June 2019

Update July 2nd: Updated the marathon times (the originally posted times were a bit slow, in all likelihood they included T2). Also added descriptions on how the race developed for the main athletes.

Course Conditions

The heat made the conditions on Frankfurt very tough this year. It was a non-wetsuit swim, a slightly longer-than-normal bike (185k as the bike course had to be re-routed again) and then a very slow run. All-in-all this year’s race was 16 minutes slower than last year and about 25 minutes slower than the faster years in Frankfurt.

Kona Qualifying

The “Big Three” German athletes validated their Automatic Qualifier slots at their “home” Ironman. Jan Frodeno and Sebastian Kienle also finished at the front of the race, while Patrick Lange had a less than stellar day (flat and stomach issues) to finish in 11th place.

As a Regional Championship, Frankfurt was offering a total of 6 Kona slots. Because of the much larger men’s field, there were 4 slots for the men and 2 slots for the women. These slots were claimed by:

• Franz Löschke
• Tobias Drachler
• Philipp Koutny
• Matt Russell

and on the female side by

• Skye Moench
• Imogen Simmonds.

Male Race Results

As was pretty much expected before the race, Jan Frodeno stepped on the gas as soon as the gun went off. Only Dylan McNeice was able to follow him on the swim, both were able to build a gap of almost two minutes to the big first chase group. On the bike he continued to keep the pace up, even overcooking a turn when he was a bit too fast going in, a motorbike blocked his first way out so he had to bunny-hop a traffic island and had to go off-road for a short bit – creating a moment of excitement but luckily no lasting impact on the race. Towards the end of the bike Sebi was able to bridge up to him, but they started the run more than ten minutes clear of the rest of the field. Once again Jan proved to be the strongest runner in the field with a 2:43 marathon in the Frankfurt heat. He defended last year’s title in style and continues to be undefeated in any race he started since Kona 2017.

Second place went to Sebastian Kienle who also had a great race. His day started well when he was able to hold on to the first swim group – he just lost 2:10 to Frodo and was just 16 seconds behind Patrick. A similar swim in Kona would seriously change the race dynamics for him. But things didn’t proceed quite as smoothly for him: He stepped into a shard of glass that got stuck in his right heel. At the end of T1 he briefly stopped to try to remove it, but he was unsuccessful before starting the bike:

Once on the bike, the shard did not impact Sebi’s bike and he was able to quickly move through the group and put time into everyone else except Frodo. At the end of the first of two bike loops, he was still two minutes behind Frodo, but was four minutes ahead of the next chasers and six minutes ahead of the big group that included Patrick Lange and most of the athletes looking for a Kona slot. In the second bike loop his rear wheel lost some air but riding gingerly around the corners he was able to continue and even close the gap to Frodo when they got back to Frankfurt.

Sebi had alerted his time to the issue with his heel (word was “a cut in the heel” and he was bleeding quite a bit), so medical support was standing by when he and Frodo got into T2. He said that running through T2 was very painful and he wouldn’t have been able to run the marathon. But the medical team dug out the shard, shown on the live coverage in all the gory details. Once the shard was out and the cut closed with closure strips (basically sterile duck tape), he was able to run and the adrenaline kept him from feeling much on the marathon. (The day after was apparently a different story.) Before running out of T2, Frodo checked on him to make sure he’d be okay and started the run 30 seconds ahead of Sebi. Once Sebi started to find his rhythm on the run, he was able to close the gap and they were running side by side for a bit. But soon Frodo started to feel better and moved away from Sebi again after the half-marathon mark. Sebi was skeptical before the race because his Achilles issues kept him from running most of the winter, but he ran a pretty even 2:47 marathon and took second place.

Third place went to Franz Loeschke. He was riding with the big bike group and started the run in ninth place after taking a few extra seconds to stretch out his back with his black roll. The third best overall marathon was by far the fastest of “the rest of the field”, and he was able to enjoy the celebration on the Römerberg before claiming the final podium spot and a Kona slot.

