Maik Twelsiek of Germany won the Ford Ironman Lake Placid thanks to a dominating performance on the bike. Czech Pro Tereza Macel started with a great swim, put up a monster bike performance and easily cruised to the women's title.
The men
Matt Lieto led the men out of the water with Paul Fritzsche and Twelsiek nipping at his heels. But as soon as the men were on their bikes, Twelsiek got away from Lieto and Fritzsche and steadily increased his lead. By the halfway mark of the bike segment his lead over Lieto was 8:28 and by the time the German hit T2 his lead had grown to almost 17 minutes. Christian Brader, another German had moved up into third place and was about 3 minutes behind Lieto. Jason Shortis and Mike Caiazzo were next to start the run.
Speedy transitions by the Germans helped them to gain another minute on Lieto, with Twelsiek now 18 minutes up and Brader only 2 minutes behind. Before too long Brader had caught the American and started to ease away from him. Twelsiek on the other hand was truly running in a different zip code and was actually able to walk through a few aid stations. Jason Shortis meanwhile had caught and passed Lieto and was gaining on Brader. But as Twelsiek was thinking about what do do in the finish line chute, Brader found more energy somewhere and started ease away from Shortis. Twelsiek crossed the line in 8:36:37 and now has 2 Ironman titles to his name. Brader held on for second place and Shortis took the final podium spot.
"I didn't feel strong, but I like the bike here,” Twelsiek said to Ironman media. "When I get in front I like to make the gap bigger. But I didn't have any splits, so I wasn't sure how far ahead I was."
Twelsiek of the Commerzbank Triathlon Team missed Ironman Germany a few weeks back due to illness and wanted to redeem himself today in upstate New York and clearly did so. He had won Ford Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 and showed then too that he seemingly has no problems with a challenging course.
The women
Tereza Macel 50:48 swim was 2 minutes faster than the time of Hillary Biscay and 5 minutes faster than the rest of the women's field. Macel's time was actually good enough to be faster than all Pros, male or female.
"I just swam and then, halfway through the first loop I passed the guy who was leading. I thought I would take turns with him, but nobody would come to the front with me. If I need to swim fast and get away from the girls, that's what I have to do," said Macel after the race.
Once on the bike, Macel showed that she isn't a one trick pony and pulled further away from the competition with relative ease. Samantha McGlone had passed Biscay for second place early during the bike but by mile 45, Tara Norton had moved into second place just ahead of McGlone. By now Macel was almost 12 minutes up on her pursuers and riding among the top 10 men. Macel's lead rubber banded a bit, but by the time she hit T2, she was up almost 14 minutes on Norton. McGlone entered the bike-run transition another 6 minutes later.
A 3:20 marathon was good enough for Macel to take the win. Defending champion Caitlin Snow started the run in 7th place but used a 2:57:04 marathon to take second place. Samantha McGlone held on for third and nabbed the Kona slot she was looking for.
"I'm very happy to have my spot for Hawaii. That was the goal for this race." said McGlone to Ironman media. "I knew I was going to try anything too crazy – I just wanted to finish in the top three."
Ford Ironman Lake Placid
Lake Placid, NY / July 26
Top 10 men
1. Maik Twelsiek (GER) 8:36:37
2. Christian Brader (GER) 8:56:35
3. Jason Shortis (AUS) 8:58:09
4. Mike Caiazzo (USA) 8:59:57
5. Matt Lieto (USA) 9:02:31
6. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 9:10:24
7. Billy Edwards (USA) 9:12:08
8. Brad Seng (USA) 9:15:27
9. Curt Chesney (USA) 9:18:58
10. Markus Strini (AUT) 9:23:08
Top 10 women
1. Tereza Macel (CZE) 9:29:36
2. Caitlin Snow (USA) 9:41:21
3. Samantha McGlone (CAN) 9:44:24
4. Tamara Kozulina (UKR) 9:56:24
5. Paolina Allan (CAN) 10:05:59
6. Jaqui Gordon (RSA) 10:08:19
7. Tara Norton (CAN) 10:13:26
8. Leslie Sanderson (CAN) 10:14:22 *AG F40-44
9. Marie Danais (CAN) 10:15:30
10. Shannon Desrosiers (CAN) 10:31:14 *AG F25-29
