Thanks to Steve Clark who sent me the Wales start list.

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2011	Jeremy Jurkiewicz (FRA)	09:04:21	Kristin Moeller (GER)	10:01:19
2012	Sylvain Rota (FRA)	08:52:43	Regula Rohrbach (SUI)	09:45:09
2013	Scott Neyedli (GBR)	09:09:10	Lucy Gossage (GBR)	09:51:21

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Scott Neyedli	GBR	00:47:13	05:11:26	03:02:35	09:09:10
2	Marek Jaskolka	POL	00:47:05	05:16:02	03:07:22	09:18:16
3	Michael Goehner	GER	00:52:07	05:16:10	03:02:05	09:19:01

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Lucy Gossage	GBR	00:56:59	05:31:36	03:15:02	09:51:21
2	Regula Rohrbach	SUI	00:56:01	05:36:54	03:35:44	10:18:00
3	Katja Konschak	GER	00:51:09	06:02:30	03:12:39	10:24:05

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	08:52:43	Sylvain Rota	2012-09-16
Swim	overall	00:44:07	Harry Wiltshire	2012-09-16
Swim	overall	00:44:07	Daniel Halksworth	2012-09-16
Bike	overall	05:04:16	Sylvain Rota	2012-09-16
Run	overall	02:48:01	Jeremy Jurkiewicz	2011-09-11
Total	female	09:45:09	Regula Rohrbach	2012-09-16
Swim	female	00:47:55	Anja Beranek	2011-09-11
Bike	female	05:31:36	Lucy Gossage	2013-09-08
Run	female	03:02:28	Kristin Moeller	2011-09-11

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Wales is – 11:39.

Race Adjustments for IM Wales

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Athletes	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2011	-19:41	04:20	-25:30	00:21	20	-19:41	04:20	-25:30	00:21
2012	02:13	04:44	-23:34	17:26	22	-08:44	04:32	-24:32	08:53
2013	-17:28	00:55	-28:37	-01:19	22	-11:39	03:20	-25:53	05:29

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Wales has 2000 KPR points for the winner. It has a total prize purse of 25k$.

Male Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating	Rank
1	1	Fraser Cartmell	GBR	09:12:00	09:00:21	00:47:54	04:43:15	03:17:54	(100)
2	4	Nick Baldwin	SEY	09:12:32	09:00:52	00:53:41	04:45:10	03:04:23	105
3	14	Matt Trautman	ZAF	09:12:56	09:01:16	00:48:14	04:41:32	02:59:20	(110)
4	2	Daniel Niederreiter	AUT	09:16:33	09:04:48	00:51:25	04:53:28	03:09:12	123
5	11	Mike Schifferle	SUI	09:20:01	09:08:12	01:00:33	04:52:00	03:06:17	137
6	12	Oliver Simon	GBR	09:46:06	09:33:44	00:48:39	04:55:39	03:33:48	232
7	15	Hendrik-Jan Verhaegen	BEL	09:46:49	09:34:26	00:55:57	04:51:59	03:13:18	(238)
8	5	James Brown	GBR	09:52:20	09:39:50	01:01:30	05:02:04	03:14:57	262
9	3	Paul Hawkins	GBR	09:53:32	09:41:00	00:59:43	05:35:27	03:24:43	(265)
10	6	Steve Clark	GBR	10:03:57	09:51:12	00:57:57	05:02:25	03:22:03	(303)
11	17	Martin Cain	GBR	10:28:57	10:15:41	00:59:11	05:17:20	03:37:13	382
12	7	Christian Funk	GER	11:43:09	11:28:19	01:25:38	05:37:16	03:41:38	(454)
	8	Rinus Holvoet	BEL	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	9	Dominic Rohan-Gates	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	10	Peru Alfaro	ESP	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	13	Harry Springall	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	16	Peter Wilby	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

Tamsin Lewis was planning on racing in Wales, but has said on Twitter she can’t start. This leaves only a small women’s field:

