Race Conditions

As seems to be the norm for Switzerland the last few years, the race was again a slow one. A non-wetsuit swim and hot weather on the run lead to an adjustment of -8:09 and a new course rating of 4:49. Obviously, no new course record could be set in these conditions.

Male Race Results

Ronnie Schildknecht & IM Switzerland – what else is there to say?! Ronnie raced a very smart race to win his home race for the eighth time! This year he needed a strong 2:50 marathon to overtake the T2-leaders. Of these Manuel Küng couldn’t quite hold on to the lead (he still finished a respectable 7th), but Jan Van Berkel fought hard for his second place and a Kona slot. Alessandro Degasperi had the fastest marathon (2:47), but he lost too much time on the bike to move further ahead than third place.

Only Jan was able to score enough points for a Kona slot (Ronnie was already safe), especially Michael Raelert (DNF with cramps, decided not not to risk too much for 70.3 Worlds) and Mike Aigroz (had a good swim but hurt his foot when exiting the water) were frustrated with their races.

Female Race Results

Mary Beth Ellis was the race leader for most of the day. She was setting the pace on the swim and the bike, but she was struggling on the run. However, it took Beth Gerdes a phenomenal 3:01:24 marathon (only 38 seconds slower than Kristin Möller’s course record) to close the gap to MBE. Beth took the lead at 36k and went on to win her first professional Ironman. MBE finished second and Mareen Hufe took a solid third place. All podium finishers can be happy with their results as all of them secured Kona slots. 

Race Conditions

Challenge Roth is one of the fastest courses. This year was no exception, the adjustment of 19:17 was just a bit faster than the course rating of 18:46. The weather seemed to be perfect for racing – a few clouds, little wind and not too hot.

Male Race Results

After making up his 2 minute deficit after the swim, Andrew Starykowicz tried to ride away from the field. He managed to post a new bike course record (4:09:13), but Nils Frommhold rode with him, managed to distance Andy into T1 and had a bike split that was just 17 seconds slower. Nils then ran what seemed to be a very controlled 2:51 marathon to win by five minutes.

Timo Bracht was just a bit slower than last year, he had the strongest marathon to finish second. Late entry David Dellow redeemed himself after his DNF in Frankfurt from a week ago with his first sub-8 result to finish third. Per Bittner had the best race of the top finishes, while Andy Starykowicz walked most his marathon for a 9:36 finish to validate his bike record.

Female Race Results

After catching best swimmer Laura Bennett, Anja Beranek was the leader into T2. Even though riding a few minutes apart, Anja posted almost an identical bike split to chasers Carrie Lester and Yvonne Van Vlerken. Yvonne then had the best marathon, took the lead around the half marathon and overcame a weak period around the 30k mark to win in 8:50 by a little over two minutes in front of Carrie and Anja who both went sub-9 as well.

Photos by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images for Challenge Triathlons

Update (July 11th): Mareen has decided to race in Switzerland and has been removed from the UK startlist. Corinne has told me that she won’t be racing either. (Both allowed me to share this information.)

Previous Winners

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM UK is 00:47.

Race Adjustments for IM UK

Ironman UK was held in Sherbourn up to 2008, since 2009 it is held in its current location in Bolton.

KPR points and Prize Money

IM UK is a P-2000 race. It has a total prize purse of 75.000 US$.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

KPR Situation

Male Race Participants

After his second place in Texas, Joe Skipper is almost assured his Kona slot with 4.015 points, but he’ll want to show that he is the best British athlete on the start list.

Behind him, there are quite a few athletes that are looking for some more points to reach my projected cutoff of 3.800 points. Most of them still have an “open points slot” and can just add their UK points to their total, for the others I’m showing the “base points” before removing their weakest result:

• Victor Del Corral (3.020, base 2.900; needs 4th or better)
• Denis Chevrot (2.820; needs 4th or better)
• David McNamee (2.695; probably needs 3rd or better)
• Will Clarke (2.405; needs 3rd or better)
• Fraser Cartmell (1.945; needs a win)

Female Race Participants

Lucy Gossage is racing for the win, with 5.425 points she is already well clear of my cutoff projection of 5.100. Diana Riesler is also safe (6.270) but she has told me that she won’t be racing. There are others that need more points:

• Corinne Abraham (4.725; needs 6th or better – unclear if she’ll race, she was taken off the Switzerland list and posted on her blog that she’ll be racing Maastricht)
• Mareen Hufe (4.490, base 3.975; needs 3rd or better – also on the Switzerland list)
• Michelle Vesterby (3.575; needs 2nd or better)
• Shia-Yu Li (3.560, base 2.600; probably too far back even with a win)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Based on previous results, this looks to be a close race between Denis Chevrot and David Dellow, but David has just had a DNF in Frankfurt. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Joe Skipper who had fantastic race in Texas and is anxious to show he can ride sub-5 in Bolton and win his home IM:

• Denis Chevrot: 26% (3-1)
• David Dellow: 24% (3-1)
• Fraser Cartmell: 15% (6-1)
• Victor Del Corral: 13% (6-1)
• Joe Skipper: 12% (7-1)
• Stephen Bayliss: 6% (15-1)

Female Race Participants

Lucy Gossage is the clear favorite for the women, and another British win looks very likely. Diana Riesler won’t start, and Corinne Abraham and Mareen Hufe are also on the list for Switzerland:

• Lucy Gossage: 44% (1-1)
• Diana Riesler: 30% (2-1)
• Corinne Abraham: 15% (6-1)
• Michelle Vesterby: 8% (11-1)
• Mareen Hufe: 2% (48-1)

Update (July 10th): Corinne Abraham and Eimear Mullan are no longer on the startlist posted by ironman.com.

