Rachel Zilinskas masters Mont-Tremblant for first pro win
After a year of injury, former national team swimmer bounces back with first pro win
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
After taking third at Ironman Mont-Tremblant last year, American Rachel Zilinskas made the most out of her (and everyone else’s, for that matter) final chance to compete over the full-distance at the beautiful Quebec resort in the Laurentians, taking her first pro win.
Zilinskas managed to outrun the ageless Meredith Kessler, 45, who held on to the lead until just over the halfway point, then hung on to take second ahead of France’s Manon Genet. Australian pre-race favourite Sarah Crowley struggled through the last part of the bike and the marathon, just as she did in Cairns in June, and would have to settle with a fifth-place finish.
Zilinskas leads the swim
As a former national team swimmer, it hardly comes as a surprise that Zilinskas would hit T1 in the lead, finishing the 3.8 km swim in mirror-flat Lac Tremblant in 51 minutes. Behind her Kessler and Crowley were just under two minutes back, with Genet hitting T2 almost four minutes down.
Once on the bike it was pre-race favourite Sarah Crowley who appeared to be taking charge of the race, seemingly back in form after struggling to get to the finish line in Cairns as she recovered from a pair of broken ribs. Crowley was 2:26 up on Kessler and Zilinskas through 90 km, but the wheels fell off for the Aussie about halfway through the second lap, and through 155 km it was Griesbauer who had charged to the front with Kessler and Zilinskas close behind.
Griesbauer would lead into T2, but Kessler had the faster transition and was out on to the run course with the lead. Griesbauer would start the run in second, but would eventually drop out.
That left Zilinskas to be the woman chasing Kessler for the win. This was her first race since Ironman Mont-Tremblant a year ago – after qualifying for Kona here in Quebec, Zilinskas found out the day before she was leaving for Kona that she had a stress fracture in her hip. Six months later she would suffer another fracture in the same hip, which meant that her race season started here in Mont-Tremblant.
After opening a lead of almost two minutes through 10 km, Kessler was only 46 seconds up on Zilinskas, with Crowley running in third just over seven minutes down. It wasn’t long before Zilinskas had made the pass and was on her way to her first pro win (she turned pro at the end of 2021). A 3:09:40 marathon was enough to take the day in 9:12:06, with Kessler finishing second 8:45 later. Genet would round out the podium in 8:23:59. Jess Smith (USA) managed to run past Crowley to net fourth in 9:29:45, with Crowley crossing in 9:34:33.