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating	Rank
1	24	Julia Bohn	GER	10:36:59	10:23:32	01:01:02	05:30:38	03:36:17	(119)
2	22	Katharina Grohmann	GER	10:38:31	10:25:02	01:14:22	05:26:24	03:21:45	121
3	23	Amy Forshaw	GBR	11:01:21	10:47:24	01:03:45	05:40:27	03:35:21	146
4	25	Laura Bostock	GBR	12:41:25	12:25:21	01:02:32	06:13:09	04:32:03	(162)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

The men’s race promises some close racing, and there is no obvious pre-race favorite:

• Nick Baldwin: 34% (2-1)
• Daniel Niederreiter: 20% (4-1)
• Matt Trautman: 18% (4-1)
• Mike Schifferle: 16% (5-1)
• Fraser Cartmell: 9% (10-1)

Female Race Participants

• Julia Bohn: 56% (1-1)
• Katharina Grohmann: 31% (2-1)
• Amy Forshaw: 8% (12-1)
• Laura Bostock: 2% (47-1)

Previous Winners

Almere is the second-oldest Ironman-distance race. It has been a member of the challenge family since 2013.

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2013	Bart Colpaert (BEL)	08:34:50	Susan Blatt (GER)	09:24:40

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Bart Colpaert	BEL	00:46:14	04:46:34	02:57:24	08:34:50
2	Georg Potrebitsch	GER	00:49:20	04:49:23	03:00:12	08:43:19
3	Erik-Simon Strijk	NED	00:53:07	04:42:55	03:05:03	08:45:48

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Susan Blatt	GER	00:56:19	05:06:12	03:17:25	09:24:40
2	Irene Kinnegim	NED	01:07:27	05:14:35	03:17:17	09:47:37
3	Kathrin Walther	GER	00:56:44	05:23:27	03:40:01	10:07:44

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	08:34:50	Bart Colpaert	2013-09-14
Swim	overall	00:46:10	Dylan McNeice	2013-09-14
Bike	overall	04:42:55	Erik-Simon Strijk	2013-09-14
Run	overall	02:57:24	Bart Colpaert	2013-09-14
Total	female	09:24:40	Susan Blatt	2013-09-14
Swim	female	00:51:37	Hillary Biscay	2013-09-14
Bike	female	05:06:12	Susan Blatt	2013-09-14
Run	female	03:17:17	Irene Kinnegim	2013-09-14

Course Rating

The Course Rating for Challenge Almere is 11:13.

Race Adjustments for Challenge Almere

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Athletes	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2013	11:13	00:18	01:44	03:49	16	11:13	00:18	01:44	03:49

