Horst Reichel won his first Ironman and Leanda Cave had a triumphant return to form with an 8:56:50 time which gave her a smashing 33-minute margin of victory over her closest challenger at Kalmar.

A year ago and coming off 2012 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 World Championships, Cave entered a downward spiral of interconnected leg injuries that required her to take time off to heal and recover. By the end of the season, she fought off the pain to finish a noble but disheartening 12th at the two championships she had won the year before. At that point, she took stock, rested fully, and started all over in her training with new coach Cliff English.

Throughout this season, she made steady, careful progress and took 3rd at St. Croix and Boulder 70.3s and was encouraged to finish second at the prestigious Ironman 70.3 Wiesbaden. But for someone of Cave’s caliber, the fact that she trailed rising star Daniela Ryf by 8:38 let her know there was more work to be done.

While that may still be true after her impressive performance at Ironman Sweden, Cave has to feel she is rounding into the kind of shape that will out her into contention at the biggest races in the middle and long distance triathlon world once again.

Cave’s day was lonely from the start as her 49:30 swim was more than 4 minutes better than every other woman. As for her most serious rivals, she was 11:02 better than multiple sub-9 hour Ironman winner Erika Csomor of Hungary and 19:39 better than Camilla Lindholm of Sweden. Cave was nearly as dominant on the bike leg as her 4:57:21 split was 6:17 better than the next fastest women's split by Camilla Larson – whose 1:15:36 swim was the worst of the pros. More to the point, Cave’s bike split was 10:52 better than Lindholm and 19:35 better than Csomor – who must have had unusual troubles as the 7-time Zofingen winner is usually an ace on two wheels. Without a serious challenger in the same time zone, Cave kept pushing in a race with her old self, apparently determined to show the world that she is right on schedule for a relevant return engagement at Kona.

Cave finished off her day with a race-best 3:05:26 marathon which was 2:14 better than runner-up Csomor and 4:55 better than 3rd-place finisher Lindholm. Cave’s 8:56:50 finish was still off her 2011 Ironman Arizona 8:49:00 PR and 2:49 behind Jodie Swallow’s 2013 Ironman Sweden race record, but it must be enough to verify that coach Cliff English has her on the right track and any lingering doubts about her career after a tough 2013 have been answered.

The men’s race was closer, but Horst Reichel’s 2nd-best 49:24 swim and race-fastest 4:29:38 bike split and 3rd-best 2:51:09 run was quite enough to take the drama out of the chase and give the German a 6:16 cushion to really enjoy his first Ironman win in the finish chute.

Reichel was 2 seconds back of swim leader Oliver Simon of the UK, and no more than 16 seconds better than a large pack that included Patrik Nillson of Sweden, Harry Wiltshire of Great Britain, Jonas Djurback of Sweden , and Viktor Zyemtsev of Ukraine.

Reichel stepped on the gas and at the end of his race-best bike split, he held a 9:03 lead on Christoph Bastie of France, 9:07 on Tom Lowe of Great Britain (second fastest 4:29:58 bike split), 9:33 on Nillson, 12:21 on Wiltshire, and 13:07 on Zyemtsev, a dangerous runner who would surely climb well out the hole he dig for himself with a 4:42:22 bike split that left him in 10th place, 13:07 back at T2.

While Zyemtsev indeed cut 6:51 from Reichel’s lead with a race-fastest 2:44:18 run, that still left Zyemtsev 6:16 back at the finish. The real drama was the race for second as Lowe advanced to second, 8:04 back of Reichel, at 5k into the run, 10 seconds ahead of Nillson and 4:22 ahead of Zyemtsev. Halfway through the run, Reichel stretched his lead to 5:21 ahead of Nillson, 6:50 ahead of Lowe, and 10:26 ahead of Zyemtsev, who was uncharacteristically fading mid-race.

At 35k, Reichel held the lead with an iron grip, 7:09 ahead of Lower and 8:25 ahead of a revived Zyemtsev. At the finish, Lowe’s otherwise excellent 2:48:24 run surrendered to the onrushing Ukrainian in the final meters and left the Englishman 3rd, 6 seconds back of the runner-up.

Reichel’s 8:13:01 finish left him 2:49 off his own Ironman PR and 9 minutes off Jan Raphael’s 2012 race record. But it did give him his best race result which previously included a 3rd at this race in 2012, 2nd places at 2010 Challenge Barcelona and 2012 Ironman Western Australia and, by significance, more prestigious than his win at Ironman 70.3 Italy last year.

Ironman Sweden
Kalmar, Sweden
August 16, 2014
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Horst Reichel (GER) 8:13:01
2. Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR) 8:19:17
3. Tom Lowe (GBR) 8:19:23
4. Nick Baldwin (SEY) 8:30:30
5. Harry Wiltshire (GBR) 8:32:37

Women

1. Leanda Cave (GBR) 8:56:50
2. Erika Csomor (HUN) 9:30:04
3. Camilla Lindholm (SWE) 9:31:38
4. Camilla Larsson (SWE) 9:50:21
5. Emma Graaf (SWE) 9:53:41