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Ironman Boulder 2017 – Analyzing Results

Race Conditions

This was only the second time that IM Boulder had Pros racing the course. The first time was in 2014 and apparently the course underwent a lot of changes since then. Even with that, the general conditions are comparable as the race is still held in June and at altitude. The bike course continues to be relatively fast (adjustment of 11:52), but overall the race was quite slow (adjustment of -4:27). This is caused by a very slow run course (adjustment -8:35, almost the same as in 2014) – probably the altitude makes this very hard to run fast and also causing a number of explosions.

As noted above the 2014 course was different from this year, but almost all “course records” were broken this year. Tim O’Donnell had the fastest times in all three legs and overall, he now holds all the male records. On the female side Heather Jackson has the new bike course record while Rachel Joyce took the run and overall records. The only time from 2014 that still stands is Laura Bennett’s swim time.

Male Race Results

There was never a doubt that Tim O’Donnell was out to win the race – he took the lead during the swim and was extending his lead all day with the fastest times in all three legs. What a dominating performance and a good indicator that Tim will be an athlete to reckon with in Kona.

2014 Champion Justin Darr was second across the line but after the race he was DQ’d for course cutting (even if unintentionally and by just a few hundred meters, see Justin’s blog for more details). Matt Chrabot with a good race across the board took second place, and Patrick Mckeon took the last podium spot in his first Pro Ironman race. Jarrod Shoemaker had the best relative performance of the day to finish in fourth.

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money KPR Points
1 Timothy O’Donnell USA 00:49:20 04:24:25 02:53:55 08:13:30 -14:01 US$ 15,000 2000
2 Matt Chrabot USA 00:50:25 04:30:33 03:07:42 08:34:36 -09:05 US$ 7,500 1600
3 Patrick Mckeon USA 00:57:08 04:35:15 03:03:40 08:42:24 n/a US$ 5,000 1280
4 Jarrod Shoemaker USA 00:50:18 04:50:25 02:59:21 08:45:38 -27:07 US$ 3,250 960
5 Jozsef Major HUN 01:03:20 04:31:10 03:10:57 08:51:35 -06:04 US$ 2,750 720
6 Tripp Hipple USA 00:54:34 04:35:35 03:18:23 08:55:03 01:17 US$ 2,000 540
7 Sam Long USA 01:01:39 04:32:50 03:17:52 08:57:16 02:04 US$ 1,500 405
8 Colin Laughery USA 00:58:13 04:40:07 03:13:30 08:58:45 -18:43 US$ 1,250 305
9 Mike Schifferle SUI 01:03:15 04:45:22 03:12:00 09:09:32 00:55 US$ 1,000 230
 DQ Justin Daerr USA 00:54:05 04:30:57 02:57:13 DQ      
 DQ Leon Griffin AUS 00:52:14 04:34:43 03:11:56 DQ      
  Christopher Bagg USA 00:56:40 04:39:23   DNF      
  Tyler Butterfield BMU 00:54:04 04:51:17   DNF      
  Robert Wade IRL 00:59:32 04:48:45   DNF      
  Kennett Peterson USA 00:54:37     DNF      

Justin Daerr and Leon Griffin were DQ’d after the race for making one of the turns on the run course too early and missing a timing mat. Some more notes on Justin’s blog.

Female Race Results

As expected Kelly Williamson was first out of the water but then fell back on the bike, still finishing in fourth with a good marathon. Rachel Joyce was just a few seconds behind Kelly in T1 and took over the lead for most of the bike. Heather Jackson had the fastest bike ride and able to close the gap to Rachel. By T2 Heather had built a lead of three minutes, but Rachel refused to cede the race to her and slowly started to eat into the lead. When Rachel took the lead in the second half of the marathon she quickly created a gap and eventually won her return to Ironman racing by seven minutes. Heather finished in second place, more than 20 minutes ahead of 2014 winner Danielle Mack in third place.

