, on July 16.

Inside Triathlon: Can you take us through what happened in Kitzbühel?

McCormack: Well, I was very very very flat. I was disappointed, to be honest. I wish I didn’t start there but the federation [Triathlon Australia] had asked me to. I was apprehensive going in. I didn’t do too much and I felt OK in training. I thought, “Well, who knows. Maybe this will work out all right.” In the warm-up I dived in the water with Alistair—I had been chatting to him in the week leading up. I went, “Uh oh. I’m in trouble now.” But 20 minutes from the start of the race, you just go and have a go. It was difficult, I must admit. Pre-race, it’s been 10 years and a lot has changed, you know. Coming back, it’s a different scene. I think it’s a lot more intense. People don’t seem to be as friendly within countries. But it was exciting. I felt like a kid at Christmas. Everyone was so open and friendly [to me]. I felt the guys—there weren’t as many from my old brigade, a lot of them are coaches now—but guys like Maik Petzold and Steffen Justus, they were like, “Welcome back.” I felt really welcomed, which was nice. … The level [of competition now] is incredible. Alistair Brownlee is an amazing, amazing athlete. It was very nice. My race wasn’t where I wanted it to be. I was out of the game from the start. I didn’t anticipate to be so bad. [But] I’ll be back again. It was enjoyable—I had a ball.

Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain wins Kitzbühel in a display of sheer dominance. Photo by Delly Carr and triathlon.org.

Reigning Ironman world champion Chris McCormack, in his return to the ITU, dropped out midway in the bike. Another of the sport’s greatest, Olympic gold and silver medalist Simon Whitfield, also dropped out.

The men started the day off with a wetsuit swim, as it was cold and rainy in Austria, with Brownlee leading out of the water and McCormack more than a minute behind him. Visibly frustrated during transition, McCormack had some difficulty getting his helmet on. His swim forced him to ride a good part of the first bike lap solo. He was in nearly last place.

Halfway during the bike leg, McCormack was 3 minutes down on the lead pack of 50 men. He was riding with three other athletes and dropped out somewhere in the fourth lap.

He later Tweeted: “Joined @simonwhitfield on the side of the road here in Kitzbuhel. Empty tank for me today 13 days after Ironman. Kids r fast. I had nothing.”

McCormack won Challenge Cairns less that two weeks ago.

Brownlee, who was pushing the pace during nearly the entire bike leg, was instrumental in a small break on the fifth of the six bike laps. Stuart Hayes of Great Britain, last year’s winner, and Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil rode with him, and they entered T2 about 30 seconds ahead of the chase pack.

Brownlee, with mud splattered on his face, was the first out of transition and his blistering pace quickly transformed Hayes and Colucci into specks on the screen behind him.

Brownlee was nearly done with the first lap of the run when the group McCormack was riding with was coming into T2. They were 5:17 down on Brownlee, who likely would have lapped McCormack if McCormack had stayed in the race.

Chris McCormack of Australia dropped out of Kitzbühel, later Tweeting he had nothing in the tank after his Ironman. Photo by Delly Carr and triathlon.org.

“Wow?! How can you defeat this guy [Brownlee]?” the ITU’s announcer exclaimed as Brownlee began his second lap of the run. “He was first out of the water and drilling it on the bike.”

Brownlee led for the remainder of the race and gave a smile and thumbs up to the cameras as he rounded into the finish. Brownlee, who is racing the European Championships in Pontevedra, Spain, next weekend, visibly slowed down during the second 5K of his run. He later told an ITU reporter that this was intentional, as he didn’t want to run himself “into the ground” ahead of the European championships.

Russian Alexander Bryukhankov grabbed the silver today, and Switzerland’s Sven Riederer, who was the bronze medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympics, came in third.

Manny Huerta was the surprising top American on the day. He finished 24th. Greg Bennett was 25th and Matt Chrabot, who was fourth in Kitzbühel last year, finished a disappointing 37th.

Brownlee’s win, his second World Championship Series win of 2011, put him into first place in the series rankings.

Today’s results:

1.         ALISTAIR BROWNLEE           GBR     01:51:54

2.         ALEXANDER BRYUKHANKOV          RUS     +00:44

3.         SVEN RIEDERER        SUI      +01:05

4.         WILLIAM CLARKE     GBR     +01:14

5.         BRAD KAHLEFELDT  AUS     +01:16

6.         LAURENT VIDAL        FRA     +01:19

7.         VLADIMIR TURBAYEVSKIY  RUS     +01:23

8.         DMITRY POLYANSKY           RUS     +01:26

9.         VINCENT LUIS           FRA     +01:29

10.       BEVAN DOCHERTY   NZL     +01:32

Macca competed at Challenge Cairns just two weeks ago. Photo: Lucas Wroe

If you’re like us, you’re eager to catch Chris McCormack’s return to ITU racing in Kitzbühel, Austria, on Saturday. (If you’re more into M-Dot races than ITU, it’s time to start watching!)

