Halfway through September, we bring you dramatic accounts of triathletic tests in Almere and Kronborg, Weymouth and Pacific Grove, and in Dylan Thomas country in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Markus Fachbach and Heleen Bij de Vaate win Challenge Almere

Markus Fachbach of Germany and Heleen bij de Vaate of the Netherlands won Challenge Almere-Amsterdam, which doubles as the European Long Distance Triathlon Championship.

Fachbach overtook last year’s winner Bart Colpaert of Belgium in the early stages of the bike and controlled the race from that point to secure the victory in a time of 8:28:25. Fachbach pushed hard for the entire bike leg, taking a comfortable lead into T2.

Dirk Wijnalda, the strong 41-year-old from the Netherlands, surged on the marathon, passing Chris Fischer of Denmark for the silver in a time of 8:33:09. Fischer held 3rd, 56 seconds later.

Heleen bij de Vaate emerged from the swim about 5 minutes back of the leaders and went to work slicing through the field with her trademark strong bike and run. Bij de Vaate finally passed countrywoman Tineke van den Berg and into the lead about midway through the second lap of the bike leg. Bij de Vaate kept the pressure on throughout the marathon and finished in 9:16:26 with a comfortable 9:38 margin of victory over van den Berg and 26:27 over 3rd place finisher Victoria Gill of Great Britain.

Challenge Almere-Amsterdam
Almere, Netherlands
September 13, 2014
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Markus Fachbach (GER) 8:28:25
2. Dirk Wijnalda (NED) 8:33:09
3. Chris Fischer (DAN) 8:34:05
4. Sergio Marques (POR) 8:37:11
5. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 8:43:57

Women

1. Heleen Bij de Vaate (NED) 9:16:26
2. Tineke Van den Berg (NED) 9:26:04
3. Victoria Gill (GBR) 9:42:53
4. Celia Kuch (GER) 9:56:25
5. Lina-Kristin Schink (GER) 10:08:59

Matt Trautman and Amy Forshaw win Ironman Wales

Matt Trautman of South Africa edged Fraser Cartmell of Great Britain by 2:48 and Amy Forshaw of Great Britain dominated the women's field to take the men’s and women's overall titles at Ironman UK. Aptly illustrating what a tough course this is, Trautman’s winning time was 9:07:28 and while Forshaw topped runner-up Julia Bohn by 23:28, she barely broke 11 hours.

Men

While the hilly bike course is a torture chamber that won’t allow sustained speed, the swim yielded some normally swift splits. Peru Alfaro San Idelfonso of Spain led the way with a 48:29 split, followed by Oliver Simon of Great Britain (+20s), Trautman (+3:25), Daniel Niederreiter of Austria (+3:28), and Cartmell (+3:29).

For the first 60km of the bike, Trautman, Niederreiter and Cartmell banded together to chase down San Idelfonso. For the next 60km, Trautman led the foursome before he could pull away on the many climbs on the course. Cartmell was the only one who could keep up with Trautman’s push on the final 60km, but it took everything Cartmell could muster. After a 2nd-best 5:03:29 bike split, Trautman led Cartmell (race-best 5:03:23 bike split) by 11 seconds, with San Idelfonso 6:35 back and Niederreiter 7:42 in arrears.

Through the first half of the run, Trautman and Cartmell ran close together, while San Idelfonso and Niederreiter were slowly slipping further back. Trautman finally ended the mano-a-mano duel when he made a move at 25km. At the finish, Trautman’s 3:04:44 marathon split brought him to the line in 9:07:28 with a 2:48 margin of victory over Cartmell and precisely 11 minutes on 3rd place finisher San Idelfonso. While Cartmell struggled fiercely, he fell short of completing a slam of every single long course Ironman event in Great Britain.

