2016 Challenge Roth race images

Herbert Krabel Mon Jul 18 2016

Jan Frodeno and Daniela Ryf had superb performances at the2016 Datev Challenge Roth, but they clearly were not the only actors in this amazing spectacle.

Pro athletes at times encounter heavy traffic during the second bike lap, and defending champion Nils Frommhold almost got run over by this age group athlete. Another pic further down shows the position of the two a couple camera clicks earlier.

Slideshow

Earlier that day a large pro group and all potential sub-9 athletes started their day with a cannon blast.

Jan Frodeno was first out of the water and quickly out of sight on the bike.

The defending champion Nils Frommhold chased hard but lost more time to the 2015 Ironman World Champion.

Aussie Nick Kastelein in his first long distance event was near the front of the race all day.

Tyler Butterfield had to work hard to reel in Frommhold and Kastelein.

French pro Cyril Viennot rode alone all day but hung in tough to eventually finish 4th.

After a slow swim Joe Skipper had a lot of work ahead but steadily moved towards the front.

2015 Ironman World Champion Daniela Ryf had a superb day and was on world record pace.

Michelle Vesterby had some problems with her bike and after a wait ended up chasing the rest of the day.

The hopes of the region were on the back of Anja Beranek who was riding in second position in the race for quite a while.

Carrie Lester was the runner-up in 2015 and was near the front all day too.

For Daniela Ryf it was a very lonely, but she had a job to do.

The chasing Beranek and Lester were passed by Joe Skipper here.

The Solarer Berg in Hilpoltstein seemed even busier than in previous years.

This images (taken a couple seconds before the very first one) shows how the athlete ahead of Frommhold veering to the left and thus opening a gap. But he then came back to the right.