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The men
Prior to the race some folks had predicted that Frodeno's friend and training partner Nick Kastelein might be pacing the German Wunderkind through the swim in the Europakanal, but Frodeno quickly dropped all other competitors including Kastelein and built up a 90-second lead by the time he came out of the water ahead of defending champion Nils Frommhold and Kastelein. His 45:22 swim split was just about one minute quicker than the 2011 time of Andreas Raelert.
Frodeno wasted no time on his new Canyon Speedmax CF SLX bike either and quickly pulled away further. Tyler Butterfield managed to bridge up to Frommhold and Kastelein, and these 3 athletes rode in a group for most of the bike segment, but Frommhold pulled away towards the end. When Frommhold arrived in T2 he learned that the 2015 Ironman World Champion was more than 10 minutes up the road, despite a reported small crash. Frodeno had in fact ridden a race best 4:08:07 bike split. Kastelein and Butterfield were next into transition and they were followed by Cyril Viennot and the hard charging Joe Skipper who were more than 21 minutes behind Frodeno. Per Bittner, Jan Raphael and Henry Beck followed next having lost around 28 minutes each. But maybe just as important for Frodeno, he was up 4 minutes on the elusive world record pace
Prior to the race some folks had predicted that Frodeno's friend and training partner Nick Kastelein might be pacing the German Wunderkind through the swim in the Europakanal, but Frodeno quickly dropped all other competitors including Kastelein and built up a 90-second lead by the time he came out of the water ahead of defending champion Nils Frommhold and Kastelein. His 45:22 swim split was just about one minute quicker than the 2011 time of Andreas Raelert.
Frodeno wasted no time on his new Canyon Speedmax CF SLX bike either and quickly pulled away further. Tyler Butterfield managed to bridge up to Frommhold and Kastelein, and these 3 athletes rode in a group for most of the bike segment, but Frommhold pulled away towards the end. When Frommhold arrived in T2 he learned that the 2015 Ironman World Champion was more than 10 minutes up the road, despite a reported small crash. Frodeno had in fact ridden a race best 4:08:07 bike split. Kastelein and Butterfield were next into transition and they were followed by Cyril Viennot and the hard charging Joe Skipper who were more than 21 minutes behind Frodeno. Per Bittner, Jan Raphael and Henry Beck followed next having lost around 28 minutes each. But maybe just as important for Frodeno, he was up 4 minutes on the elusive world record pace
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The wicked pace of Frodeno continued during the run and the gap to the chasers grew larger and larger. A bit further back however Joe Skipper was on a mission and slowly reeled in folks in front of him. He first passed Viennot and not much later Butterfield for fourth place. With about 14k to go Skipper moved past Kastelein who was racing in his first long course race, and then hunted after the defending champion Frommhold. At the front of the race Frodeno looked fantastic and ran a superb 2:39:18 to take the win in a world record time of 7:35:39 and looked thrilled when he crossed the finish. Joe Skipper's race best 2:38:52 run allowed him to move past Frommhold with one km to go and capture the runner-up spot in 7:56:23. Frommhold finished 3rd in 7:57:49.
The women
Daniela Ryf was first out of the water in 49:10 and only the top 3 men managed to swim faster. Ryf was thus quickly out of sight for her competitors. Michelle Vesterby, Carrie Lester and Anja Beranek needed just under 52:30 for the 3.8k swim segment in the Europakanal.
Vesterby, Beranek and Lester were chasing hard on the bikes, but the Swiss pro pulled further and further away and rode well among the pro men. Vesterby then had some bike problems and dropped back. Meanwhile the defending champion Yvonne Van Vlerken managed to close the gap to Beranek and Lester about an hour into the bike segment. But the Swiss Ironman World Champion recorded a race best 4:31:29 bike split and that allowed her to start the run well out of reach, and about 10 minutes below the 2009 World Record pace of Chrissie Wellington.
Ryf ran well too and recorded a race best run of 2:57:40 to take the win in 8:22:04. Carrie Lester ran 3:03:38 to capture second place in 8:42:13 and Yvonne Van Vlerken rounded out the podium with a 3:10:58 run and a total time of 8:49:35.
The women
Daniela Ryf was first out of the water in 49:10 and only the top 3 men managed to swim faster. Ryf was thus quickly out of sight for her competitors. Michelle Vesterby, Carrie Lester and Anja Beranek needed just under 52:30 for the 3.8k swim segment in the Europakanal.
Vesterby, Beranek and Lester were chasing hard on the bikes, but the Swiss pro pulled further and further away and rode well among the pro men. Vesterby then had some bike problems and dropped back. Meanwhile the defending champion Yvonne Van Vlerken managed to close the gap to Beranek and Lester about an hour into the bike segment. But the Swiss Ironman World Champion recorded a race best 4:31:29 bike split and that allowed her to start the run well out of reach, and about 10 minutes below the 2009 World Record pace of Chrissie Wellington.
Ryf ran well too and recorded a race best run of 2:57:40 to take the win in 8:22:04. Carrie Lester ran 3:03:38 to capture second place in 8:42:13 and Yvonne Van Vlerken rounded out the podium with a 3:10:58 run and a total time of 8:49:35.