Women

As if this course wasn't hard enough, Amy Forshaw dug a deep hole for herself right off the bat with a 10th-best 1:08:13 swim which was 8:29 behind swim leader Andrea Mason of Great Britain and 6:54 behind 2nd-best swimmer, age grouper Heike Funk of Germany.

Roughly 65km into the bike, Funk led by 21 seconds over Mason, 4:30 over Forshaw, 7:22 ahead of Jill Cliff of Great Britain and 9:06 ahead of Julia Bohn of Germany. By the end of the seemingly endless bike course, Forshaw’s 2nd-best 6:06:44 split gave her a 1:26 lead on Funk, with the rest of the field needing binoculars to see the leaders as Caroline Devos of Belgium (race best 6:05:37 split) was 10:17 down, and Mason and Cliff 13 minutes-plus in arrears.

When the running was done, Forshaw’s women's race-best 3:33:10 marathon –the run was almost as brutal as the bike – brought her to the line in 10:57:26 with a 23:28 margin of victory over Julia Bohn and 32:04 over 3rd place finisher Amy Ogden.

Ironman Wales
Pembrokeshire, Wales
September 14, 2014
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Matt Trautman (RSA) 9:07:28
2. Fraser Cartmell (GBR) 9:10:16
3. Peru Alfaro San Ildefonso (ESP) 9:18:28
4. Nick Baldwin (SEY) 9:41:04
5. Harry Springall (GBR) 9:52:05

Women

1. Amy Forshaw (GBR) 10:57:26
2. Julia Bohn (GER) 11:10:54
3. Amy Ogden (GBR) 11:29:30 * W35-39
4. Jill Cliff (GBR) 11:30:45 * W45-49
5. Sandra Fontana (SUI) 11:35:14 * W25-29

Joe Maloy and Katie Hursey win the Triathlon at Pacific Grove

U.S. stars Joe Maloy and Katie Hursey scored wins at the 20th Triathlon at Pacific Grove Saturday.

Joe Maloy combined a 2nd-fastest 17:41 swim, a 2nd-best 1:00:58 bike leg and a by-far-best 31:03 run to finish in 1:51:19 with a 1:14 margin of victory over Tommy Zaferes and 2:19 over 3rd place finisher Eric Lagerstrom.

Zaferes led the swim in 17:33, 8 seconds ahead of Maloy, 14 seconds ahead of Lagerstrom and 33 seconds ahead of strong cyclist Davide Giardini. Whereupon Maloy made the big move with a race-best 1:00:58 bike split to join Zaferes (1:01:14 bike split) and Giardini near the front.

On the run, Maloy unleashed a sizzling 31:03 10k that erased all resistance and brought the Poway, California triathlete to the finish in 1:51:19 with a 1:14 margin of victory over Zaferes and 2:19 over 3rd place finisher Lagerstrom.

Multiple ITU World Cup winner Katie Hursey faced some resistance from Brianna Blanchard of San Francisco before the 25-year-old sensation from Hampstead, Maryland sped away on the run to win the women's elite title.

Hursey led the swim through the kelp at Lovers Point in 19:40, 22 seconds ahead of Blanchard and 23 seconds ahead of Emily Cocks. Cocks and Blanchard quickly caught Hursey on the bike and the trio worked together within the draft-legal rules to stretch their margin on the field and leave the race to the run.

Hursey then finished off her opposition with a race-best 37:58 run that brought her to the finish in 2:07:32 with a 1:48 margin of victory on Blanchard and 2:07 on 3rd place finisher Cocks. Julie Ertel, 2008 Olympian and a former winner of this race, finished 4th in 2:20:50.

