Looking forward to IM Lanzarote 2011 (Main Post)

As per usual, you can find additional information on the participants in the detail post.

Previous Results

Lanzarote is one of the hardest courses in the Ironman calendar. The adjustments are pretty consistent and hover around Zero. The current course rating is at minus 36 seconds, about two and a half minutes slower than IM Hawaii.

Male Participants

The big name in this year’s race is Timo Bracht who is the clear favorite:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Timo Bracht	GER	08:32:38	08:32:28	8
2	Esben Hovgaard	DNK	08:49:36	08:49:26	39
3	Alvaro Velazquez DNS		09:13:55	09:13:44	115
4	Aleksandar Markovic	DNK	09:14:28	09:14:17	118
5	Dirk Wijnalda	NLD	09:16:11	09:16:00	131
6	Gregorio Morales	ESP	09:16:20	09:16:09	133
7	Bo Ballegaard	DNK	09:17:44	09:17:33	143
8	Konstantin Bachor	GER	09:19:20	09:19:09	152
9	Rafael Wyss	SWI	09:34:33	09:34:22	229
10	Nicholas Peter Munoz	ESP	09:41:17	09:41:06	264
11	Damien Landon	FRA	09:47:14	09:47:03	304
12	Jerzy Kasemier	NLD	09:55:33	09:55:21	346
13	Ivan Tejero Vazquez		10:37:25	10:37:13	515
14	Fernando Cuenllas		n/a	unrated	n/a
15	Paul Hawkins		n/a	unrated	n/a
16	Joel Jameson		n/a	unrated	n/a
17	Christian Nitschke		n/a	unrated	n/a
18	Victor Morales		n/a	unrated	n/a
19	Erich Kunz		n/a	unrated	n/a
20	Markus Mlinar		n/a	unrated	n/a

After Timo, the next athlete is Esben Hovgaard – not exactly a household name: All I have in my database for him is  a solid 8:31 from IM Florida 2010, and it’ll be interesting to see how he is going to do. After Esben there are six  pretty similarly rated athletes. As a result, I’m expecting a clear winner (could turn out to be by 30 minutes) and a close race for the other podium spots.

Female Participants

On the female side, the pro field is not very big:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Karina Ottosen	DNK	10:05:09	10:04:57	63
2	Kate Bevilaqua	AUS	10:10:34	10:10:22	73
3	Heidi Jesberger	GER	10:18:30	10:18:18	96
4	Joanna Carritt	GBR	10:34:13	10:34:01	138
5	Nicole Woysch	GER	10:38:52	10:38:40	148
6	Emma Smith		n/a	unrated	n/a
7	Esther DeVries		n/a	unrated	n/a
8	Ute Streiter		n/a	unrated	n/a

The rated athletes all seem to have a shot at winning the race, and it’s very hard to pick a clear favorite. Karina Ottosen has the best rating, but only two races. Kate Bevilaqua has been posting up and down results, if she’s on form she has a good shot at winning. Heidi Jesberger and Nicole Woysch have some experience on Lanzarote, both of them have been second there in the past. And Jo Carritt .. she’s a very solid racer, and if the supposedly faster athletes run into problems, she’ll be there. As with the men’s race, a close race is shaping up!