Male Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating	Rank
1	4	Markus Fachbach	GER	08:33:10	08:44:03	00:49:48	04:43:09	03:04:05	(46)
2	6	Gerrit Schellens	BEL	08:34:51	08:45:46	00:53:25	04:57:39	02:46:36	(49)
3	8	Dejan Patrcevic	CRO	08:39:57	08:50:59	00:52:14	04:58:05	02:54:39	(63)
4	2	Georg Potrebitsch	GER	08:47:33	08:58:44	00:49:19	04:54:11	03:13:06	93
5	5	Petr Vabrousek	CZE	08:49:36	09:00:50	00:55:10	04:52:38	03:03:45	104
6	11	Sergio Marques	POR	08:49:59	09:01:13	00:55:07	05:01:41	02:58:59	109
7	1	Bart Colpaert	BEL	08:50:03	09:01:17	00:46:55	04:46:44	03:05:38	(110)
8	7	Andrey Lyatskiy	RUS	08:53:05	09:04:23	00:48:34	04:55:51	03:09:52	120
9	9	Tuukka Miettinen	FIN	09:00:21	09:11:49	00:55:34	04:54:28	03:06:22	(153)
10	21	David Naesvik	SWE	09:03:36	09:15:08	00:55:11	04:48:47	03:16:38	161
11	3	Dirk Wijnalda	NED	09:04:52	09:16:25	00:57:00	05:00:07	03:06:33	171
12	10	Thomas Naasz	NED	09:24:53	09:36:52	00:55:35	05:01:20	03:18:32	(248)
13	15	Thijs Koelen	NED	09:29:15	09:41:19	00:51:50	04:54:33	03:26:33	(267)
14	19	Evgeniy Nikitin	RUS	09:51:16	10:03:48	00:51:04	05:10:48	03:45:08	351
15	18	Georgy Kaurov	RUS	09:59:52	10:12:35	00:50:24	05:00:19	03:33:54	(376)
16	14	Diederik Scheltinga	NED	11:29:29	11:44:06	00:51:44	05:23:30	04:52:03	(455)
	12	Alexey Brylev	RUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	13	Vladimir Savic	SRB	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	16	Bart Candel	NED	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	17	Valentin Zasypkin	RUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	20	Jon Thorp	NOR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	22	Aleksandr Kocetkov	LTU	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	23	Margus Nomm	EST	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	24	Jan Jakubicek	CZE	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	25	Petr Minarik	CZE	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating	Rank
1	51	Heleen Bij De Vaate	NED	09:47:37	10:00:05	01:05:40	05:16:11	03:29:31	75
2	53	Kristin Lie	NOR	10:04:14	10:17:03	01:12:06	05:18:06	03:29:02	103
3	52	Celia Kuch	GER	10:12:28	10:25:27	01:03:20	05:25:28	03:38:10	123
4	59	Lina-Kristin Schink	GER	10:27:52	10:41:11	01:10:18	05:31:08	03:30:48	(142)
5	56	Tineke Van den Berg	NED	10:29:42	10:43:03	01:09:09	05:11:29	03:40:30	(142)
6	54	Vanessa Pereira	POR	10:35:28	10:48:57	01:02:01	05:39:14	03:41:40	148
7	57	Rahel Bellinga	NED	10:50:03	11:03:50	01:02:49	05:18:42	04:00:32	(157)
8	60	Zeljka Saban	CRO	11:00:33	11:14:34	00:56:00	06:04:53	03:59:46	(159)
9	55	Corine Nelen	NED	11:12:55	11:27:11	01:01:31	05:32:12	04:10:57	(160)
	58	Victoria Gill	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	61	Anna Kusch	GER	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Bart Colpaert is back to defend his title, but he faces strong competition by last year’s second finisher Georg Potrebitsch and by Markus Fachbach who is my pre-race favorite:

• Markus Fachbach: 33% (2-1)
• Georg Potrebitsch: 23% (3-1)
• Bart Colpaert: 14% (6-1)
• Sergio Marques: 10% (9-1)
• Gerrit Schellens: 10% (9-1)
• Dejan Patrcevic: 6% (16-1)
• Petr Vabrousek: 2% (58-1)

Female Race Participants

The women’s race appears to be a close call between Kristin Lie (solid racer who will probably have to chase after the swim) and veteran Heleen Bij De Vaate. Celia Kuch will be in the mix early on but will probably fall back on the bike and run:

• Kristin Lie: 40% (1-1)
• Heleen Bij De Vaate: 34% (2-1)
• Celia Kuch: 22% (3-1)
• Lina-Kristin Schink: 2% (55-1)

Race Conditions

This year was probably the last Pro race in Wisconsin. It had the fastest conditions that I’ve seen here so far: an adjustment of 6:47 was way faster than the course rating of -3:36. It helped Daniel Bretscher to post a new course record, and female winner Britta Martin was only three minutes slower than Gina Crawford’s course record of 9:27.

