Cody Beals and Lauren Goss won the pro titles at Ironman 70.3 Ecuador.

Men

Beals started his day with an 8th-best 25:41 swim that was 1:42 behind Davide Giardini of Italy, 1:36 back of Matt Chrabot of the U.S., 24 seconds behind AJ Baucco of the U.S., and 1 second behind Mario de Elias of Argentina.

Photo © IronmanLive

Early in the bike leg, Chrabot felt ill and pulled out of the race. Halfway through the 90km ride, Giardini led Beals by 26 seconds and had a 4:11 to 4:23 advantage over a pack of six including De Elias, Baucco, Carlos Javier Quincha, Roberto Rivera, David Guete, and Jose Pablo Salazar Ez. After a race-best 2:05:16 bike split, Beals led Giardini by 1:58, and a pack of seven (adding Eduar Alexander Villa) by 9:08 to 10:02.

Halfway through the run, Beals increased his lead to 6:30 over Giardini, 10:04 over De Elias, 10:09 over Villa, and 10:50 over Quincha, with the rest of the field fading away. After 18km, De Elias passed Giardini for 2nd, soon followed by Villa and Quincha.

After a 2nd-best 1:14:36 run, Beals finished in 3:48:04 with an 8:57 margin of victory over De Elias (race-best 1:14:17 run) and 10:28 over 3rd-place finisher Villalta.

Women

Goss and fellow U.S. competitor Laurel Wassner started out front of the women’s field with 26:01 and 26:06 swim splits that gave them 1:31 to 1:41 advantages on Pamela Tastets of Chile, Fiama Rodriguez of Venezuela, and Diana Vizcarra of Ecuador.

Halfway through the 90km bike leg, Goss and Wassner teamed up for a 5:15 lead on Tastets and 6:42 to 6:47 on Rodriguez and Vizcarra. After her women’s-best 2:27:08 bike leg, Wassner led Goss by 2 seconds, Tastets by 9:10 and Rodrigues and Vizcarra by double digits.

At 5k into the run, Goss cut the elastic band that linked her to Wassner, opening a 20 seconds margin, and expanded that to 1:51 at 10.3km. After a women's-best 1:24:22 run, Goss finished in 4:20:41 with a 5:40 margin of victory over Wassner and 14:23 over 3rd-place finisher Tastets.

Ironman 70.3 Ecuador
Manta, Ecuador
July 31, 2016
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men


1. Cody Beals (CAN) 3:48:04
2. Mario de Elias (ARG) 3:57:01
3. Eduar Alexander Villalta Mercado (VEN) 3:58:32
4. Carlos Javier Quinchara Forero (COL) 4:00:00
5. Davide Giardini (ITA) 4:00:38

Women

1. Lauren Goss (USA) 4:20:41
2. Laurel Wassner (USA) 4:26:21
3. Pamela Tastets (CHL) 4:35:04
4. Fiama del Valle Rodriguez (VEN) 4:42:33
5. Karina Navarrete (ECU) 4:46:24