Race Conditions

Conditions in Whistler were slightly faster than last year, an adjustment of 7:00 leads to a new course rating of 5:07. (Statistically it was a bit weird: Each leg was slower than last year, but overall it was faster. This is caused by they way I discard outliers, it means that when athletes had a good leg, they were way faster than expected, and most other athletes were just slightly slower.)

Male Race Results

Marino won the race in convincing fashion, being close to the front on the swim, then pulling away on the bike and securing his Kona spot on the run. For a long time, Paul Ambrose held on to the 2nd place he would have needed to qualify, then fell back to fourth and eventually battled back into third. Second place was taken by Jeff Symonds with a great 2:40 run, while last year’s winner Trevor Wurtele had great start of the day but struggled to hold on to his great position on the run fading to fourth.

Female Race Results

The women’s race was quite a nail biter: The Top 4 came off the bike within two minutes. Bree Wee was statistically the worst runner of the front pack, but needed a win to get enough points for Kona. With her known fightings spirit, she gave it everything and was elated to take the win. Karen Thibodeau and Mackenzie Madison finished on the podium, leaving only fourth place to Jackie Arendt.

Race Conditions

As usual, Lake Placid was a pretty slow course: This year the adjustment was -0:04, leading to a new course rating of -2:22. The swim and bike were especially slow (probably because of the rainy weather), it was partly compensated by a slightly faster than normal run. 

Male Race Results

Kyle Buckingham took control of the race early on the bike and never let up. Even if he was slightly slower than his earlier results would have indicated, he won in a very convincing fashion and secured a Kona spot. Behind him, Balasz Csoke took second with a good performance across the board, and Jonathan Shearon finished third.

Raymond Botelho took the men’s 7th and „winning“ the prize for #IMLP7th. 

Female Race Results

Amber Ferreira swam faster than all other finishers, then followed that up with strong bike and run performances and took the win. Kim Schwabenbauer and Lisa Roberts took spots on the podium, also securing their Kona slots. 

The winner of the women’s #IMLP7th was Rachel Jastrebsky.

Race Conditions

This year’s race was a bit slower than normal in Switzerland. A typically slow swim (adjustment of -3:47) was followed by pretty average bike and runs, leading to an adjustment of 2:08 and a new course rating of 7:22.  

Male Race Results

Jan Van Berkel was leading his rome race for the longest time, but really struggled towards the end of the run and faded to 5th.. Boris Stein was the fastest, winning his first Ironman. He was followed by David Plese, Marek Jaskolka, and Filip Ospaly – all of which also secured a Kona slot.

Female Race Results

Daniela Ryf had an amazing weekend – on Saturday she won the 5150 in Zurich, on Sunday she started, finished and won her first Ironman. (Even winning wasn’t quit enough for a Kona slot, so she’ll be spared the tough decision of whether to accept a slot.) She was followed by Natascha Badmann, Sonja Tajsich and Kristin Möller who were all backing up just three weeks after IM Germany. Natascha and Kristin made sure to have enough Kona points to qualify.

Race Conditions

Even with the usual large number of sub-8 and sub-9 finishes, with an adjustment of 14:20 this year was a relatively slow race for the fast Roth standard (new course rating of 19:13).

Male Race Results

Timo Bracht fulfilled one of his dreams and won Roth. He had to work hard for it – after a great swim he rode with the second group and then hunted down long-time leader Nils Frommhold with a fantastic 2:44 run. Nils had a great day as well, and a 2:54 marathon after a 4:15 bike had him miss a sub-8 finish by seconds. Eneko Llanos finished third, he ran a solid sub-3 marathon without being really pushed. Joe Gambles had a great race with a strong run, James Cunnama struggled with stomach issues on the marathon (still sub-3), Dirk Bockel couldn’t quite deliver on the run, and Michael Rünz had a great first Ironman. So many great results, also opening up lots of interesting speculations for Kona.

Female Race Results

The women’s race shaped up to be a trial run for Kona with the „Big Four“ in women’s Ironman racing going head-to-head. At the front, it was a repeat of Kona, with Mirinda Carfrae running down Rachel Joyce who finished second. Caroline Steffen is still looking for the perfect bike/run balance, she lost a bit of time to Rachel and Rinnie, and then had a solid 3:05 marathon – which is no longer good enough to win in a world class field. However, she seems to be focused on Kona, and we’ll see what she can deliver in October! Yvonne Van Vlerken is probably happy with fourth place. Her swim is not quite yet where it was before her shoulder injury, she posted the fastest bike and then lost a bit of time on the run – still finishing sub-9! As with Xena, I’m looking forward to what she can do in Kona. Julia Gajer posted another solid Roth race – but a time just over 9 hours was only good for 5th place. She struggled a bit on the bike, but then posted the second fastest marathon time – just wait till she has a race with a good bike (such as Texas) and a good run (such as Roth)! 

Race Conditions

This year’s race was very slow (adjustment of -4:18), even for the normally slow course in the UK (new course rating 2:17). This was mainly caused by a very slow bike (adjustment of -15:16) – even strong bike riders barely finished under five hours.

Male Race Results

After narrowing the gap to eventual fourth place finisher Axel Zeebroek on the bike, Cyril Viennot quickly took the lead on the run and cruised to a solid win. Home favorite Joe Skipper had a fantastic run to finish second, and Kirill Korshegarov took the last spot on the podium.

Female Race Results

Tamsin Lewis had a fantastic first Ironman race – taking the lead on the bike and never looking in problems on the run. Katja Koschak collected some valuable KPR points, while Jo Carritt added another UK podium to her resume.