Triathlon at Pacific Grove
Pacific Grove, California
September 13, 2014
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Joe Maloy (USA) 1:51:19
2. Tommy Zaferes (USA) 1:52:33
3. Eric Lagerstrom (USA) 1:53:38
4. Davide Giardini (USA) 1:57:39
5. John Dahlz (USA) 1:59:58

Elite Women

1. Katie Hursey (USA) 2:07:32
2. Brianna Blanchard (USA) 2:09:20
3. Emily Cocks (USA) 2:09:39
4. Julie Ertel (USA) 2:20:50
5. Amanda Hahn (USA) 2:24:10

Joe Skipper and Caroline Livesey win Challenge Weymouth

On a long distance triathlon with an obviously shorter than Ironman distance swim and run, British triathletes Joe Skipper and Caroline Livesey sped to dominating home country victories at Challenge Weymouth Sunday.

Skipper, who placed 2nd at Ironman UK this year and 3rd in 2013, combined a 5th-best 31:00 swim, a 2nd-fastest 4:43:18 bike leg and 2nd-fastest 2:29:40 run to finish in 7:49:03 which gave him an 8:34 margin of victory over Joel Jameson of Great Britain and 15:34 over 3rd place finisher, multiple Ironman winner Stephen Bayliss of Great Britain.

Caroline Livesey of Great Britain, who placed 8th at Ironman Austria in 2012 and 15th this year, crushed the women's field with a 3rd-fastest 35:21 swim, a women’s race-fastest 5:18:43 bike leg and a by-far-best 2:21:38 run – 34 minutes better than her nearest rival - to finish in 8:22:11 with a 32:30 margin of victory over runner-up Eleanor Haresign and 37:38 lead on 3rd place finisher Joanna Carritt.

Challenge Weymouth
Weymouth, Dorset, England
September 14, 2014
S shorter than 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R shorter than 26.2 mi.

Results

Pro Men

1. Joe Skipper (GBR) 7:49:03
2. Joel Jameson (GBR) 7:57:37
3. Stephen Bayliss (GBR) 8:04:37
4. Darren Jenkins (GBR) 8:12:03
5. Craig Twigg (GBR) 8:20:07

Pro Women

1. Caroline Livesey (GBR) 8:22:11
2. Eleanor Haresign (GBR) 8:54:41
3. Joanna Carritt (GBR) 8:59:49
4. Michi Herlbauer (AUT) 9:01:14
5. Gabriella Zelinka (HUN) 9:13:58

Jens Koefoed and Katrine Trolle win overall at all age-group Kronborg 70.3

In a race which offered a preview of the many no-pro fields yet to come in Ironman racing, 40-44 men’s age grouper Jens Koefoed and 25-29 women's age grouper Katrine Trolle won the overall titles at Ironman 70.3 Kronborg.

Koefoed combined a 2nd-fastest 25:07 swim, a race-best 2:13:38 swim and 4th fastest 1:17:22 run to finish in 4:02:04 with a 2:16 margin of victory over runner-up Anthony Meager of Great Britain and 7:51 over Peter Seidler of Denmark.

Trolle had a tougher road to victory as her 33:02 swim put her in an 8 minute deficit right off the bat. Trolle then erased all deficits with a race-best 2:31:56 bike split and defended her lead with a 2nd-best 1:27:32 run which brought her to the line in 4:38:40 with a 2:33 margin of victory over runner-up Stine Mollebro and 3:53 over 3rd place finisher Laerke Lilleoere.

KMD Ironman 70.3 Kronborg
Kronborg, Denmark
September 14, 2014
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Jens Koefoed (DEN) 4:02:04 * M40-44
2. Anthony Meager (GBR) 4:04:20 *M18-24
3. Peter Seidler (DEN) 4:09:55 * M30-34
4. Peter Weiss (INDO) 4:10:10 * M40-44
5. Enno Hoffman-Dose (DEN) 4:11:30 * M25-29

Women

1. Katrine Troll (DEN) 4:38:40 * F25-29
2. Stine Molebro (DEN) 4:41:13 * F30-34
3. Laerke Lilleoere (DEN) 4:42:33 * F18-24
4. Haneke Boon (NED) 4:43:57 * F30-34
5. Teresa Heimann (DEN) 4:50:08 * F25-29