Joe Gambles recorded the fastest bike and run splits on his way to the title at the 2011 ROHTO Ironman 70.3 Boulder in 3:45:35. Angela Naeth crushed the bike and then held on during the run to take the women's race.

Andy Potts led the men out of the water at the Boulder Reservoir in 22:47, more than a minute up on Fraser Cartmell who reached the shore next. Cartmell was followed by a group that contained Joe Umphenour, Paul Ambrose, Joe Gambles, Bryan Rhodes and Callum Millward.

Gambles and Cartmell followed up their solid swims with the top 2 bike splits (2:03:35 and 2:03:48 respectively) and reached the second transition in 1st and 2nd position. Rhodes and Ambrose were next into T2 and a hard charging Raynard Tissink cranked out a 2:04:21 to also still be in contention. Potts meanwhile had lost quite a bit of time with a 2:09:34 bike split and eventually dropped out.

Gambles continued the wicked pace during the run and finished the day with a race best 1:15:50 half marathon and a very convincing win in a course record time of 3:45:35. Cartmell didn't quite have the same running legs and dropped back to ninth, but Tissink was willing and able to step up and moved into second place with a 1:19:25 run. Ambrose held on to take third.

"Really happy with my race. Perfect conditions for racing. Making the lead group in the swim set my race up nicely and left me a little more than usual in the tank for the run," said Gambles to slowtwitch. I have just come off my Kona prep and to still having the speed for the 70.3 distance gives me confidence for Vegas in 5 weeks."

Kelly Williamson was first out of the water in the women's race after a 26:12 effort and reached transition with a 2 minute lead over Caroline Gregory, Angela Naeth and Christie Sym.

Naeth though scorched the bike course with a race best 2:14:23 bike split and assumed the race lead with a fairly nice advantage. Kelly Williamson reached T2 next but had given up almost 10 minutes to the Canadian on the bike. Amanda Lovato steadily had worked her way up to start the run in 3rd position.

Naeth's 1:25:11 run was only bested by Williamson but was quite sufficient to take the win. Williamson closed back to within 2 minutes but had to be content with the runner-up spot. Lovato grabbed the final podium spot over 13 minutes behind the race winning Canadian.

"I finally got the monkey off my back! I felt pretty solid all day and wanted to build what cushion I could before the start of the run; I knew that Kelly would be hunting for me! She'd been training at altitude and is obviously well adapted to heat, coming from Austin, so if I was to beat her to the line I had to do so early," said Naeth to slowtwitch. "Now onto Vegas! Today was hot, but nothing compared to what we can all expect there next month. I'm wearing my down jacket from here on out!"


Ironman 70.3 Boulder
Boulder, CO / August 7, 2011
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run

Top men

1. Joe Gambles (AUS) 3:45:35
2. Raynard Tissink (RSA) 3:51:41
3. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 3:53:01
4. Joe Umphenour (USA) 3:54:03
5. Matthew Russell (USA) 3:55:44
6. Kirk Nelson (USA) 3:56:28
7. Jordan Jones (USA) 3:57:37
8. Bryan Rhodes (NZL) 3:58:07
9. Fraser Cartmell (GBR) 3:59:50
10. Josiah Middaugh (USA) 4:00:55

Top women

1. Angela Naeth (CAN) 4:10:31
2. Kelly Williamson (USA) 4:12:42
3. Amanda Lovato (USA) 4:23:54
4. Whitney Garcia (USA) 4:26:10
5. Uli Bromme (USA) 4:27:16
6. Jessica Chong (USA) 4:33:12
7. Caroline Gregory (USA) 4:37:31
8. Marylin McDonald (AUS) 4:39:46
9. Sonja Wieck (USA) 4:41:28 * AG W30-34
10. Danielle Kehoe (USA) 4:46:31 * AG W18-24