Andrew Starykowicz of the U.S. and Helle Frederiksen of Denmark defended their titles by very different margins at Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico. Starykowicz once again posted a stellar bike split and a serviceable run to edge runner-up Will Clarke of Great Britain by 58 seconds. Frederiksen smashed all resistance with a race-best 2:18:49 bike split that propelled her to the finish in 4:14:27 with a 12:23 margin of victory over Sofie Goos of Belgium – who just one week ago dominated the women’s field at Ironman 70.3 Texas.
The men
Starykowicz showed right away that he had cured the stomach bug that plagued him at Ironman 70.3 California two weeks ago at Oceanside, posting a 24:15 swim split that closely trailed leaders Andi Böcherer and Ben Collins and edged Will Clarke by 5 seconds. While Starykowicz’s 2:02:14 was 1:27 slower than his own bike split last year, this day it was 5:36 better than Böcherer, 6:28 better than Clarke and 8:46 better than Collins.
The muscular Starykowicz then chugged through a typical 1:22:51 run that might have surrendered the lead if the heat and fast bike did not dull the run sharpness of his rivals. As things developed, Clarke was the only man to break 1 hour 20 minutes and his 1:17:28 run split left him the runner-up, 58 seconds back of Starykowicz’s 3:53:30 finish. Böcherer, suffering through a heat-induced, atypically slow 1:27:19 run, filled out the podium, 9:55 back of the winner.
Starykowicz was brief and to the point in a post-race Twitter post: "Fighting to win and punish! Love racing here in windy @ironmanpr"
Clarke was happy with his runner-up finish. "Second place is a great result… especially after going through a tough time two weeks ago [at Oceanside 70.3] when I was dealing with injury. On the run I tried to go after Starykowicz but he was too far gone."
The women
Amanda Stevens was first out of the water with a 24:41 swim and defending champion Helle Frederiksen was right with her. But these two leaders had distanced themselves more than 4.5 minutes over all other Pros racing in Puerto Rico.
After that the Danish Dervish was lights out with a sizzling 2:18:49 bike split that brought her back to the bike-run transition with a 10:45 advantage over Amanda Stevens and just over 11 minutes on Sofie Goos. Goos moved past Stevens to take second place but with Uplace-BMC team mate Frederiksen well up the road that was the best she could do on this day.
An eased-up but still women’s race-fastest 1:27:39 run brought Frederiksen to the finish in 4:14:27 – three minutes slower than her 2013 effort but miles ahead of everyone else on this day and in 7th place overall.
It was Frederiksen’s second win in a row in San Juan, but she says it never gets old. 'A big win is always emotional," said the Danish star. "I have done four half Ironmans now and I have won three of them. But you can’t get complacent in the lead, especially because I am fairly new to long distance racing. I did end up with humongous blisters, but when you cross that line the hurt disappears."
Sofie Goos was not disheartened by the long distance between her and the winner – a big switch from her dominant win at Ironman 70.3 Texas last week. "I couldn’t have done better today," said Goos. "I hadn’t recuperated 100 percent from last week and Helle was just too strong today."
Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
April 13, 2014
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Andrew Starykowicz (USA) 3:53:30
2. Will Clarke (GBR) 3:54:28
3. Andi Bocherer (GER) 4:03:25
4. Ben Collins (USA) 4:05:16
5. Adam Kosmicki (USA) 4:10:26 * M30-34
Women
1. Helle Frederiksen (DNK) 4:14:27
2. Sofie Goos (BEL) 4:26:50
3. Amanda Stevens (USA) 4:35:25
4. Heather Leiggi (USA) 4:45:11
5. Amanda Wendorff (USA) 4:48:53 * F35-39