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money KPR Points
1 Rachel Joyce GBR 00:54:59 04:56:09 03:16:01 09:13:32 05:00 US$ 15,000 2000
2 Heather Jackson USA 00:59:51 04:49:06 03:26:09 09:20:42 03:26 US$ 7,500 1600
3 Danielle Mack USA 01:04:46 05:11:02 03:20:24 09:42:16 -01:22 US$ 5,000 1280
4 Kelly Williamson USA 00:54:56 05:26:15 03:16:35 09:44:08 05:24 US$ 3,250 960
5 Uli Bromme USA 01:04:49 05:05:30 03:34:45 09:52:32 -00:32 US$ 2,750 720
6 Kimberly Goodell USA 01:04:48 05:25:53 03:36:00 10:13:34 n/a US$ 2,000 540
7 Carla Schubiger SUI 01:04:43 05:27:29 03:43:29 10:22:59 n/a US$ 1,500 405
8 Maggie Rusch USA 01:07:37 05:26:51 03:55:33 10:36:36 19:24 US$ 1,250 305
9 Kate Bruck USA 01:04:32 05:42:19 03:59:03 10:54:20 21:47 US$ 1,000 230
  Amy Vantassel USA 01:11:51 05:56:36   DNF      

Kona Qualifying Implications

There are not too many changes for Kona Qualifying: Only Heather Jackson and Tim O’Donnell are now safe for a July slot – after their great results in Kona they just needed a validation finish.

Challenge Venice 2017 – Results

Race Conditions

The main data characteristic from the 2016 race was an extremely fast bike with an adjustment of 27:34. I don’t know if there were any course changes, but this year’s bike was a bit more “normal”, even if the adjustment of 15:50 was still pretty fast. The overall adjustment was 10:50, indicating that Challenge Venice continues to be a fast course.

Male Race Results

Lukas Krämer, fastest agegrouper in Kona 2016, won his first full-distance race as a Pro making up a lot of time and places with his race best marathon. Second place went to Alberto Casadei, followed by Jan Raphael in third.

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Lukas Kraemer GER 01:01:33 04:31:23 02:46:33 08:23:38 n/a EUR 6,000
2 Alberto Casadei ITA 00:53:37 04:32:01 02:57:05 08:26:52 -05:11 EUR 3,900
3 Jan Raphael GER 00:58:59 04:31:35 02:54:23 08:29:57 02:46 EUR 2,750
4 Dirk Wijnalda NED 01:01:54 04:31:24 02:57:16 08:34:36 -03:22 EUR 1,900
5 Thomas Bosch GER 01:05:11 04:38:11 02:54:19 08:43:03 -20:25 EUR 1,500
6 Lars Vold NOR 00:58:57 04:31:33 03:10:51 08:46:09 -01:21 EUR 1,200
7 Davide Giardini USA 00:53:35 04:31:28 03:33:08 09:02:27 n/a EUR 1,000
8 Stefan Overmars NED 01:01:50 04:31:20 03:26:16 09:03:43 -03:13 EUR 750
9 Allan Hovda NOR 01:06:07 04:40:49 03:15:22 09:07:05 06:10  
10 Lucky Berlage BEL 01:06:05 04:50:49 03:08:39 09:12:30 11:12  
11 Sergio Marques POR 01:05:13 04:38:37 03:25:48 09:14:27 29:37  
12 Marc Unger GER 01:01:32 04:31:13 03:53:07 09:30:16 n/a  
  Per Bittner GER 00:54:45 04:33:59   DNF    
  Pascal Ramali GER 01:08:53 04:23:47   DNF    
  Hendrik-Jan Verhaegen BEL 01:01:51 04:48:42   DNF    
  Matic Modic SLO 01:03:27 05:54:33   DNF    

Female Race Results

Challenge Venice was Sofie Goos’ return to Pro racing after being attacked and injured at the end of a training run. She had a great day, racing strong and winning by almost twenty minutes in front of Simona Krivankova and Sonja Skevin.