Photo Credits: Ingo Kutsche; Sebi in T1 taken off the live stream

Kona champion Patrick Lange didn’t have a good day. He lost a good amount of time on the first loop of the bike, then had a flat at the start of the second loop that he had to fix right at the point where the most spectators (and photographers) were following the race. After that he wasn’t able to get back into the race, but he still finished to validate his Kona slot, apparently also struggling with stomach issues.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money
1	Jan Frodeno	GER	00:47:12	04:20:14	02:43:57	07:56:02	-21:55	US$ 30,000
2	Sebastian Kienle	GER	00:49:22	04:17:36	02:47:27	08:00:01	-18:32	US$ 15,000
3	Franz Loeschke	GER	00:49:06	04:35:19	02:48:15	08:17:24	-17:51	US$ 8,000
4	Tobias Drachler	GER	00:49:10	04:35:13	02:54:53	08:23:57	-33:48	US$ 6,500
5	Philipp Koutny	SUI	00:49:12	04:28:20	03:02:41	08:24:56	-24:16	US$ 5,000
6	Matthew Russell	USA	00:54:28	04:30:07	02:56:45	08:26:32	-15:05	US$ 3,500
7	Patrick Dirksmeier	GER	00:49:08	04:39:05	02:56:22	08:29:21	-10:13	US$ 2,500
8	Bas Diederen	NED	00:49:11	04:34:57	03:05:39	08:34:59	-14:34	US$ 2,000
9	Roman Deisenhofer	GER	00:53:17	04:34:21	03:10:26	08:43:22	-16:57	US$ 1,500
10	Marc Duelsen	GER	00:54:21	04:33:18	03:11:41	08:44:43	-00:25	US$ 1,000
11	Patrick Lange	GER	00:49:06	04:48:14	03:02:59	08:47:49	30:32
12	Sam Proctor	GBR	00:49:16	04:47:18	03:12:00	08:54:10	13:56
13	Benjamin Dicke	GER	01:01:45	04:44:54	03:09:04	09:01:30	n/a
14	Andrej Vistica	CRO	00:59:41	04:47:18	03:10:03	09:02:23	11:04
15	Dylan McNeice	NZL	00:47:12	04:36:51	03:34:10	09:03:13	05:02
16	Kristian Hindkjaer	DEN	00:49:22	04:35:40	03:32:26	09:03:42	-12:51
17	Christian Haupt	GER	00:57:09	04:53:02	03:09:02	09:04:44	11:27
18	Gregory Close	USA	00:59:43	04:52:45	03:17:52	09:16:54	09:52
19	Lucas Amirault	FRA	00:49:20	04:51:21	03:33:10	09:19:17	04:10
20	Sergio Bolado Noriega	ESP	01:00:14	05:08:34	03:21:49	09:37:15	n/a
21	Marcus Hultgren	SWE	00:59:51	04:55:09	03:36:31	09:37:39	-01:17
22	Nacho Villarruel	ESP	00:54:24	05:28:14	03:14:48	09:44:09	n/a
23	Patrick Feil	GER	01:01:02	05:10:27	03:43:05	09:59:47	n/a
24	Sebastian Guhr	GER	01:09:09	05:04:11	03:44:25	10:06:07	16:18
25	Peter Kotland	CZE	01:02:05	05:19:32	03:55:35	10:25:28	22:37
26	Lukas Polan	CZE	01:04:14	05:50:26	04:01:54	11:05:03	59:02
	Joe Skipper	GBR	00:54:29	04:24:28		DNF
	Antony Costes	FRA	00:49:15	04:34:22		DNF
	Christian Kramer	GER	00:49:07	04:35:07		DNF
	Paul Schuster	GER	00:49:07	04:35:18		DNF
	Daniel Besse	SUI	00:49:17	04:56:34		DNF
	Trevor Delsaut	FRA	00:54:27	04:56:55		DNF
	Jean-Claude Besse	SUI	00:54:18	05:09:07		DNF
	Victor Arroyo Bugallo	ESP	00:59:40	05:05:50		DNF
	Anthony Adam	FRA	01:00:00	05:17:45		DNF
	Philipp Mock	GER	00:59:45	05:18:28		DNF
	Steeve Brugiere	FRA	01:10:34	05:29:42		DNF
	David Hanko	HUN	00:49:03			DNF
	Per Van Vlerken	GER	00:52:16			DNF
	David Plese	SLO	00:54:22			DNF
	Jose Estrangeiro	POR	00:54:25			DNF
	Marek Nemcik	SVK	01:16:53			DNF

Female Race Results

The female race also saw the expected T1 leader when Sarah True had the best swim. But she still had two athletes right behind her: The Iron-rookies Imogen Simmonds and Amelia Watkinson were able to hold on to her feet. After T1 it was Imo who took the lead, quickly building a gap that was pretty stable for most of the bike. She received a lot of TV time and was enjoying to be in front even without knowing what to expect on the run.

In the last hour of the bike ride things were getting close: Daniela Bleymehl had moved into second place and was making up time to the front. However, Sarah True was able to ride with Dani when she was overtaken by her, and Skye Moench was also able to hold on to that little group. After posting the fastest bike split, Skye was the first into T2, but Sarah and Imo were just seconds back and Daniela also in view of the others. On a good day, Dani should have been able to create a lead on the bike, and she soon retired on the run, citing a stomach bug she had been dealing with in the last days before the race.

