After his excellent 3rd place performance at the Ironman North American Championships in Texas on 22nd April, Tyler Butterfield takes to the start line again this Sunday 14th May in Mexico at the Monterrey Ironman 70.3.

Looking at the professional field, Tyler should start the race as one of the favorites with Canada’s Brent McMahon, if he starts, as his likely biggest competition. However, McMahon finished 6th just this past weekend at Ironman 70.3 Utah in a very competitive field and may decide not to race back to back races.

Australia’s Leon Griffin, who was 6th behind Tyler at Texas, will be another one to watch along with Frenchman Sylvain Sudrie, the 2016 ITU Long Course Triathlon World Champion. Kevin Collington, who had an excellent 4th place finish at the 2016 North American 70.3 Championships in Utah, should also be in the mix.

With so many races on the world long distance triathlon calendar it is difficult to predict whether athletes entered will be on the start line but in recent years the trend has been for athletes to race a number of races early season to try and accumulate the points needed to be on the start line at the Ironman World Championships in Kona in October, thus allowing them to then better plan their lead up to Kona. It is therefore safe to assume that most of the pro field entries will be on the start line.

This is what Tyler had to say on Instagram today :

Travel day again. #backatit#im703monterrey Thanks @cervelocycles@skratchlabs Nikki for your @sciconbags Excel Sports in Boulder for last minute parts, bottles, etc. #ittakesavillage
Actually flying through Houston again on the way to Mexico 🇲🇽, I just flew back a couple of weeks ago from there. #imtx
This weekend could be rough, body still feeling IM Texas, but Nikki wanted to get me out of Boulder on moving day. 2 control freaks can clash 😂. Ok, 🛫✈️time.