Race Conditions

Lake Placid is one of the slower courses with a course rating of –1:35. This year had relatively good conditions (relatively cool and low winds) with an adjustment of 0:22.

Male Results

The good conditions helped TJ Tollakson win his first IM in almost course record times:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	TJ Tollakson	USA	08:25:15	08:54:28
2	Ben Hoffman	USA	08:33:29	08:53:05
3	Jason Shortis	AUS	08:47:18	08:50:07
4	Eduardo Sturla	ARG	09:04:16	08:39:21
5	Daniel Bretscher	USA	09:07:05	n/a
6	Ian Mikelson	USA	09:12:42	09:11:16
7	Mike Neill	CAN	09:13:03	08:57:05
8	Tim Snow	USA	09:16:01	09:29:20
9	Matthew Russell	USA	09:26:26	09:21:39
10	John Hirsch	USA	09:45:50	09:44:56
11	Tyler Lord	CAN	10:09:48	10:38:32
12	Sergio Quezada	MEX	10:29:11	10:25:32
13	Ryan Kelly	USA	10:30:39	n/a
14	Holden Cameau	USA	10:33:27	n/a
15	Ryan Cain	CAN	10:50:16	n/a

Ben Hoffman improved on his last year’s result and held on for second, while Jason Shortis had the fastest marathon to capture the third spot.

Female Results

Heather Wurtele won her second IM this year, and leading from start to finish she actually managed to set a new course record:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Heather Wurtele	CAN	09:19:03	09:34:26
2	Tine Deckers	BEL	09:34:41	09:39:44
3	Tyler Stewart	USA	09:38:09	09:39:50
4	Jackie Arendt	USA	09:56:21	10:08:16
5	Jacqui Gordon	USA	10:07:22	10:10:36
6	Suzanne Zelazo	CAN	10:21:08	11:18:11
7	Amber Ferreira	USA	10:30:39	11:37:57
8	Miranda Alldritt	CAN	10:46:46	10:51:00
9	Marie Danais	CAN	10:48:26	10:24:03

Heather Wurtele is steadily improving, she is now rated as #12 and it’ll be interesting to see how she is going to do in Hawaii (if she is going to race there).

Race Conditions

The conditions on race day were pretty bad. A lot of athletes struggled with the rainy, wet conditions. Still, some of the results were pretty good, and I guess people don’t really blow up in colder conditions. The adjustment of 12:58 was pretty much in line with the course rating.

Male Results

Faris Al-Sultan ran away this year and further solidified his spot in the TOP 10 ratings:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Faris Al-Sultan	GER	08:13:50	08:15:50
2	Jan Raphael	GER	08:19:31	08:27:28
3	Michael Goehner	GER	08:20:26	08:22:21
4	George Potrebitsch	GER	08:22:29	n/a
5	Stephan Vuckovic	GER	08:26:03	08:36:00
6	Luke McKenzie	AUS	08:26:51	08:37:33
7	Cameron Brown	NZL	08:31:47	08:19:31
8	Bert Jammaer	BEL	08:32:26	08:50:11
9	Patrick Vernay	NCL	08:32:59	08:22:53
10	Teemu Lemmettyla	FIN	08:36:36	09:20:28
11	Simon Billeau	FRA	08:43:58	08:49:59
12	Uwe Widmann	GER	08:46:33	08:29:53
13	Dirk Wijnalda	NLD	08:49:15	09:08:40
14	Per Bittner	GER	08:53:44	n/a
15	Mike Schifferle	SWI	08:54:20	09:01:34
16	Sergio Marques	PRT	08:57:53	08:51:49
17	Michael Wetzel	GER	08:58:40	n/a
18	Frank Vytrisal	GER	09:01:04	08:42:43
19	Andres Castillo latorre	COL	09:05:06	09:12:21
20	Andrey Lyatskiy	RUS	09:07:09	n/a
21	Erich Felbabel	FRA	09:19:08	09:33:29
22	Marc-Andre Hages	GER	09:22:20	n/a
23	Rene Goehler	DEU	09:30:26	08:54:03
24	Matjaz Kovac	SVN	09:34:50	09:38:41
25	Ivan Tejero Vazquez	ESP	09:49:31	10:15:53
26	Hirotsugu Kuwabara	JAP	10:07:34	09:49:57
27	Marek Nemcik	SVK	12:23:10	11:57:49

The German podium made the locals happy. Cam Brown and Patrick Vernay couldn’t quite live up to their ratings – at least for Cam I hope that he is really preparing for IM Hawaii this year.

