Race Conditions
With an adjustment of 8:06 conditions on race day were typical for Regensburg (new course rating of 9:25). Moving the date from August to June didn’t seem to have a big impact: From what I heard it was getting pretty warm during the run, but otherwise you had pretty good racing conditions.
Male Results
Dirk Bockel won is first Ironman, setting a new course record:
Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Actual Time Expected Time 1 Dirk Bockel LUX 00:45:03 04:31:08 02:51:56 08:11:59 08:18:09 2 Michael Raelert GER 00:45:01 04:35:32 02:54:40 08:18:53 n/a 3 Mike Schifferle SWI 01:00:24 04:40:13 02:50:52 08:36:53 09:05:10 4 Jens Kaiser GER 00:57:00 04:43:28 02:58:48 08:43:57 n/a 5 Petr Vabrousek CZE 00:51:03 04:50:06 03:02:06 08:47:53 08:49:14 6 Daniel Halksworth GBR 00:45:05 04:52:18 03:08:59 08:50:38 n/a 7 Andreas Wolpert GER 00:54:35 04:50:15 03:05:22 08:55:25 09:09:17 8 Tomas Mika CZE 00:50:19 05:10:58 03:09:06 09:14:48 n/a 9 Jarda Brynda CZE 00:50:20 05:09:31 03:21:35 09:26:24 09:00:43 10 Matjaz Kovac SVN 00:53:35 05:08:07 03:42:23 09:50:00 09:41:28 11 Florian Kratz GER 01:01:22 05:25:02 03:52:42 10:23:38 n/a 12 Marek Nemcik SVK 01:08:01 05:38:10 04:05:48 10:58:33 12:10:56
Michael Raelert finished his first Ironman and seemed to race pretty smart: He set a new swim course record and started the bike pretty strongly. But when Dirk Bockel took the lead around the 160km mark, he continued to race within himself, still posting a sub-3h marathon. Both Dirk and Michael solidified their standings in the KPR and are pretty much guaranteed a Kona slot. And both of them are solid TOP10 contenders for Kona – maybe even more …
Female Results
On the women’s side, Heidi Sessner (probably better know under her maiden name of Heidi Jesberger) also won her first IM:
Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Actual Time Expected Time 1 Heidi Sessner GER 00:53:22 05:16:55 03:29:15 09:43:52 09:56:49 2 Ute Streiter AUT 01:03:55 05:30:42 03:42:03 10:22:43 10:22:53
I’m surprised that there were only two female pros racing .. this would have been a good opportunity to score some KPR points or earn a bit of price money.