Ironman New Zealand 2018 – Analyzing Results

Race Conditions

All reports from this year’s race mention that the conditions in Taupo were perfect for fast racing: Calm water, not too much wind on the bike and some cloud cover on the run meant that there were no weather challenges making the course any harder. That is evident from the data as well: An adjustment of 9:44 is the fastest in Taupo since 2009, and the race was also fast across all three legs.

This year’s IM New Zealand saw a number of course records. Terenzo Bozzone posted the first sub-8 time in Taupo with his winning time of 7:59:56, the old record was Cam Brown’s 8:07:58 from 2016. All three of the male podium – in addition to Terenzo it was Joe Skipper and Cam brown – were under the old record. Joe Skipper set a new bike course record, his 4:19:13 improved on Dougal Allan’s 4:22 from two years ago. (Terenzo was also under the old bike record.) Cam Brown missed beating Matt Hanson’s run course record (2:41:20 from 2016) by less than a minute – aside from Melbourne 2012 (which was probably short) his fastest run time ever at the age of 45! There were no course records on the female side, but Laura Siddall and Teresa Adam posted the second and fourth fastest times on the Taupo course.

Male Race Results

As expected, Dylan McNeice was leading after the swim. On the bike, he was caught after about 50 km, and by the half-way mark, a four-man lead group formed. Eventually, Joe Skipper and Terenzo dropped the others and pushed the pace. In T2 they had built a nine-minute lead over a larger chase group of six athletes, with only Mike Philips between them at five minutes back. Once on the run, Terenzo slowly but steadily moved away from the Joe, posting a new marathon PR of 2:44 and winning the race with his second sub-8 time. After a very solid race, Joe Skipper was just over five minutes back in second place. Cam Brown proved to be the strongest runner of the chase group, his 2:41 marathon saw him finish in third place. Jan Van Berkel also had a strong run (new marathon PR by five minutes!) to finish in fourth, while Mike Phillips took fifth.

Female Race Results

Iron-rookie Teresa Adam was the leader in T1 by three minutes, and she was riding well, too: It took Jocelyn McCauley almost until the half-way mark to bridge up to her and take the lead. After about 100k, Jocelyn was joined by Laura Siddall and while Laura took the lead, she was never able to really gap Jocelyn. Teresa also continued to ride well, and by T2 all three were within a minute of each other, building a gap of more than 15 minutes to the rest of the field. The early run saw Laura in the lead, but by 13k Jocelyn moved to the front. But that move didn’t stick, Laura was back in the lead and this time she was able to build a sizable gap. By 30k Laura was three minutes ahead of Jocelyn who herself was joined by Teresa. But nobody was able to challenge Laura who took her first Professional win in New Zealand after a string of second places, her second Ironman title after IM Australia last year. Towards the end Jocelyn struggled a bit, eventually finishing third while Teresa Adam was able to take second in her IM debut. The “Iron virgins” were doing well in Taupo: Alise Selsmark in fourth, Indy Kraal in fifth and Helena Kotopulu in sixth also finished their first Iron-distance race.