For the second year in a row, Mazatlan, the Mexican resort on the west coast, will host the second stop of the ITU Triathlon World Cup. The start list is filled with the whos who of the sport, including strong teams from Germany, USA, Great Britain, Spain and Canada. In all 21 countries will be represented on the start line.

Spain, one of the powerhouse nations in the sport is well represented with Pilar Hidalgo, Ana Burgos and Ainhoa Murua on the womens side and Ivan Rana, Jose Merchan, and Javier Gomez for the men. Germany too will be tough to beat with their young mens team of Maik Petzold, Jan Frodeno, Sebastian Dehmer and Steffen Justus. Joelle Franzmann is the solo German woman, but is ready to end her long string of 4th place finishes.

Canada is here with their Olympic Champion, Simon Whitfield, leading the men, and Samantha McGlone and Jill Savege challenging for the podium amongst the women. Multiple World Cup winner, Vanessa Fernandes, from Portugal, one of the youngest athletes on the circuit, is another threat for the podium, given her strong ability to run in the heat.
Switzerlands Olympic Bronze medalist Megali Di Marco is also back for another year of World Cup racing, as are the 2 champions from Ukraine; Andriy Glushchenko and Volodymyr Polikarpenko.

Great Britains has fielded a solid team with Tim Don, the winner of the Honolulu World Cup earlier this year, Marc Jenkins and Richard Stannard for the men and Anneliese Heard leading out for the women.
Hunter Kemper, who was 2nd at the opening World Cup in Honolulu leads a strong mens team from the USA, along with Andy Potts and Seth Wealing, as Sheila Taormina, the reigning World Champion, Julie Swail and Joanna Zeiger lead the women.

The French men will predictably put together a strong swim-bike combination as Stefan Poulat will undoubtedly repeat his traditional breakaway on the bike, with Cedric Fleureton tagging along for the ride.
The home country favourites; Eligio Cervantes and Javier Rosas promise to drive the triathlon-crazy spectators into a frenzy, as they pass through the stadium 8 times on the bike and 4 times on the run.

For all of the athletes, the challenge will be getting through the big waves on the way out to the turn around of the 2 lap, 1500m swim, and then being lucky enough to find a wave to ride home to the beach.
Triathlon.org will be covering the event online with live results, photos, text updates and live audio featuring ITUs Voice of Triathlon, Barrie Shepley.

Live coverage begins with the start of the womens event at 7:30 a.m. local time and continues through to the end of the mens race, about 12:30 p.m.
For complete pre-race stories and start lists, please visit www.triathlon.org and for more media information email ituhdq@triathlon.org