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money
1 Sofie Goos BEL 01:06:28 04:54:25 03:11:03 09:17:17 -06:31 EUR 6,000
2 Simona Krivankova CZE 01:15:27 05:07:38 03:08:31 09:36:25 -12:24 EUR 3,900
3 Sonja Skevin CRO 01:01:48 05:19:30 03:23:07 09:49:21 n/a EUR 2,750
4 Martina Dogana ITA 01:08:38 05:21:49 03:22:53 09:59:20 30:37 EUR 1,900
  Vanessa Pereira POR 01:10:09     DNF    

IM Cairns 2017 – Analyzing Results

Race Conditions

Conditions in Cairns were very good this year: An adjustment of 12:14 is significantly faster than the course rating of 5:10 and the fastest ever on this course. Not surprisingly both the male and female course records were broken: Josh Amberger’s 8:02 was a 13-minute improvement on the old record by Tim Berkel, and Sarah Crowley’s 8:58 improved on a 9:06 by Jodie Swallow.

The main difference to previous years was on the bike, consequently there were also two new bike records: Cameron Wurf posted a 4:15 (bettering Luke McKenzie’s 2013 time by 6 minutes) and Sarah Crowley rode 4:50:00 (just a 40 second improvement on the 2015 ride by Jodie). Both second place finishers missed the run course records by only a few seconds – the records by Tim Berkel and Linsey Corbin still stand.

Male Race Results

Josh Amberger was leading the race from start to finish. He posted the fastest swim time (closely followed by Clayton Fettell – pretty much as expected), had the second fastest bike ride and then also posted a solid 2:53 marathon to win with a time just over 8 hours – improving his Ironman PR by more than 40 minutes and much quicker than expected by his single IM finish in South Africa!

My expectation before the race was that the race would come down to who would have the best run of the solid bike riders. This was pretty much what happened – with the exception of Josh who all day long was in front of the field. In second to fourth place are the athletes with the best, second best and fourth best marathon times: Joe Gambles was finally able to show his potential on the IM distance and added the fastest marathon to a solid bike ride, almost running down Josh. Third place went to IM New Zealand winner Braden Currie. Last year’s Cairns winner Tim Berkel was in a solid position for most of the race, but he had one bad patch on the run and eventually had to settle for fourth place. David Dellow was probably still a bit tired after his win at IM Australia just five weeks ago, still finishing fifth to secure his Kona slot. 

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money KPR Points
1 Josh Amberger AUS 00:47:15 04:17:29 02:53:26 08:02:17 -39:36 US$ 30,000 4000
2 Joe Gambles AUS 00:50:02 04:25:19 02:44:30 08:04:03 -19:57 US$ 15,000 3400
3 Braden Currie NZL 00:49:46 04:26:12 02:47:56 08:07:46 -08:40 US$ 8,000 2890
4 Tim Van Berkel AUS 00:49:50 04:25:46 02:49:54 08:09:22 -03:42 US$ 6,500 2455
5 David Dellow AUS 00:49:49 04:25:51 02:51:32 08:11:33 -01:51 US$ 5,000 2090
6 Michael Fox AUS 00:49:45 04:25:56 02:51:53 08:11:42 -14:10 US$ 3,500 1670
7 Cameron Wurf AUS 00:49:49 04:15:13 03:02:35 08:11:55 -29:05 US$ 2,500 1335
8 Mark Bowstead NZL 00:49:48 04:25:44 02:56:42 08:16:37 -02:47 US$ 2,000 1070
9 Cameron Brown NZL 00:50:13 04:35:17 02:49:15 08:19:08 03:14 US$ 1,500 855
10 Daniil Sapunov UKR 00:49:57 04:35:14 02:51:27 08:21:14 -14:34 US$ 1,000 685
11 Callum Millward NZL 00:50:08 04:35:09 02:54:53 08:24:26 03:53   515
12 Clayton Fettell AUS 00:47:16 04:28:43 03:13:46 08:33:45 03:55   385
13 Michael Ruenz GER 00:57:54 04:34:22 02:58:49 08:35:44 01:27   290
14 Nathan Shearer AUS 00:58:14 04:33:48 03:08:44 08:45:15 -38:17   215
15 Jens Petersen-Bach DEN 00:49:57 04:55:13 03:00:52 08:50:32 28:12   160
16 Paul Speed AUS 00:57:06 04:47:50 03:09:13 08:58:28 n/a   120
17 Leigh Stabryla AUS 00:50:09 05:06:29 02:59:47 09:01:03 -02:02   90
18 Samuel Murphy AUS 00:57:16 05:05:13 03:07:58 09:14:20 -12:28   70
  Casey Munro AUS 00:49:48 04:26:09   DNF      
  Jeff Symonds CAN 00:49:56 04:35:14   DNF      
  Simon Cochrane NZL 00:50:06 04:42:43   DNF      
  Jonathan Shearon USA 00:57:11 04:42:02   DNF      
  Kaito Tohara JPN 00:54:26 04:45:25   DNF      
  Ryan Palazzi AUS 00:52:00 05:03:47   DNF      
  Pedro Gomes POR 00:49:52 05:07:32   DNF      
  Courtney Ogden AUS 00:49:54     DNF      
  Carl Read NZL 00:57:23     DNF      

