If you are interested in a comprehensive look at the upcoming June races and the implications for the first round of Kona qualifiers, you’ll want to have a look at my upcoming Summer Rating Report. If you want to get an info as soon as it’s available, please subscribe to my mailing list by using the form in the sidebar on the right.

Previous Results

With a course rating of 17:08 Austria is one of the two screaming fast courses, only Challenge Roth is a little bit quicker (course rating 19:12). Last year’s race was won by Marino Vanhoenacker, who set a new world record (and of course, course record) of 7:45:58. (The world record was broken a week later in Roth by Andreas Raelert.) The women’s winner was Mary-Beth Ellis in her first full Ironman in a time of 8:43:34 (also the course record).

Male Participants

Marino has won in Austria 6 times, but has decided to shake things up a little bit this and is going to race in Frankfurt. In his absence, Faris Al-Sultan and Tom Lowe are the favorites for the race:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Faris Al-Sultan	GER	08:11:12	08:27:18	9
2	Tom Lowe	GBR	08:14:10	08:30:21	13
3	Daniel Fontana	ITA	08:17:44	08:34:02	21
4	Michael Goehner	GER	08:20:24	08:36:48	25
5	Hannes Hempel	AUT	08:25:59	08:42:34	42
6	Mika Luoto	FIN	08:28:35	08:45:15	53
7	Markus Fachbach	GER	08:30:38	08:47:22	66
8	Pedro Gomez	POR	08:35:45	08:52:39	97
9	Jose Luis Villanueva	ESP	08:37:31	08:54:28	106
10	Petr Vabrousek	CZE	08:40:12	08:57:15	116
11	Philip Graves	GBR	08:40:33	08:57:36	118
12	Daniel Niederreiter	AUT	08:43:49	09:00:59	140
13	Simon Billeau	FRA	08:43:55	09:01:05	141
14	Patrick Jaberg	SWI	08:45:24	09:02:37	147
15	Markus Ressler	AUT	08:51:45	09:09:10	187
16	Ernst Moser	AUT	08:51:47	09:09:12	189
17	Thomas Hellriegel	GER	08:53:42	09:11:11	203
18	Balazs Csoke	HUN	08:53:43	09:11:12	204
19	Dominik Berger	AUT	08:54:01	09:11:31	206
20	Andreas Fuchs		08:55:27	09:13:00	218
21	Georg Swoboda	AUT	09:00:25	09:18:07	261
22	Markus Lichtenegger		09:21:21	09:39:44	418
23	Sandi Ivancic	SLO	09:29:41	09:48:21	475
24	Matjaz Kovac	SVN	09:32:33	09:51:19	505
25	Jozef Vrabel	SVK	09:38:30	09:57:27	538
26	Bojan Maric	SCG	09:55:26	10:14:56	647
27	Marek Nemcik	SVK	11:48:32	12:11:45	848
28	Ivan Kharin	RUS	n/a	unrated	n/a
29	Jan-Roelf Heerssema		n/a	unrated	n/a
30	Milan Rovensky		n/a	unrated	n/a
31	Matej Paradiz		n/a	unrated	n/a
32	Benoit Bourguet		n/a	unrated	n/a
33	Mark Livesey		n/a	unrated	n/a
34	Richard Martinez		n/a	unrated	n/a
35	Evgeniy Nikitin		n/a	unrated	n/a
36	Josef Krivanek		n/a	unrated	n/a
37	Mario Fink		n/a	unrated	n/a

Female Participants

Erika Csomor has posted a number of fast times in Austria, but hasn’t won there yet. Not sure if she can get the top spot this year – with Linsey Corbin she faces a strong competitor:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Linsey Corbin	USA	09:11:02	09:29:05	13
2	Erika Csomor	HUN	09:17:40	09:35:56	26
3	Simone Helfenschneider-Ofner	AUT	09:21:41	09:40:05	38
4	Dana Wagner	GER	09:54:22	10:13:50	136
5	Nicole Woysch	GER	10:01:50	10:21:33	163
6	Conny Dauben	GER	10:33:18	10:54:03	237
7	Zeljka Saban		11:00:28	11:22:06	262
8	Christine Grammer		n/a	unrated	n/a
9	Michaela Rudolf		n/a	unrated	n/a
10	Simone Fürnkranz		n/a	unrated	n/a
11	Simona Vykoukalova		n/a	unrated	n/a

Race Conditions

Conditions on race day seemed to be pretty normal for CdA – a race adjustment of 2:34 leads to a new course rating of 3:36.

Male Results

Victor Zyemtsev took control of the race on the bike, leading into T2 and then posting the fastest run as well:

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Victor Zyemtsev	USA	00:51:56	04:47:55	02:49:37	08:32:29	08:38:15
2	Timothy O’Donnell	USA	00:49:20	04:56:22	02:52:59	08:41:36	08:43:46
3	Matthew Russell	USA	01:06:23	04:48:52	02:53:41	08:52:00	09:02:48
4	Kevin Taddonio	USA	01:05:32	04:47:10	02:59:45	08:55:48	08:56:35
5	Anton Blokhin	UKR	00:51:28	04:53:11	03:12:05	08:59:49	08:56:08
6	Joel Jameson	GBR	01:01:36	05:05:37	02:59:26	09:09:52	09:03:44
7	Ian Mikelson	USA	00:53:56	05:09:07	03:05:50	09:13:03	09:04:53
8	Bryan Rhodes	NZL	00:49:13	05:06:04	03:21:10	09:20:27	09:11:23
9	Chris Boudreaux		00:56:01	05:17:19	03:05:50	09:23:10	09:31:40
10	Brendan Halpin	USA	01:03:20	05:05:13	03:18:06	09:30:04	09:26:29
11	Guy Crawford	AUS	00:51:28	04:50:17	04:02:10	09:47:12	09:09:55
12	Blake Becker	USA	00:55:59	05:42:09	04:50:06	11:33:03	09:53:47
13	Lewis Elliot	USA	00:56:06	04:58:38	06:18:50	12:17:14	09:32:10

Tim O’Donnell had a solid race, moving into the second spot early in the run, and validating his Kona spot. Behind him there was quite some back and forth for the third podium spot on the run: At different points, Guy Crawford, Anton Blokhin and Kevin Taddonio held that spot, but in the end  it was taken by Matthew Russell.