Male Race Results

Konstantin Bachor was leading the race into T2, and was able to hold the lead until about the 16 mile mark. Then his wheels came off a little bit, and Daniel Bretscher managed to take the lead. He was able to win the race even if Brandon Marsh closed the gap to just a minute in the last section of the run. Pedro Gomes managed to take the third spot on the podium.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Daniel Bretscher	USA	00:52:16	04:42:57	02:50:14	08:31:20	-23:20
2	Brandon Marsh	USA	00:47:52	04:46:54	02:51:06	08:32:23	-14:54
3	Pedro Gomes	POR	00:52:17	04:42:51	02:55:41	08:36:56	-16:02
4	Konstantin Bachor	GER	00:52:16	04:31:14	03:08:27	08:38:42	-01:17
5	Matt Hanson	USA	00:53:32	04:55:17	02:55:42	08:50:16	-00:09
6	Karol Dzalaj	SVK	00:52:24	04:51:03	03:09:40	08:59:38	-10:20
7	Jared Milam	USA	00:56:33	04:58:49	03:07:11	09:08:47	-12:29
8	Adam Bohach	USA	00:59:09	05:08:37	03:03:28	09:18:11	00:06
9	Ryan Rau	USA	00:59:50	05:10:18	03:03:11	09:18:59	-03:58
10	Nick Early	USA	00:52:20	04:56:29	03:28:17	09:23:24	n/a
11	Blake Becker	USA	00:52:27	05:10:43	03:42:57	09:52:33	27:31
12	Jared Woodford	USA	00:52:27	05:13:44	03:45:02	09:58:31	-23:43
13	Paul Eicher	USA	00:52:34	04:59:33	03:59:03	09:59:43	-03:16
14	Jeremy Howard	USA	00:52:19	05:34:10	03:40:52	10:13:52	-00:51
15	Andres Castillo	COL	00:47:54	05:14:59	04:05:48	10:15:29	1:10:07
16	Thomas Gerlach	USA	00:56:30	04:47:29	04:27:38	10:17:36	1:21:23
17	Jason Smith	USA	00:57:22	05:23:26	04:09:13	10:37:12	n/a

Female Race Results

On the women’s side, Britta Martin won the race by more than 10 minutes in front of Tamara Kozulina. Ashley Clifford ran herself into the third place.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Britta Martin	NZL	00:59:13	05:15:26	03:08:40	09:30:08	-01:36
2	Tamara Kozulina	UKR	01:04:13	05:15:52	03:14:15	09:41:16	02:47
3	Ashley Clifford	USA	00:56:29	05:32:10	03:09:36	09:45:10	05:41
4	Ariane Monticeli	BRA	01:04:11	05:30:17	03:04:11	09:49:40	-04:18
5	Jackie Arendt	USA	00:56:28	05:30:23	03:29:30	10:03:58	15:39
6	Jessica Smith	USA	00:57:12	05:28:10	03:57:02	10:29:41	18:59
7	Tami Ritchie	USA	00:52:31	05:46:48	03:54:57	10:42:13	-01:19
8	Andrea Hutchins	USA	01:11:25	05:53:43	03:34:19	10:49:36	n/a
9	Palmira Alvarez	MEX	01:11:07	05:46:25	03:52:58	10:58:55	-18:25
	Kim Schwabenbauer	USA	01:04:18	05:21:28		DNF

At the end of the qualifying period and handling all rolldowns, the Pro start lists for Kona are finalized. At this point, there can be no more additions to the list – when athletes can’t start there won’t be any more rolldowns.

At this point, the bibs are preliminary and based on the procedure WTC used in the last years to assign the bibs (last year’s winner gets #1 or #101, the rest according to KPR rankings, and #13 is not assigned). As soon as an official bib list is available, I’ll update the numbers as necessary.The bibs are now based on the official start list published on ironman.com.

I plan to update this post (based on the original pro list from Ironman.com) with new developments, so that it always reflects the current information.

Updates

• Aug 31st: Cameron Brown has declined his slot, and Andreas Raelert managed to get a last minute slot.
• Sep 10th: Domenico Passuello decided he did not want his slot. This rolled the slot to Markus Thomschke – who didn’t want it.  Then it rolled to Paul Ambrose who accepted:
  

Withdrawals

As usual, some athletes are qualified for Kona, but run into issues in their final Kona prep and can’t recover in time for a Kona start:

• Melissa Hauschildt
  Melissa was dealing with a torn pec tendon since 70.3 Champs and has withdrawn for Kona (announced on Oct 3rd). “The diagnosis from the doctor in Boulder after x-rays and ultrasound, is a torn pec, intercostals and connective tissue and a subluxed rib. It’s on the mend. I can now ride completely pain free. I can run, although fast running flares it up a little.” (More at witsup.com)
• Peter Robertson
  Robbo was training for Kona when he hit the deck hard and broke his clavicle:
  
  He announced his withdrawal on Sept 29th.
• Jessie Donavan
  Jessie has been dealing with leg issues (“sciatic nerve inflammation”) for most of the season. She describes in her blog post “To Kona or Not to Kona” how she finally decided not to race.
• David Dellow
  David is apparently out of the race with an injury (as reported by firstoffthebike).

