Marc Duelsen of Germany and Darbi Roberts of the U.S. each took the lead late in the run to win the 6th edition of Ironman Wales.
Men
Daniel Niederreiter of Germany led the swim in 51:55, which gave him a 5 seconds margin on Karl-Johan Danielsson of Sweden, 14 seconds on Philipp Graves of Great Britain, 46 seconds on Marc Duelsen of Germany and 1:25 on Nick Baldwin of Seychelles.
By 38km of the bike course, Graves and Niederreiter charged out front by 3:27 on Duelsen, 3:29 on Danielsson 4:52 on Baldwin and 8:16 on Cedric Lassonde of France. By 90km Graves, who won Ironman UK in 2009, led Danielsson by 4:56, Duelsen by 4:57, and Lassonde by 11:47. By 125km, Graves sailed on in front of Duelsen and Niederreiter at +4:51 and +4:53, Baldwin and Danielsson next at +5:23 and +5:25.
After summiting Heartbreak Hill at Saudersfoot, the order of the chasers shuffled. Baldwin attacked and passed Duelsen and Niederreiter, closing to within 3:19 of Graves. Duelsen maintained 3rd at +5:19, Niederreiter was 4th in +6:36 and Danielsson dropped to +11:32 in 5th.
Underlining just how tough the Ironman Wales bike course and its 2,000 meters of climbing was, no man broke 5 hours. Former pro cyclist Graves posted the race-best 5:01:43 split which gave him a 4:30 gap on Baldwin and 7:08 on Duelsen.
After 8k of the run which circles the city of Tenby four times, Graves maintained a 4:33 advantage of Baldwin while Duelsen shaved his deficit to 5:25. Halfway through the marathon, Duelsen advanced to 2nd and reduced his deficit to 3:40 while Baldwin fell 6:21 arrears. At the 31km mark, Duelsen continued his assault on the leader, pulling to within 59 seconds of Graves. By 35km, Duelsen seized the lead and went on to finish with a race-best 2:58:18 run that brought him to the finish in 9:01:39 with a 1:17 margin of victory over Graves and 5:43 on 3rd place finisher Nick Baldwin.
Women
Kate Comber of Great Britain led the swim in 49:01, which gave her a 12 seconds lead on Darbi Roberts of the U.S., 4:39 on Jeanne Collonge of France and 2 more minutes on Diane Riesler of Germany.
After 60km, Comber maintained a 1:52 lead on Collonge, 3:34 on Riesler and a few more seconds on Roberts. At the halfway point of the 180km bike leg, Comber’s lead was reduced to 4 seconds on hard-riding Collonge, 2:26 on Riesler, and increased to 7:01 on Roberts. Collonge quickly took charge and at 125km led Riesler by 3:35, Comber by 3:49 and Nikki Bartlett and Roberts by a fast-increasing 9 minutes and a half.
After a women’s-best 5:29:48 bike split, Collonge led Riesler by 4:21m, Comber by 8 minutes and Bartlett and Roberts by a seemingly insurmountable 13 minutes.
While Collonge has won four long distances races and took 2nd at 2013 Ironman France and 2014 Ironman Lake Tahoe, she remains hungry for a first official Ironman victory and took off hard on the run. By 21km, her lead looked safe with a 6 minutes lead on Riesler. At 32km, Roberts charged into 2nd place, 3:43 back of Collonge and 6 minutes ahead of Riesler.
After a women's 2nd-best 3:14:41 marathon, Roberts made a late race pass of Collonge and crossed the line in 10:00:17 with a 2:27 margin of victory over Collonge (3:28:23 run) and 8:58 on 3rd-place Bartlett. Katharina Grohmann of Germany made up a lot of ground with her women's-best 3:08 marathon to take 4th, 3:54 behind Bartlett.
Ironman Wales
Pembrokeshire, Wales
September 18, 2016
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1. Marc Duelsen (GER) 9:01:39
2. Phillip Graves (GBR) 9:02:56
3. Nick Baldwin (SEY) 9:07:23
4. Daniel Niederreiter (AUT) 9:10:43
5. Cedric Lassonde (FRA) 9:20:28
Women
1. Darbi Roberts (USA) 10:00:17
2. Jeanne Collonge (FRA) 10:02:45
3. Nikki Bartlett (GBR) 10:09:15
4. Katharina Grohmann (GER) 10:13:09
5. Kate Comber (GBR) 10:14:22