Even though Macca’s fresh off an iron-distance win at Challenge Cairns, we know he’s been working on his speed and we’re excited to see him put up a good fight. Read all about the rest of the field at the Dextro Energy World Championship Series in Kitzbühel here.

You’ve got a few options for watching the race.

1. To watch live, head over to triathlonlive.tv at 8:30 a.m. EST on Saturday, June 18. (The women’s race is the following day.)

2. If you’re a late sleeper, live on the west coast or plan to be out cycling at that hour, buy a $1.99 single pass to watch the video stream about an hour after the live broadcast.

3. For a $19.99 Season Pass, you’ll get access to streaming video of all the ITU World Championship Series events.

• 17 live races with 20-camera coverage, live GPS graphics

• 17 archived replays to watch whenever

• 14 “magazine shows” with interviews and behind-the-scenes features

4. Catch the highlights on Monday’s TriCenter show, available right here at Triathlete.com.

5. Wait for reruns on Universal Sports, typically aired around two weeks after the race.

Men

As we’ve all heard by now, Kitzbühel will serve as reigning Ironman world champion Chris McCormack’s return to the ITU. The 1997 ITU short-course world champion announced earlier this year that he would forgo defending his title in Kona to attempt to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics for Australia.

McCormack, who won iron-distance race Challenge Cairns less than two weeks ago, has made it clear that he’s under no illusions that he will contend for the title this weekend.

“It’s quite interesting to be going into a race with a different mindset. Most of the time, I think, ‘I want to kill these guys. I want to win.’ But now I just need to beat as many guys as I possibly can,” McCormack told Inside Triathlon back in April.

In Kitzbühel last year, American Matt Chrabot finished fourth, the best finish for an American on the ITU circuit in all of 2010. Photo by Janos Schmidt and triathlon.org.

Kitzbühel is known to be one of the more cyclist-friendly races on the ITU circuit, and last year Great Britain’s Stuart Hayes won the race by making a break on the bike with three other athletes, including Americans Matt Chrabot and Greg Bennett, who are both racing this weekend. It was the first World Championship Series win in Hayes’ career, and Chrabot’s fourth-place showing was the best for an American in 2010.

Hayes and other strong cyclists, including Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee, will likely look to duplicate last year’s winning strategy.

Brownlee, who won the most recent World Championship Series event, in Madrid, will look to recapture his Kitzbühel title. Last year, Brownlee came in 40th in Kitzbühel after winning it in 2009, as he was still recovering from an illness that famously made him collapse at the ITU’s 2010 London race.

Other racers to look out for include Australians Courtney Atkinson and Brad Kahlefeldt, Brits Tim Don and Will Clarke, New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty, Canada’s Simon Whitfield, Switzerland’s Sven Riederer, and France’s David Hauss, all of whom are among the many podium contenders this weekend.

Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee will look to recapture his Kitzbühel title, which he won in 2009. Photo by triathlon.org and Delly Carr.

Noticeably absent from the men’s field is Javier Gomez—the defending short-course world champion and current world No. 1 is preparing for the European Championships, to be held in his hometown of Pontevedra, Spain, on June 25—and current world No. 2, Great Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee, who has earned the silver at both World Championship Series events this year.

Defending Olympic champion Jan Frodeno of Germany and breakout Australian star Brendan Sexton will also skip Kitzbühel this year.

Women

So far, the 2011 women’s World Championship Series has been the Paula Findlay show.

This weekend, Findlay, who is from Canada, will look to defend her title in Kitzbühel as well as break 2010 short-course world champion Emma Moffatt’s record for most World Championship Series wins.

Right now, Findlay is tied with Australia’s Moffatt with four. But unlike Moffatt, it has only taken Findlay five tries to get her four wins.

This year's World Championship Series has been the Paula Findlay show. Photo by triathlon.org and Delly Carr.

Despite Findlay’s recent success, she remains surprised after every victory.

“I still feel like an underdog every time I come into these races, and I am still star struck by seeing the Emmas [Emma Moffatt and Emma Snowsill] and everyone, so it’s just amazing to be winning. I’m very happy,” Findlay told the ITU after her victory in Madrid.

There will be a strong contingent of American women in Kitzbühel this weekend.

Sarah Haskins, a 2008 silver medalist at the short-course world championships, will make her 2011 World Championship Series debut in Kitzbühel. Haskins won the first World Cup of her career earlier this year in Monterrey, Mexico, and is coming off of wins at St. Anthony’s Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Capitol of Texas Triathlon in Austin, Texas.

Americans Laura Bennett and Sarah Groff will look to better their top 10 finishes in Madrid two weeks ago, when Groff came in seventh and Bennett came in eighth. And Jillian Petersen will look to better her 39th-place showing.

Other athletes who are among the many podium contenders include 2008 short-course world champion Helen Jenkins of Great Britain, Chile’s Barbara Riveros Diaz, 2011 Escape from Alcatraz winner Nicky Samuels of New Zealand, and former world No. 1 Felicity Abram of Australia.