Female Results

On the female side, Caroline Steffen also seemed to run away with race, but she really struggled on the run – so the top 4 women were each just a minute apart:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Caroline Steffen	SWI	09:12:13	09:22:54
2	Lucie Zelenkova	ZAF	09:13:46	09:26:51
3	Sonja Tajsich	GER	09:14:14	09:18:27
4	Yvonne Van Vlerken	AUT	09:15:37	09:06:59
5	Samantha Warriner	NZL	09:18:04	09:18:33
6	Meike Krebs	GER	09:22:43	09:41:49
7	Silvia Felt	GER	09:26:21	09:24:29
8	Susan Dietrich	GER	09:28:08	09:38:23
9	Heleen Bij De Vaate	NLD	09:32:51	09:25:41
10	Virginia Berasategui	ESP	09:37:00	09:27:49
11	Uli Bromme	USA	09:44:10	09:45:27
12	Fernanda Keller	BRA	11:07:02	10:08:14
13	Simone Benz	SWI	11:08:53	09:52:27
14	Saki Kubota	JAP	11:17:03	n/a

This resulted in a few shifts in the TOP 10: Yvonne lost a place (but is still #5), Sonja Tajsich is now #8, Sam Warriner is #11, Caroline Steffen is #18 and Lucie Zelenkova is #20. All this just goes to show what a big race IM Germany was on the women’s race!

As per usual, you can find additional information on the participants in the detail post.

Previous Results

The UK race has seen some changes in recent years, both in the venue and also in the layout of the course. So I’ve seen wild swings in the adjustments, they average out at the current course rating of 0:04.

Last year’s race was won by Fraser Cartmell in 8:40 and Yvette Grice in 10:01. The Baylisses (Stephen and Bella) scored two second places, each back by just a few minutes.

Male Participants

Stephen Bayliss is back his year and I see him as the favorite for the race:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Stephen Bayliss	GBR	08:42:14	08:49:38	70
2	Nick Saunders	GBR	08:49:57	08:57:28	107
3	Philip Graves	GBR	08:51:29	08:59:01	112
4	Domenico Passuello	ITA	09:01:02	09:08:42	158
5	Gregorio Morales	ESP	09:01:42	09:09:23	163
6	Romain Guillaume	FRA	09:10:11	09:17:59	226
7	Toby Radcliffe	GBR	09:16:51	09:24:44	278
8	Chris Brands	NLD	09:17:45	09:25:39	287
9	Paul Hawkins	GBR	09:35:02	09:43:11	397

The field is not too big, and it looks that the relevance for the race is limited to British athletes.

Female Participants

Yvette Grice is back to defend her title, but Tine Deckers appears to be the clear favorite:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Tine Deckers	BEL	09:32:03	09:40:09	29
2	Yvette Grice	GBR	10:17:51	10:26:36	164
3	Monika Stadlmann	AUT	10:18:35	10:27:21	170
4	Joanna Carritt	GBR	10:24:38	10:33:29	183
5	Conny Dauben	GER	10:42:50	10:51:57	219

Bella Bayliss is not back (I think she is pregnant), and it’ll be tricky for a British athlete to win the home race.

As per usual, you can find additional information on the participants in the detail post.

Previous Results

Germany is one of the quicker races on the IM calendar with a course rating of 12:19, but not crazy fast such as Austria or Roth, so don’t expect any record-breaking times. There were a few sub-8 results in the last years, however.

Last year’s bike course was about 3-5k longer than normal – there was some construction on the bike course, so Andreas Raelert’s winning time of 8:05 would have been close to sub-8 territory. He beat Timo Bracht and Chris McCormack by a fair margin. On the women’s side, Sandra Wallenhorst (9:04) beat Caroline Steffen by two minutes and Yvonne van Vlerken by six minutes.

Male Participants

This is one of the biggest pro fields this season – as it’s probably the last big race before the end-of-July cutoff. Faris Al-Sultan is the biggest name from the existing ratings, Marko Albert (having just raced one IM in Austria) and Cameron Brown are on the list, but I’m not sure if they’ll actually be racing on Sunday. Most of the focus will be on Michael Raelert who will debut on the IM distance. (BTW: Does anyone know where Andreas wants to qualify?!)