Female Race Results

As expected Karen Thibodeau was leading the race after the swim, but Sarah Crowley was just a few seconds behind and quickly went to the front after the start of the bike. She quickly started to pull away from the rest of the field, and even the strong biker Sarah Piampiano – as is typical for her a few minutes behind after the swim, but also loosing some time with zipper issues in T1 – wasn’t able to make up any ground. By T2 the lead was around 14 minutes. Sarah P went on to have the best run of the day with a 3:02 marathon to finish second, but Sarah C ran a solid 3:06 marathon to claim the win with a sub-9 course record time.

Third place went to Kristin Moeller backing up just two weeks after IM Brasil – a 3:03 marathon was “slow” for her but still good enough to run through the rest of the field. Dimity-Lee Duke had a good race to finish fourth, almost getting caught by another German, Katharina Grohmann who finished fifth. 

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time Diff to exp. Prize Money KPR Points
1 Sarah Crowley AUS 00:57:06 04:50:00 03:06:01 08:58:14 -22:43 US$ 30,000 4000
2 Sarah Piampiano USA 01:05:38 04:52:58 03:02:49 09:08:20 -02:49 US$ 15,000 3400
3 Kristin Moeller GER 01:05:22 05:00:50 03:03:29 09:14:08 -15:02 US$ 8,000 2890
4 Dimity-Lee Duke AUS 01:01:27 04:58:47 03:14:32 09:20:04 -09:39 US$ 6,500 2455
5 Katharina Grohmann GER 01:13:02 04:57:19 03:06:36 09:21:16 -20:47 US$ 5,000 2090
6 Jessica Mitchell AUS 01:05:17 04:59:42 03:18:29 09:29:50 -34:45 US$ 3,500 1670
7 Tine Holst DEN 01:06:50 04:59:12 03:20:15 09:31:00 -05:25 US$ 2,500 1335
8 Diane Luethi SUI 01:01:23 05:01:02 03:29:11 09:37:28 -07:53 US$ 2,000 1070
9 Karen Thibodeau CAN 00:57:01 05:11:54 03:40:25 09:54:38 10:47 US$ 1,500 855
10 Sarah Graves USA 01:15:24 05:17:16 03:19:01 09:58:01 02:21 US$ 1,000 685
11 Jenny Fletcher CAN 01:01:21 05:12:53 03:49:00 10:10:05 20:35   515
  Marina Jurjevic AUS 01:06:02 04:58:52   DNF      
  Tamsyn Hayes NZL 01:05:23 04:59:56   DNF      

Kona Qualifying Implications

Here are the notable changes in Kona Qualifying on the male side (projected July cutoff 3.500 points):

  • Automatic Qualifier: Josh Amberger
  • Safe for a July slot: Braden Currie (5.640), Joe Gambles (4.960), David Dellow (4.610), Tim Berkel (3.955)
  • On the Bubble (might be enough, but maybe not): Michael Fox (3.355)
  • Close (but more points needed): Cam Brown (2.770), Daniil Sapunov (2.710), Mark Bowstead (2.640)

On the female side (projected cutoff 4.300 points):

  • Automatic Qualifier: Sara Crowley
  • Safe for a July slot: Sarah Piampiano (9.570, was already safe before)
  • On the Bubble (might be enough, but maybe not): Katharina Grohmann (4.470), Kristin Moeller (4.180), Dimity-Lee Duke (4.135)
  • Close (but more points needed): Jessica Mitchell (3.525), Tine Holst (3.035)

Challenge Roth (July 9th) – Entry List

Challenge Roth makes it a bit hard to determine which Pros are race as they have listed all Pros within their agegroup. Nonetheless, here is my best effort at determining the Pro athletes in their startlist and their preliminary bibs.

