My Week in Tri: 18 September

Ironman Italy: Full Results here

| Men: A group of 6 exited the water together including McNamee, Angert and Clavel. By 100km into the bike, Olij had ridden over 4min into everyone and moved from 12th to 1st. McNamee was sitting in 2nd almost 90s behind and riding with 8 other athletes, including Goetstouwers. Olij got off the bike 1st with a minute gap to Sowinski and Goetstouwers. McNamee was down in 7th over 6min back. By the half marathon mark, Goetstouwers had taken the lead with Olij still in 2nd 30s back, and McNamee sitting in 3rd 2:25 back. In the end McNamee was 45s short.

Men

🥇 Stenn Goetstouwers (07:42:29)

🥈 David McNamee (07:43:15)

🥉 Henrik Goesch (07:45:08)

Ironman Maryland: Full Results here

A group of 6 ladies came out the water less than a minute apart and included the full eventual podium. The swim was shortened to 900m due to rough conditions. Alberts lost a lot of time in T1 but was riding in front with Kessler, McQuaid and Lane by 60km into the bike. Kessler lost 4min between 152km and 180km, after crashing to avoid a car?! Alberts dominated the run to win comfortably in the end. | Men: Weiss and Long finished the shortened swim 45s and 1:07 back. Pohl was 1:23 back. By 65km into the bike, Weiss and Long were riding together in the front and putting time into everyone. Pohl finished the bike in 3rd but over 4min behind. Beals was in 5th off the bike and over 8min behind. Weiss and Long ran side by side until Long stretched ahead at the 14km mark. His lead got close to 30s by the half-marathon but this quickly started to reverse. By 25km, Weiss now had a 21s lead. Long held onto 2nd up to the 37km mark.

Triathlon De Royan: Full Results here

Drama headlining this race unfortunately as race favourite Pierre was DQ’d as she crossed the line in 1st. She fainted with 2km to go and the lead bike helped her to stand and another pro helped her walk for a few meters. She pulled herself together and started slowly running again with a 7min lead. 50 meters from the finish line she was told she was disqualified for outside assistance. | Men: Mignon established a lead on the bike with Horseau just over 2min behind. Mignon then had the fastest run of the day. Can you imagine him waiting at the finish line for his girlfriend Pierre to also win.

70.3 Michigan: Full Results here

Brandon had over a minutes lead over a spread out group of ladies behind her. Hering was almost 3min behind with Jewett a further 10s back. Brandon rode very well to get off the bike in 1st with Jewett in 2nd 2:51 back. Jewett took the lead after 5km of running. Brandon eventually finished in 5th. | Men: Harper lead the swim just ahead of other strong swimmers Appleton and Sharpe. Laundry was 90s back in 7th, Sanders 2:20 back in 14th and Foley 4:25 back in 20th. By 32km of cycling, Laundry was in the lead with Sanders 40s behind in 6th. Laundry got off the bike with a 2min lead on Appleton in 2nd with Sanders a few seconds behind Appleton. Foley was in 4th over 3min down. Foley took 3rd after 17km of running while Laundry held onto an 11s lead over Sanders who had been eeking closer and closer with each stride the whole run.

70.3 Knokke-Heist: Full Results here

Buckingham lead the swim by over a minute and smashed the bike to start the run with well over 5minutes to 2nd place Morier with Rayner and Derron close behind. Rayner was taking large chunks of time out of Buckingham’s lead but couldn’t get the last 8 seconds. | Men: Manner lead the swim with Gonzalez just over a minute back and Heemeryk at 1:22 back. Smith, Heemeryk and Hirsch started the run together with Palmer in 6th 2:34 behind. Heemeryk had the 2nd fastest run while Smith battled and eventually dropped out after losing lots of time.

Challenge Samarkand: Full Results here

Salthouse had the fastest swim, bike and run of the day to lead from start to finish. Pallant-Browne struggled and alluded to too much travel and wanting to go for blood tests. She has just spent 2 weeks on holiday in Mozambique which can’t be the best race prep! | Men: Royle had a small lead after the swim but Funk took the lead before halfway on the bike and extended this to over 2min to start the run.