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Faris Al-Sultan	GER	08:16:15	08:28:03	9
2	Marko Albert	EST	08:18:08	08:29:59	11
3	Cameron Brown	NZL	08:19:58	08:31:51	13
4	Pedro Gomez	POR	08:22:28	08:34:25	17
5	Michael Goehner	GER	08:22:47	08:34:44	17
6	Patrick Vernay	NCL	08:23:20	08:35:18	19
7	Jan Raphael	GER	08:27:54	08:39:58	25
8	Uwe Widmann	GER	08:30:20	08:42:28	31
9	Paul Amey	USA	08:34:18	08:46:32	46
10	Stefan Riesen	SWI	08:35:46	08:48:02	57
11	Stephan Vuckovic	GER	08:36:26	08:48:43	64
12	Luke McKenzie	AUS	08:37:59	08:50:18	72
13	Frank Vytrisal	GER	08:43:10	08:55:36	94
14	Gudmund Snilstveit	NOR	08:48:25	09:00:59	123
15	Mikel Elgezabal	ESP	08:48:54	09:01:28	126
16	Simon Billeau	FRA	08:50:25	09:03:02	133
17	Bert Jammaer	BEL	08:50:39	09:03:16	135
18	Daniel Schmoll		08:53:48	09:06:29	147
19	Rene Goehler	DEU	08:54:31	09:07:13	150
20	Balazs Csoke	HUN	08:55:06	09:07:49	155
21	Alejandro Santamaria	ESP	08:56:08	09:08:53	159
22	Jonathan Hotchkiss		08:57:57	09:10:44	172
23	Trevor Delsaut	FRA	08:58:52	09:11:41	176
24	Thomas Hellriegel	GER	08:59:26	09:12:15	181
25	Mike Schifferle	SWI	09:02:06	09:14:59	201
26	Bruno Clerbout	BEL	09:04:39	09:17:36	221
27	Shinya Suganuma	JPN	09:05:47	09:18:46	238
28	Dirk Wijnalda	NLD	09:09:10	09:22:13	262
29	Andres Castillo latorre	COL	09:12:50	09:25:59	289
30	Marcel Bischof	GER	09:18:16	09:31:32	316
31	Teemu Lemmettyla	FIN	09:20:58	09:34:18	332
32	Horst Reichel		09:29:36	09:43:09	397
33	Erich Felbabel	FRA	09:33:59	09:47:38	428
34	Sandi Ivancic	SLO	09:36:15	09:49:57	440
35	Craig Twigg	GBR	09:38:45	09:52:31	459
36	Matjaz Kovac	SVN	09:39:17	09:53:03	461
37	Hirotsugu Kuwabara		09:50:27	10:04:29	540
38	Freddy Lampret	Sou	10:11:40	10:26:13	654
39	Ivan Tejero Vazquez		10:16:26	10:31:05	672
40	Marek Nemcik	SVK	11:58:29	12:15:34	805
41	Michael Raelert		n/a	unrated	n/a
42	Marc-andre Hages		n/a	unrated	n/a
43	George Potrebitsch		n/a	unrated	n/a
44	Andrey Lyatskiy		n/a	unrated	n/a
45	Per Bittner		n/a	unrated	n/a
46	Michael Wetzel		n/a	unrated	n/a
47	Sylvain Sudrie		n/a	unrated	n/a