Male Race Participants

Bib Name Nation
1 Timo Bracht GER
2 Joe Skipper GBR
3 Nils Frommhold GER
4 Maurice Clavel GER
5 Terenzo Bozzone NZL
6 Fabian Rahn GER
8 Per Bittner GER
9 Dougal Allan NZL
10 Brad Kahlefeldt AUS
11 Sebastian Neef GER
12 Herve Faure FRA
13 Chris Fischer DEN
14 Bart Aernouts BEL
15 Christian Brader GER
16 Till Schramm GER
17 Roman Deisenhofer GER
18 Jose Estrangeiro POR
19 Markus Hoermann GER
20 Henry Beck GER
21 Matthias Knossalla GER
22 Andi Fuchs AUT
23 Thomas Naasz NED
25 Nathan Miller AUS
26 Marcus Woellner GER
27 Moises Vidal Gil ESP
31 Guillaume Lecallier FRA
32 Christian Jais GER
34 Michael Louys BEL
35 Rafael Gomes POR
38 Peter Kotland CZE
39 Young Hwan Oh KOR
40 Travis Hawkins USA
41 Jens Frommhold GER
44 Jaroslav Kovacic SLO
45 Dirk Wijnalda NED
46 Tuukka Miettinen FIN

Female Race Participants

Bib Name Nation
51 Daniela Ryf SUI
52 Heather Wurtele CAN
53 Yvonne Van Vlerken NED
54 Laura Siddall GBR
55 Ruth Brennan Morrey USA
56 Annah Watkinson ZAF
57 Vanessa Pereira POR
58 Martina Dogana ITA
59 Corina Hengartner SUI
60 Steph Corker CAN

Challenge Venice 2017 (June 11th) – Seedings

ChVeniceLogoPrevious Winners

Year Male Winner Time Female Winner Time
2016 Dirk Wijnalda (NED) 08:09:14 Erika Csomor (HUN) 09:04:00

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time
1 Dirk Wijnalda NED 00:57:24 04:23:22 02:48:28 08:09:14
2 Sergio Marques POR 00:57:09 04:25:29 02:56:50 08:19:28
3 Malte Bruns GER 00:54:23 04:26:54 02:59:01 08:20:18

Female Race Results

Rank Name Nation Swim Bike Run Time
1 Erika Csomor HUN 01:04:21 04:51:06 03:08:33 09:04:00
2 Martina Dogana ITA 00:59:49 04:56:00 03:08:53 09:04:42
3 Carla Van Rooijen NED 01:15:39 04:59:47 03:17:37 09:33:03

Course Records

Leg Gender Record Athlete Date
Total overall 08:09:14 Dirk Wijnalda 2016-06-05
Swim overall 00:54:06 Zoltan Petsuk 2016-06-05
Bike overall 04:23:22 Dirk Wijnalda 2016-06-05
Run overall 02:48:28 Dirk Wijnalda 2016-06-05
Total female 09:04:00 Erika Csomor 2016-06-05
Swim female 00:57:18 Deborah Van Gossum 2016-06-05
Bike female 04:51:06 Erika Csomor 2016-06-05
Run female 03:08:33 Erika Csomor 2016-06-05

Course Rating

The Course Rating for Challenge Venice is 30:27.

Race Adjustments for Challenge Venice

Year Adjustment Swim Adj. Bike Adj. Run Adj. # of Finishers Rating Swim Rating Bike Rating Run Rating
2016 30:27 -01:30 27:34 05:38 16 of 19 30:27 -01:30 27:34 05:38

Prize Money

Challenge Venice has a total prize purse of 38.000 EUR.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 2% of a typical Kona field.