Female Results

On the female side, Meredith Kessler posted the fastest splits across the board:

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Meredith Kessler	USA	00:51:53	05:13:16	03:12:04	09:21:44	09:33:44
2	Haley Cooper-Scott	USA	01:06:02	05:27:40	03:24:31	10:01:25	10:12:42
3	Whitney Garcia	USA	01:01:56	05:32:47	03:20:18	10:01:46	09:58:48
4	Rachel Kiers	CAN	01:01:39	05:39:13	03:31:41	10:16:19	10:14:40
5	Beth Shutt	USA	01:03:27	05:37:41	03:37:21	10:22:16	n/a
6	Stephanie Ossenbrink	CAN	01:01:42	05:30:14	03:48:53	10:24:44	n/a
7	Trish Deim	USA	01:06:50	05:36:04	03:45:59	10:34:32	n/a
8	Amanda McKenzie	AUS	01:05:55	06:11:01	04:00:33	11:22:40	11:04:32

The story that’s missing from the results is the drama around the disqualification of Heather Wurtele. She was leading the race together with MBK when the crank fell off her bike. Christie Sym (who apparently had DNF’d) then gave Heather her bike to finish the bike leg “BMX style” (Heather is 6’2”, and Christie’s bike was a 51cm – I’d love to see a photo). This seems to be in conflict with a USATA rule that forward progress on the bike leg has to be done with your bike at all times and it was decided she’d be DQ’d. She was not allowed to finish the race and contest the DQ afterwards. I hope that she’ll be able to regroup, validate her Kona spot in another IM race pretty soon and is going to have a strong Kona race.

Race Conditions

Conditions on race day were typical for France – a race adjustment of 7:40 was almost exactly in line with the new course rating of 7:47. Even if the conditions were not super-fast, the two winners set new course records.

Male Results

Frederik van Lierde successfully defended his title, leading almost from start to finish:

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Frederik Van Lierde	BEL	00:47:22	04:35:42	02:53:39	08:21:51	08:27:13
2	Paul Amey	GBR	00:48:46	04:55:50	02:52:15	08:42:48	08:26:47
3	Francois Chabaud	FRA	00:48:53	04:48:21	03:02:02	08:45:23	08:38:57
4	Bruno Clerbout	BEL	00:51:34	05:01:10	02:48:16	08:46:54	09:03:19
5	Sergio Marques	PRT	00:55:26	05:02:02	02:45:39	08:48:55	08:57:24
6	Jose Jeuland	FRA	00:50:35	05:02:23	02:54:30	08:53:52	09:12:54
7	Axel Zeebroek	BEL	00:47:24	04:56:43	03:06:52	08:56:43	08:45:47
8	Trevor Delsaut	FRA	00:55:29	05:06:51	02:54:45	09:02:59	08:54:51
9	Mike Schifferle	SWI	01:00:11	04:57:22	02:58:22	09:07:08	09:03:39
10	Jonas Djurback	SWE	00:50:30	05:02:36	03:10:39	09:09:28	n/a
11	Marcel Bischof	GER	00:57:16	04:59:23	03:12:07	09:14:56	09:28:49
12	Anthony Pannier	FRA	00:47:22	04:50:06	03:35:43	09:19:09	n/a
13	Rafael Gomes	POR	00:55:25	05:22:48	03:15:08	09:39:50	n/a
14	Pierre Dorez	FRA	00:52:31	04:52:05	03:55:32	09:46:09	n/a
15	Ludovic Le Guellec	FRA	00:59:41	05:25:09	03:34:12	10:05:28	09:51:02
16	Ulrik Schaarup	DEN	00:59:48	05:02:58	04:54:07	11:03:36	n/a

Late entry Paul Amey used his good marathon to run by Francois Chabaud to secure the second place.

Female Results

Tine Deckers took control of the race on the bike, and then went on to post a strong marathon to win in a convincing fashion:

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Tine Deckers	BEL	00:57:18	05:10:03	03:02:31	09:16:05	09:28:51
2	Gina Crawford	NZL	00:52:10	05:20:04	03:07:14	09:26:25	09:27:25
3	Kristin Moeller	GER	01:02:47	05:27:58	03:00:29	09:37:07	09:43:09
4	Tamara Kozulina	UKR	01:00:33	05:30:15	03:09:51	09:47:34	09:45:15
5	Martina Dogana	ITA	00:59:42	05:38:54	03:10:33	09:55:09	09:46:13
6	Beth Walsh	USA	00:59:48	05:44:05	03:08:32	09:58:26	n/a
7	Anne Basso	FRA	00:55:18	05:39:06	03:48:16	10:29:12	10:16:54

Gina Crawford had a solid race and finished second, Kristin Moeller needed the best marathon to run into third place.