Female Participants

As on the men’s side, there is a big and strong field on the women’s side:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Yvonne Van Vlerken	AUT	09:07:28	09:20:29	5
2	Sonja Tajsich	GER	09:18:58	09:32:15	13
3	Samantha Warriner	NZL	09:19:03	09:32:20	14
4	Joanna Lawn	NZL	09:21:17	09:34:38	16
5	Caroline Steffen	SWI	09:23:22	09:36:46	22
6	Silvia Felt	GER	09:25:00	09:38:26	26
7	Heleen Bij De Vaate	NLD	09:26:11	09:39:39	27
8	Tine Deckers	BEL	09:26:41	09:40:09	29
9	Lucie Zelenkova	ZAF	09:27:23	09:40:52	37
10	Kristin Moeller	GER	09:29:41	09:43:14	41
11	Nicole Leder	GER	09:34:54	09:48:34	49
12	Susan Dietrich		09:38:53	09:52:39	58
13	Mirjam Weerd	NLD	09:39:50	09:53:37	62
14	Meike Krebs	GER	09:42:17	09:56:08	70
15	Uli Bromme	USA	09:45:59	09:59:55	75
16	Dede Griesbauer	USA	09:46:49	10:00:46	77
17	Simone Benz	SWI	09:52:59	10:07:05	94
18	Sarah Schuetz	SWI	09:54:08	10:08:15	101
19	Desiree Ficker	USA	10:06:46	10:21:11	148
20	Nicole Woysch	GER	10:07:34	10:22:01	152
21	Fernanda Keller	BRA	10:08:47	10:23:15	156
22	Olja Bregar		10:19:50	10:34:34	185
23	Amanda Balding	USA	10:51:50	11:07:20	246
24	Saki Kubota		n/a	unrated	n/a
25	Inka Wachter		n/a	unrated	n/a

I expect some last minute additions to the race, but for now Yvonne Van Vlerken is the favorite. But basically anyone of the top 10 athletes can win this race, so it’ll be quite an interesting race to watch.

I almost missed the Lake Placid Race this weekend .. so I’m a little late, but here are my predictions for the race. As usual, you can find additional information on the participants in the details post.

Previous Results

Lake Placid is one of the slower courses on the calendar with a course rating of –1:54, so it is even a bit slower than Hawaii. Last year’s race was won by Ben Hoffman in 8:39 and Amy Marsh in 9:27.

Male Participants

Ben Hoffman is back to defend his title, but he is only the fifth rated athlete:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Eduardo Sturla	ARG	08:41:30	08:39:40	23
2	Jason Shortis	AUS	08:52:22	08:50:30	73
3	Luke Bell	AUS	08:53:13	08:51:21	78
4	Torsten Abel	GER	08:53:18	08:51:26	80
5	Ben Hoffman	USA	08:55:22	08:53:29	88
6	TJ Tollakson	USA	08:56:45	08:54:52	90
7	Mike Neill	CAN	08:59:22	08:57:29	108
8	Mike Caiazzo	USA	09:01:57	09:00:03	116
9	Ian Mikelson	USA	09:13:37	09:11:41	176
10	Christopher Bagg	USA	09:16:42	09:14:45	198
11	Raul Furtado	BRA	09:20:40	09:18:42	236
12	Matthew Russell	USA	09:24:02	09:22:03	260
13	Tim Snow	USA	09:31:44	09:29:44	306
14	Logan Franks	USA	09:36:42	09:34:41	336
15	Kyle Pawlaczyk	USA	09:43:22	09:41:19	390
16	John Hirsch	USA	09:47:24	09:45:20	414
17	Raymond Botelho	USA	10:01:42	09:59:35	503
18	Arland Macasieb	PHL	10:21:59	10:19:48	621
19	Sergio Quezada	MEX	10:28:12	10:26:00	652
20	Tyler Lord	CAN	10:41:16	10:39:01	691
21	Ryan Grant	CAN	11:23:51	11:21:27	770
22	Ryan Cain	CAN	n/a	unrated	n/a
23	Holden Cameau	USA	n/a	unrated	n/a
24	Ryan Kelly	USA	n/a	unrated	n/a

There are six athletes almost on the same level – it looks as if it is going to be a very close race on Sunday!

Female Participants

On the female side, Linsey Corbin was on the start list for some time, but she still appears to be injured. The new front-runner is Heather Wurtele:

Rank	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Rank
1	Heather Wurtele	CAN	09:36:53	09:34:52	17
2	Tine Deckers	BEL	09:42:11	09:40:09	28
3	Tyler Stewart	USA	09:42:18	09:40:15	30
4	Jackie Arendt	USA	10:10:53	10:08:44	102
5	Jacqui Gordon	USA	10:13:13	10:11:04	111
6	Marie Danais	CAN	10:26:42	10:24:30	157
7	Miranda Alldritt	CAN	10:53:48	10:51:30	215
8	Amber Ferreira	USA	11:40:57	11:38:30	265

Tine Deckers is another solid racer, and I’m sure that Tyler Stewart will be out near the front at least during the bike leg.