Update (July 14th): Matt Trautmann has tweeted that he has broken his clavicle. Speedy healing, I hope he’ll be back in form for Kona.

Previous Winners

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Female Race Results

Course Records

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Switzerland is 06:06.

Race Adjustments for IM Switzerland

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Switzerland is a P-2000 race. It has a total prize purse of 50.000 US$.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

KPR Situation

Men

A few of the men are already safe for a July Kona slot:

• Ronnie Schildknecht (5.550)
• Matt Trautmann (7.195)

• Miquel Blanchard Tinto: 3.700 at 3+1 (to improve he needs to score more than 960 points, i.e. 3rd or better)
• Michael Raelert (3.000, he races Zürich as his 2015 IM race, a 4th or better should be enough for him)

• Mike Aigroz (2.825)
• Jan Van Berkel (2.600)
• David Plese (2.285)
• Alessandro Degasperi (2.000)
• Mauro Baertsch (1.905)
• Alberto Casadei (1.791)

Women

Mary Beth Ellis already has enough points for a slot, but she still needs to finish an Ironman (but will be racing for a good result as well).

In addition to her, there are athletes that need to place well to score the points they still need for a July slot (projected cutoff at 5.100 points). Most of them have already raced a lot, so in addition to the points they have at this point, I also show the “base” points they have before adding a good Zürich result to their score:

• Corinne Abraham (4.725, same base; needs a 7th or better, but was DNS in Austria and it’s not clear if she’ll be racing)
• Mareen Hufe (4.490, base 3.975; needs 3rd or better)
• Beth Gerdes (4.515, base 3.795; needs 2nd or better)
• Dimitry-Lee Duke (3.945, base 3.625; needs 2nd or better)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Ronnie Schildknecht has won this race seven times in a row, last year he was forced to race in Frankfurt in order to get more points for his Kona qualifying. This year, he is already safe after a 3rd place in Texas and can go back to his home race. He is joined by a number of strong athletes that are looking for more Kona points or a just a decent Ironman race:

• Ronnie Schildknecht: 43% (1-1)
• Matt Trautman: 17% (5-1)
• Alessandro Degasperi: 15% (6-1)
• David Plese: 8% (12-1)
• Miquel Blanchart Tinto: 6% (16-1)
• Mike Aigroz: 4% (23-1)
• Michael Raelert: 4% (24-1)

Female Race Participants

• Mary Beth Ellis: 50% (1-1)
• Corinne Abraham: 22% (4-1)
• Beth Gerdes: 13% (7-1)
• Mareen Hufe: 9% (11-1)
• Eimear Mullan: 3% (28-1)

Race Conditions

This year’s IM Germany was very hot with lots of sun and temperatures getting close to 40°C/100°F. This lead to overall slower times, an adjustment of 4:45 was a lot slower than the course rating of 12:38. It seemed to uniformly affect the swim (non-wetsuit of course), the bike and the run. The effects on the age groupers was probably even higher.

Male Race Results

Jan Frodeno was one of the favorites going into the race, and he delivered a fantastic race with best splits on all three legs (including a 4:08 bike leg – third fastest ever on the Ironman bike leg!) and a new course record improving on Sebi’s 7:55 from last year.

Sebi finished in second place, almost 12 minutes back of Frodo. Nonetheless, he had a good race not loosing to much time in the swim, improving on his bike course record from last year and then having a solid 2:56 marathon in the heat. In third place there was another German: Andi Böcherer had a very good race after struggling with injuries for the last years.

Behind the top three, Bas Diederen (4th), Ty Butterfield (7th) and Eneko Llanos (8th) scored some more points for their Kona slots. Frederik Van Lierde finished fifth, but after his win in South Africa his focus was probably more on Kona in October. After struggling a bit on the swim, Andreas Raelert had a solid race, but his 6th place leaves him still short of enough points for a slot.

Female Race Results

Daniela Ryf continued her impressive string of Ironman races with a solid win in Frankfurt, posting another course record. After staying in a group with Julia Gajer and Caroline Steffen until about 90k on the bike, she took off and quickly built a 7-minute lead into T2 and finished off the day with her fastest IM marathon so far.

As she was hoping for, Julia Gajer managed to take another step forward in her long distance racing. She staid with Daniela and Caroline on the swim and when Daniela rode away from them, she was also able to build a lead to Caroline Steffen, starting the run 3 minutes ahead of Caroline. There were no changes in the Top 3 on the run, only the differences increased between Daniela, Julia and Caroline.

Behind them, lots of positions changed. Sonja Tajsich struggled with injuries for quite some time, she had a solid day to finish in fourth. She was almost run down by Ruth Brennan-Morrey who used a 3:04:49 marathon to run her way from 9th in T2 into a 5th place finish that she needed for a Kona slot.

Kristin Möller had the fastest run split of the day, the 3:01:14 took her into 6th place.

Michelle Vesterby was fourth in T2 but DNF’d around the half marathon mark. She needs to do another Ironman if she wants to qualify. Tine Deckers was fifth in T2, but she finished in 7th just a few weeks after racing IM Brasil and also needs more points.