The fastest runner was Sarah True – she was able to quickly build a solid lead running roughly a 3-hour marathon pace. The race seemed to have settled down at 35k with Sarah more than seven minutes ahead of Skye who was also seven minutes ahead of Imo in third. But then Sarah started to struggle with the heat and unable to deal with dehydration and low blood sugar. After a few k of jogging, stopping and walking that were painful to watch, she collapsed just 800 meters before the finish line at the last aid station and was carried off the course by medical personnel – almost fighting them because her mind was only focused on reaching the finish line.

When Skye passed the aid station she was unaware of what had happened, and the lead biker had to fill her in on why he was now riding with her. Just a few minutes later, Skye Moench won her first Ironman race – with the fastest bike and also the fastest marathon of the day in the female Pro race.

Second place went to Iron-rookie Imogen Simmonds. Jen Annett was surprised when the third-place bike rider joined her for the last k of the run, she took third but just missed out a Kona slot – disappointed with her bike but happy to have run a solid marathon even in the relentless  Frankfurt heat that continued to build as the day progressed.

After receiving medical attention, Sarah True quickly bounced back and was able to tell the press later in the day of what happened to her. She also attended the awards ceremony the day after and received a long standing ovation for pushing so hard on race day.

Photo Credits: Ingo Kutsche

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to exp.	Prize Money
1	Skye Moench	USA	00:57:32	04:58:39	03:14:01	09:15:31	-31:34	US$ 30,000
2	Imogen Simmonds	SUI	00:52:42	05:03:30	03:24:38	09:26:01	n/a	US$ 15,000
3	Jen Annett	CAN	00:59:26	05:12:28	03:19:07	09:36:25	-03:45	US$ 8,000
4	Amelia Watkinson	NZL	00:52:41	05:14:49	03:36:11	09:49:32	n/a	US$ 6,500
5	Saleta Castro Nogueira	ESP	00:57:58	05:26:31	03:39:12	10:10:01	07:05	US$ 5,000
6	Petra Eggenschwiler	SUI	01:18:26	05:17:26	03:29:03	10:14:11	n/a	US$ 3,500
7	Anne Basso	FRA	00:58:00	05:44:18	03:36:35	10:28:31	02:02	US$ 2,500
	Sarah True	USA	00:52:40	05:03:42		DNF
	Daniela Bleymehl	GER	00:57:48	04:59:00		DNF
	Sarah Lewis	GBR	00:58:03	05:24:25		DNF
	Kimberley Morrison	GBR	00:57:37	06:42:29		DNF

With the deep fields in Frankfurt and a lot of Kona slots on the line, it’s interesting to speculate on how the race might unfold and what to look for on race day. These projections are solely based on the previous results and “nominal times” by the athletes, of course race tactics (groups forming, someone taking a risk by going a bit harder, etc.) will also have an influence, especially when athletes are close to each other.

You’ll be able to follow the race on German TV (on hr3 with German commentary by Dirk Froberg and Ralf Scholt, it’ll also be streamed on hessenschau.de) and trough the Ironman coverage on Facebook (with English language commentary).

“The Big Three”

The main focus in Frankfurt will be on “The Big Three” – the Kona winners of the last five years: Jan Frodeno, Patrick Lange and Sebastian Kienle. As you can see from the seedings, these athletes are probably a good step ahead of the other athletes. Here’s a graphical view of where they are expected to be in relation to each other and also in relation to a couple of other athletes:

(The other athletes listed are the already qualified Joe Skipper and David Plese, and the expected leaders of the race for the Kona slots.)

Here are a few comments:

• Frodo, Patrick and Sebi are expected to end up about 15 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. After the swim there will still be a few athletes around, but probably towards the end of the first bike loop they will have separated from the rest of the field, and the gap will continue to grow on the run.
• The gap between the three Germans is relatively small. The graph shows the “nominal times”, but race tactics will also play a big role in how the race will unfold.
• Because Sebi is the slowest swimmer (likely to be about three to four minutes behind in T1), the first part of his bike leg will be focused on closing the gap to the lead of the race. Sebi has stated that he’ll be happy to finish in second place (meaning that he wants to beat either Jan or Patrick), so he and Frodo might work together in the second half of the bike to gap Patrick into T2.
• Frodo is usually the best swimmer. If he has a gap to Patrick coming out of the water, I expect him to work hard at the start of the bike and not allow Patrick to ride up to him. Once Sebi catches up to him, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them put in the work to extend the lead over Patrick.
• In last year’s race, Patrick was able to swim with Frodo and the two stayed together for almost the whole bike leg. If he manages to do stay close to Frodo and Sebi until T2, that would show he’s also one of the strongest bike riders if needed.
• On the run, Frodo probably wants to show that he is still the best runner (even after the injury that kept him from racing Kona), while Patrick will be interested to show he can run well in Frankfurt and not “just” in Kona. The expected difference between them is less than a minute, so it’s pretty much impossible to predict what will happen on race day, especially when there is close racing in the marathon.
• Sebi will be happy to show that he is able to run with the best (and beat at least one of them), but his run form is probably not quite at 100% yet after dealing with injury problems over the winter.