Rank Bib Name Nation Expected Time Rating Exp. Swim Exp. Bike Exp. T2 Exp. Run Consistency Overall
1 15 Jan Raphael GER 08:06:54 08:37:25 00:51:06 04:16:21 05:12:27 02:54:27 95% +0% -5% (26) 60
2 3 Alberto Casadei ITA 08:08:07 08:47:26 00:49:29 04:23:23 05:17:52 02:50:15 17% +34% -49% (9) 94
3 5 Per Bittner GER 08:10:59 08:39:45 00:51:20 04:17:57 05:14:16 02:56:43 55% +9% -36% (22) 68
4 1 Dirk Wijnalda NED 08:12:53 08:53:35 00:57:41 04:21:19 05:24:00 02:48:53 82% +8% -10% (20) 113
5 16 Matic Modic SLO 08:17:13 08:58:37 00:57:17 04:22:09 05:24:27 02:52:46 53% +14% -34% (11) 138
6 2 Sergio Marques POR 08:21:38 08:55:58 00:56:48 04:26:31 05:28:19 02:53:19 67% +4% -29% (37) 122
7 10 Lars Vold NOR 08:30:13 09:08:53 00:55:48 04:22:05 05:22:54 03:07:19 100% +0% -0% (2) (166)
8 13 Pascal Ramali GER 08:30:32 09:07:03 01:01:30 04:18:09 05:24:39 03:05:53 51% +0% -49% (4) 164
9 14 Thomas Bosch GER 08:39:59 09:25:06 00:59:46 04:31:13 05:35:59 03:04:00 24% +40% -36% (3) (209)
10 6 Lucky Berlage BEL 08:43:47 09:17:55 01:02:24 04:29:34 05:36:59 03:06:48 100% +0% -0% (5) 193
11 11 Marius Elvedal NOR 08:45:18 09:30:42 00:59:23 04:32:09 05:36:32 03:08:46 n/a (1 IM Pro race) (234)
12 12 Hendrik-Jan Verhaegen BEL 08:47:02 09:26:43 00:57:15 04:33:27 05:35:42 03:11:20 60% +0% -40% (7) 223
13 9 Stefan Overmars NED 08:49:02 09:34:45 00:56:57 04:26:29 05:28:26 03:20:36 n/a (1 IM Pro race) (241)
4 Davide Giardini USA n/a unrated unrated unrated unrated unrated n/a (no IM Pro race) (n/a)
7 Lukas Kramer GER n/a unrated unrated unrated unrated unrated n/a (no IM Pro race) (n/a)
8 Marc Unger GER n/a unrated unrated unrated unrated unrated n/a (no IM Pro race) (n/a)

Female Race Participants

The strength of the field is 3% of a typical Kona field.

Rank Bib Name Nation Expected Time Rating Exp. Swim Exp. Bike Exp. T2 Exp. Run Consistency Overall
1 18 Sofie Goos BEL 08:59:56 09:40:44 00:58:46 04:45:05 05:48:51 03:11:05 59% +17% -24% (24) (46)
2 17 Martina Dogana ITA 09:05:29 09:40:45 00:59:42 04:52:13 05:56:55 03:08:34 99% +1% -0% (12) (46)
3 22 Lucie Reed CZE 09:18:55 09:54:36 00:55:00 05:00:34 06:00:34 03:18:21 70% +0% -30% (28) 67
4 19 Simona Krivankova CZE 09:23:07 10:12:27 01:11:10 04:57:29 06:13:39 03:09:28 36% +64% -0% (2) (104)
5 21 Vanessa Pereira POR 09:45:07 10:29:55 01:05:06 05:06:18 06:16:24 03:28:43 66% +0% -34% (11) 132
20 Sonja Skevin CRO n/a unrated unrated unrated unrated unrated n/a (no IM Pro race) (n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

  • Jan Raphael: 42% (1-1)
  • Dirk Wijnalda: 28% (3-1)
  • Alberto Casadei: 13% (7-1)
  • Per Bittner: 9% (10-1)
  • Sergio Marques: 4% (24-1)
  • Matic Modic: 4% (27-1)

Female Race Participants

  • Martina Dogana: 55% (1-1)
  • Sofie Goos: 38% (2-1)
  • Lucie Reed: 4% (22-1)
  • Simona Krivankova: 2% (52-1)
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