Elvery Top Ten in Argentina

New Zealand triathlete James Elvery has concluded his two race visit to South America with a ninth place finish in the La Paz ITU Pan American Cup race in Argentina on the weekend, following on from his fourth place in Chile a week ago.

In an exciting men’s finish, American Manuel Huerta won his first career Pan American Cup title with a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 56 seconds, barely edging out Costa Rican Leonardo Chacon by one second. It was Chacon’s second straight silver after taking silver last week in Chile. Juraci Moreira of Brazil who won the Pan American Cup last week finished on the podium again by taking the bronze.

Elvery had to contend with extremely hot conditions and the onset of a cold.

“I reckon these were the hottest conditions I've raced in and in an ironic twist, I woke up yesterday with a fresh cold just after I'd got over the last one, and felt terrible. I decided to just race steady and see what happened and hopefully pick up a few easy early season points.”

Elvery struggled in the swim but did manage to avoid the piranha and toothpick fish, although someone kindly caught a piranha earlier in the day and left it on display for all to see at the start line.

Elvery describes the rest of the race.

“I got out probably in the middle of the field and got into the 3rd bike pack. We soon caught the 2nd and were chasing the five leaders. I had worked pretty hard to merge the two groups and missed the moment when four guys jumped across to the leaders. Suddenly I was left with a pack of about ten chasing eight of the stronger riders in the race.

“Once again I decided against busting a gut and tried to save energy and sit on the back and hop to finish the race in one piece, maybe get a top ten if lucky. It was really hot and my drink bottle which had been frozen solid ten minutes before the swim start was hot when I got to my bike. 

"I led our pack off the bike and ran out in the lead probably about one minute down on the leaders. I dropped back quite a bit on the first lap of four and was struggling. On Lap two I started to feel okay and pulled a few back in. The last two laps I was going well but wasn’t in a position to do any damage as the front runners were now too far ahead.”

Elvery is on his way back to New Zealand via London, arriving home on Friday afternoon after an eventful but nonetheless successful sojourn to begin the new season.

Final Elite men’s results:
1 – Manuel Huerta (USA) 01:53:56
2 – Leonardo Chacon (CRC) 01:53:57
3 – Juraci Moreira (BRA) 01:54:14
4 – Francisco Serrano (MEX) 01:54:52
5 – Hiroki Sugimoto (JPN) 01:55:00
6 – Danilo Pimentel (BRA) 01:55:19
7 – Luciano Farias (ARG) 01:55:24
8 – Arturo Garza (MEX) 01:55:56
9 – James Elvery (NZL) 01:56:15
10 – Velmar Bianco (ARG) 01:56:43