Alpe d'Huez champion Ritchie Nicholls had a superb day in Wiesbaden and closed it out with a 1:08:53 run to take the 70.3 European Championships in front of Jan Frodeno. Daniela Ryf ran down Annabel Luxford to take the women's title in 4:31:34.
Defending champion Michael Raelert had announced earlier in the week that he would not race, and women's champion Anja Beranek also wasn't at the start, but there was plenty of talent in Wiesbaden willing and able to step up.
The men
Olympic champion Jan Frodeno led the men out of the water in 20:39 and with Josh Amberger, Ivan and Denis Vasiliev and Matt Chrabot he had quite a few fast Pros right on his tail. The next group included Ruedi Wild, Sylvain Sudrie, Fraser Cartmell and Peter Robertson. 70.3 World Champion Sebastian Kienle left the water 3:02 behind Frodeno and had thus quite a bit of work ahead, but that is nothing new for this fast German.
Chrabot and Amberger were setting the early pace on the bike, but behind them the hard charging Kienle came closer and closer and he brought quite a few other Pros with him. 40k into the bike segment Kienle made the connection and quickly pulled into the lead, but the front group had now grow to 18 athletes and no matter what Kienle did, he was unable to shed the group. A few of these athletes though could not ride at that pace and eventually paid the price for that effort and dropped from the leading bunch. Chrabot also disappeared, but we are not sure why. At the halfway point of the bike segment the bunch was down to 14 and pretty much stayed like it until later. Kienle's efforts to either get away or shed more competitors were not working out well, but Ivan Vasiliev who also had set the pace at times was dropped. The leading group was clocked at 115km per hour (71mph) on the descent into town and when it was all said and done German Andreas Dreitz managed to be first off the bike, but Frodeno, Kienle, Amberger and Degham were right there too. Ritchie Nicholls came into transition about 25 seconds behind Dreitz and the 70.3 UK champion has shown signs that he is a dangerous runner.
But despite reaching the transition in second position and only one second behind, the Olympic champion Frodeno started the run 1:23 behind Kienle. As it turned out his transition bag had somehow gone missing and it took a while for it to be found.
"Really enjoyed this 70.3. I guess sometimes you need a bit of luck. Hopefully next time they find my race bag/shoes. Thanks for huge support," tweeted Frodeno after the race.
As it was he ran about 1 minute behind Ritchie Nicholls and these 2 athletes were clearly the fastest runners out there. Kienle started to drift back and so did Peter Robertson who looked great on the run early on. Nicholls soon was in the lead and the German fans were likely hoping for Frodeno to reel in the TBB athlete, but no one would catch Nicholls today. His 1:08:53 brought him to the finish line in 3:56:55 and gave him the win and the European 70.3 Championship title. Frodeno ended up with fastest run split, but his 1:08:52 was only 1 second faster - and who knows how many seconds Nicholls lost celebrating that prestigious win. Alessandro Degasperi who had been the runner-up twice here before finished third in 4: 00:14, about 2:30 behind runner-up Frodeno.
The women
Annabel Luxford was first out of the water in 22:12 and with her was Swiss athlete Rahel Küng. Svenja Bazlen and Daniela Ryf were over a minute behind the flying Aussie.
Luxford looked good on the bike too and quickly dropped Küng, but behind her the fast Swiss Pro Ryf pushed hard too and steadily gained on Luxford. Bazlen meanwhile encountered technical problems that were apparently related to her electronic shifting, and this fast German Olympian ended her day early, sitting on a curb frustrated and upset. Up front Luxford continued to set the pace the bike segment and was able to reach T2 with a fine 2:44:07 bike effort. Ryf though managed have a race best bike split, and now was only some 20 seconds behind Luxford. But the Aussie had more than 5 minutes advantage over chasers Tamsin Lewis, Catriona Morrison and Lisa Hütthaler. Kaisa Lehtonen from Finland reached T2 8:22 behind Luxford, and everyone else was 11:42 and more behind the leader.
Lewis initially pulled away from Morrison but she never got a very big advantage. A bit further up the road Luxford also increased her advantage over Ryf but the Swiss Pro briefly had to deal with one of her running shoes. After that Ryf steadily gained on Luxford and 17k into the run Ryf took over the lead. Luxford hung tough but in the end the fast Swiss woman proved to be too strong. Ryf ran a closing 1:21:25 half marathon and took the Finzgruppen Naspa Ironman 70.3 European Championship title in 4:31:34. Luxford held on to second place in 4:32:43 and Morrison put on the afterburners and with a race best 1:21:02 run grabbed the final podium spot.
Finanzgruppen Naspa Ironman 70.3 European Championship
Wiesbaden, Germany / August11, 2013
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top men
1. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 3:56:55
2. Jan Frodeno (GER) 3:57:35
3. Alessandro Degasperi (ITA) 4:00:14
4. Josh Amberger (AUS) 4:02:37
5. Boris Stein (GER) 4:02:47
6. Sebastian Kienle (GER) 4:02:59
7. Andreas Dreitz (FRA) 4:03:14
8. Toumy Degham (FRA) 4:04:46
9. Artem Parienko (AUS) 4:05:16
10. Peter Robertson (AUS) 4:07:03
Top women
1. Daniela Ryf (SUI) 4:31:34
2. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4:32:43
3. Catriona Morrison (GBR) 4:36:27
4. Tamsin Lewis (GBR) 4:39:28
5. Lisa Hütthaler (AUT) 442:40
6. Kaisa Lehtonen (FIN) 4:44:44
7. Susie Hignett (GBR) 4:46:00
8. Anja Dittmer (GER) 4:47:16
9. Natascha Schmitt (GER) 4:48:02
10. Juliane Straub (GER) 4:49:52
