Olympic Triathlete joins Saab Salomon - for the weekend!
Ali B was in the house
Its not often you get a load of world class mountain runners, in the wilds of winter, in the mountains of the Lake District, being joined by world-class triathlete. But then again Alistair Brownlee isn’t your everyday athlete. When Saab Salomon Outdoor Team manager Tim Lloyd spoke to me about their launch weekend he mentioned in passing that they were joined by the Leeds University man.
I thought, “hang on! The Alistair Brownlee?”, the Olympian, the top finisher at the Beijing Games, the guy who was leading until the last 3k of the run, one of the big hopes for gold at the 2012 Games? “He is keen as mustard”, said Lloyd “it was great to have him along, he is a great mountain athlete and a good friend with the Saab Salomon crew”.
Brownlee can turn his hand to almost anything...
At just 20 years old the Sports Science student has amazing versatility. He runs cross country for Bingley, finishing a very creditable 10th at the recent Northern Cross Country Champs, rides time trials and of course excels on the world stage at triathlon. This diverse approach in the winter will give Alistair great endurance for those 10k dashes in the summer and at 20 he will be improving his strength base no end with weekend forays such as this one with the SSO team.
L-R: Nick Swinburn, Alistair and Jebby
So, with top GB XCers Steve Vernon and Laura Park also focusing on mountain racing during the summer months, how long before Brownlee has a proper crack at a GP race or the World Mountain Running champs even?