I hope that all of them have had some good last weeks of preparation and that all of them will race in great form. I expect a close and fascinating race in Frankfurt.

The Race for the Male Kona Slots

The race is even harder to predict if we take away “The Big 3” and the other already qualified athletes and put a focus on the race for the four male Pro Kona slots:

There’s a lot of crowding and a lot of changes during the race, here are just a few highlights of what to look for during the race:

• The two athletes with the best chances for a Kona slot are Franz Loeschke and Emilio Aguayo Munoz, but both of them are still pretty unexperienced on the IM-distance: Franz has done IM Hamburg (where the swim was replaced with a 5k run) and IM Barcelona (missing a win and a Kona slot by 11 seconds) in the 2018 season, Emilio has only done IM Lanzarote 2019 (where he finished third). It’s hard to predict what they are going to be able to do in Frankfurt.
• Two other Kona candidates are Ivan Rana and Matt Russell, both of them will need good runs (under 2:50?) in order to make up the time they are likely to lose on the bike (Ivan) or swim (Matt).
• There is a group of strong swim/bikers with Patrick Dirksmeier, Antony Costes and Christian Kramer, but they will also need a solid run if they want to snag a slot.
• There are more than ten athletes with a realistic chance for a slot – I expect around three minutes between the four athletes getting a slot and maybe five or more athletes missing a slot by just a few minutes.

The Female Race

The female field is a lot smaller than the men’s field, and unfortunately there were some injury-related withdrawals (Anne Haug with lower leg issues, Angela Naeth just had surgery for her broken wrist). In addition, some of the athletes that are still on the start list are unlikely to race (Linsey Corbin and Anja Ippach as a backup for Ireland).  The following graph showing how the female race might unfold is based on this “reduced” field:

The smaller number of female Pros results very likely in two Kona Pro slots. I think there is going to be a really interesting race – both for the win and for the Kona slots – with an interesting dynamic and a lot of lead changes:

• Sarah True is the best swimmer in the female field – and nominally the strongest runner. On paper, she can put more than 15 minutes into the rest of the field and it’s probably okay if she loses a few minutes to the fast bikers. However, Sarah has shown in Kona that she is also able to bike more aggressively and still run well. But of course her main focus will be on securing a Kona slot after her recent DNF at IM Cairns.
• There are two athletes that I expect to ride to the front of the race on the bike: Daniela Bleymehl and Kim Morrison have similar swim and bike capabilities (less than a minute apart in each of the legs) and might even form a mini “lead group” when Daniela steps up her games as she’s hinted at last year and in the first part of the season. They should be able to make up their deficit of around four minutes to Sarah in the first loop of the bike. Things should shuffle around a bit on the run, and it’ll be interesting to see who is able to improve on previous run times. I expect the order of athletes to settle in the second of four run loops but we’ve seen some late explosions in Frankfurt so the race will be interesting until the finish line.
• Another athlete that should have a strong bike leg is Jen Annett, and the best bike leg will be posted either by her, Daniela or Kim. Jen’s swim will determine if she is has a chance to make her way to the front, nominally she should be four to five minutes behind Daniela and Kim in T1. On the run, she might close the gap to Kim and grab the last spot on the podium – and probably Kona slot as well.
• Among the other athletes, Skye Moench is not going to be too far behind the Top 3, on a good day she might be able to put herself in contention for a Kona slot. Skye was seventh last year in Frankfurt but has already shown a solid improvement with her sub-9 finish in Arizona last November.
• Lenny Ramsey and Saleta Castro are two of the strongest runners in the field, both are able to run just over 3 hours in Frankfurt. But they are probably going to fall back too far on the bike – unless they manage to improve their bike leg over previous races and ride under 5 hours.
• Then there are also a number of interesting “Iron Rookies” that have done well in 70.3 racing: Sarah Lewis (most recently a third place at 70.3 Dubai in February, only behind Holly Lawrence and Anne Haug), Amelia Watkinson (lots of 70.3 wins in 2016 and 2017 before dealing with an injury that she seems fully recovered from) or Imogen Simmonds (sixth at 70.3 Worlds 2018 and winner of 70.3 Luxembourg in June with a gap of seven minutes). Based on their 70.3 results, all of them have the potential for a finish somewhere around 9:10 and could be in the run for a podium finish and a likely Kona slot.

Hopefully the nuances of the racing are going to be picked up in the live coverage of the race. I’m looking forward to an awesome day of fascinating racing!