Male Race Participants

Bib	Name	Nation	Age
1	Frederik Van Lierde	BEL	35
2	Luke McKenzie	AUS	33
3	Sebastian Kienle	GER	30
4	Bart Aernouts	BEL	30
5	Tyler Butterfield	BMU	31
6	Timothy O’Donnell	USA	34
7	Ivan Rana	ESP	35
8	James Cunnama	ZAF	31
9	Jan Frodeno	GER	33
10	Terenzo Bozzone	NZL	29
11	Craig Alexander	AUS	41
12	Pete Jacobs	AUS	32
14	Victor Del Corral	ESP	34
15	Andy Potts	USA	37
16	Michael Weiss	AUT	33
17	Igor Amorelli	BRA	30
18	Matthew Russell	USA	31
19	Joe Gambles	AUS	32
20	Tim Van Berkel	AUS	30
21	Daniel Halksworth	GBR	28
22	Chris McDonald	AUS	36
23	David Plese	SLO	31
24	Marino Vanhoenacker	BEL	38
25	Eneko Llanos	ESP	37
26	Maik Twelsiek	GER	33
27	Elliot Holtham	CAN	30
28	Faris Al-Sultan	GER	36
29	TJ Tollakson	USA	34
30	Paul Matthews	AUS	31
31	Andrew Starykowicz	USA	32
32	Harry Wiltshire	GBR	31
33	Marek Jaskolka	POL	38
34	Richie Cunningham	AUS	41
35	Christian Kramer	GER	31
36	Jeremy Jurkiewicz	FRA
37	David Dellow	AUS	35
38	Cyril Viennot	FRA	32
39	Peter Robertson	AUS	38
40	Filip Ospaly	CZE	38
41	Ben Hoffman	USA	31
42	Christian Brader	GER	34
43	Nils Frommhold	GER	28
44	Justin Daerr	USA	33
45	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	30
46	Romain Guillaume	FRA	29
47	Marko Albert	EST	35
48	Bevan Docherty	NZL	37
49	Daniel Fontana	ITA	38
50	Timothy Reed	AUS	29
51	Axel Zeebroek	BEL	36
52	Boris Stein	GER	29
53	Ronnie Schildknecht	SUI	35
54	Andreas Raelert	GER	38
55	Paul Ambrose	GBR	30

Female Race Participants

Bib	Name	Nation	Age
101	Mirinda Carfrae	AUS	33
102	Rachel Joyce	GBR	36
103	Meredith Kessler	USA	36
104	Liz Blatchford	GBR	34
105	Caroline Steffen	SUI	36
106	Gina Crawford	NZL	33
107	Yvonne Van Vlerken	NED	35
108	Linsey Corbin	USA	33
109	Caitlin Snow	USA	32
110	Elizabeth Lyles	USA	36
111	Leanda Cave	GBR	36
112	Daniela Ryf	SUI	27
113	Amber Ferreira	USA	32
114	Melissa Hauschildt	AUS	31
115	Sara Gross	CAN	38
116	Catriona Morrison	GBR	37
117	Mary Beth Ellis	USA	37
118	Melanie Burke	NZL
119	Asa Lundstroem	SWE	30
120	Beth Shutt	USA	35
121	Michelle Vesterby	DEN	31
122	Kristin Moeller	GER	30
123	Lucy Gossage	GBR	34
124	Amanda Stevens	USA	37
125	Jodie Swallow	GBR	33
126	Sofie Goos	BEL	34
127	Natascha Badmann	SUI	47
128	Julia Gajer	GER	32
129	Lisa Roberts	USA	35
130	Corinne Abraham	GBR	36
131	Simone Braendli	SUI	34
132	Jackie Arendt	USA	30
133	Kim Schwabenbauer	USA	35
134	Bree Wee	USA	34
135	Jessie Donavan	USA	38
136	Heather Wurtele	CAN	35
137	Kelly Williamson	USA	36
138	Katja Konschak	GER	36