Reigning Olympic champion Emma Snowsill of Australia, who has struggled this season with a 42nd-place showing in Sydney and a 21st-place in Madrid, will skip Kitzbühel this year.

Think draft-legal racing is easy? Get out there and give it a try. Photo: Paul Phillips

I watched every second of the men’s 2008 Olympic Triathlon from Beijing, glued to the streaming and soundless broadcast and captivated by the redline drama right from the gun. The swim was 18 frenzied minutes to make the compulsory first pack, the hilly bike commanded a complete portfolio of fitness and cycling skills in order to arrive at T2 among the leaders, and the 30-minute war of attrition over the 10K run course had a breathtaking sprint finish you rarely see in triathlon.

In the days after, however, I was surprised and disappointed to hear from a few of our sport’s purists that they felt this style of racing wasn’t really a true test of the triathletes’ swimming, biking, and running abilities. “Anyone could just hide in that massive peloton and rest up for the run,” you’d hear often, as if any age-grouper could actually hang on at 35 mph even with a draft, corner at those speeds without hitting the hay bails, or have a prayer of keeping the pack in sight every time the road tilted up for the 1K grueling climb followed by a challenging descent. The naysayers would have you believe that a 112-mile solo time trial is the essence of the sport of cycling. (Strange, since the draft-legal version looks a whole lot more like that race in France we triathletes are rather captivated by each July, and just about every average American would identify as cycling.)

I am not suggesting that we all start draft-legal racing every weekend, although Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker gave us “mortals” a chance with his exciting new Draft Legal Challenge this year. Rather, I think we can all learn from the demands of this sibling discipline of our customary brand of triathlon as we look for new ways to get fitter and faster on the bike while also having more fun along the way.

Embrace riding in more than just a straight line in order to develop and hone new skills and exhilarating sensations this season. Join a group ride that includes some open-minded roadies, and you’ll begin to improve your bike handling and safety skills such as emergency braking, avoiding potholes, drinking and eating with one hand and dressing properly for assorted conditions. Plus, you’ll gain an appreciation for the nuances, abilities and maintenance requirements of your bike. Enter a local bike time trial or hill climb and reach a new level of exertion and speed, as you hold nothing back without a run to follow. Learn effective pacing strategies, ideal cadence management, when to stand and when to sit and spin, and how to remain as aero as possible while delivering maximum power to the pedals. Take a mountain bike clinic and find an incredible new world of two-wheeled fun with a bunch of transferable skills and fitness gains that will come in quite handy as you continue to improve as a triathlete, on road or off.

Don’t neglect the value of a good ol’ lactate threshold interval workout, or the occasional character- and endurance-building solo century, but go ahead and freshen things up a bit this season by adding a little spice, courtesy of our bike racing (and ITU) brothers and sisters.

Last week in Alcatraz, this week Kitzbuhel in Austria as New Zealand triathlete Nicky Samuels continues her season, one that she hopes will culminate in booking a berth at the London 2012 Olympic Games in August.

Such is the life of a globetrotting professional triathlete that Samuels is well prepared for the journey, you might almost say she is used to such a schedule after spending two weeks hard at work  in the United States.

“I only arrived in Santa Cruz two weeks ago and had a couple of easy days to get over the jetlag and get into the swing of things before I was joined with my coach Mark Elliott again. We are in Santa Cruz because that is Bevan Docherty’s training home for now and it seemed like an excellent opportunity for Mark to work with Bevan and I at the same time. We have linked our sessions well over the last two weeks with Mark working both of us hard as usual.”

The formula has obviously paid off for Samuels, not only is she training well but she smashed the field to win the famous ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ triathlon last weekend, this after already having collected her maiden ITU World Cup title in Mooloolaba in March.

Read more: Scoop

Completing a long-distance triathlon is demanding at the best of times, but almost impossible just a day after competing in the standard version.

However, Kiyomi Niwata of Japan not only managed to accomplish that feat at the age of 40, but also emerged victorious in both events at the China Town Cup ITU World Series Triathlon in Weihai, Shandong province, over the weekend.

Starting 14 years ago, Niwata has competed in more than 100 Olympic distance triathlons. But she has never tried the long-distance event, which doubles the standard one.

“It was too hard,” Niwata said. “I had no idea I could ride because this was the first time I’ve tried the long-distance event. And I didn’t take enough food on the bike so I felt hungry along the way.

“I am happy with my win. I took a big lead from the start, but lost a little speed and duration today,” said Niwata, who finished in 4:59:42, 20 minutes ahead of the runner-up, Kristin Lie of Norway.

Niwata said she decided to take part in both events out of budget concerns.

“I pay for the race, the accommodation and travel,” said Niwata, who won $5,625 for winning the two events.

“It’s not cheap to compete around the world. I have two sponsors but it is not enough to support me.”

Read more: China Daily