Head-to-Head Battles at IRONMAN 70.3 Pro Series Zell Am See

The fourteenth stop on the IRONMAN Pro Series calendar is a favourite, 70.3 Zell Am See. In the picturesque Austrian Alps, race favourites on the men’s side included IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Jelle Geens and, hot off her win at IRONMAN Kalmar, Laura Philipp on the women’s side. But both would have head-to-head battles and only one would claim victory.

Men’s Race

The one-loop swim course in calm Lake Zell was relatively uneventful. The favourites took charge with a seven-man-wide front in the early meters that included Lasse Nygaard Priester, Kieran Lindars, Valdemar Solok, and Jelle Geens. Eventually, an arrowhead formed but, besides stretching out through the two turns at the halfway mark, the bunch pretty much stayed together. The leaders seemed to share the pacing duties, but it was Tjebbe Kaindl of Austria who took control with 500m to go and brought the men into transition with a time of 23:07.

A constant stream of men hit T1, making for some pressure to get out of the congestion. Kaindl sprinted through T1, flying onto his bike in 1:54, eight seconds faster than his competitors. Trevor Foley, who was already 1:21 down from the swim, opted not to leave his shoes clipped in onto his bike and had to run to the mount line in his bike shoes; however, credit to him, he clocked a 2:28 transition time, which was similar to most of his competitors.

Mesnager was the sacrificial lamb to the tri-gods. After a clean transition, he jumped onto his Felt only to discover a chain issue that cost him quite a bit of time. That must have given him some adrenaline as he made his way through the field throughout the bike, often being the fastest on course, but it was too much work against the front men.

At the front of the race, it was Geens, Priester, Solok, Kaindl, and Kraft distancing themselves from the field by about a minute. A key feature of the picturesque bike course is a 13km climb at the 20km mark. With 60km of racing still to do after, pacing the climb can be make-or-break. Geens was ready to play his cards and clearly started to push a bit harder than the rest. Only Priester could stay with him, and the two built a gap of over forty seconds.

The two would fly into T2 together, Priester coming in first. Priester would have to run a bit extra after dropping his visor, but he was still first out on the run course, even if it was by a split second. Geens was on his feet, and it was clear a hot run battle would ensue.

Gregor Payet and Foley would be next into T2, with none other than Mesnager in fifth.

Priester dropped Geens within the first kilometer and put together a world-class run. With a gap of 2:29 as he camethrough a sea of Austrian flags, Priester would take the win and the course record with a time of 2:43:29.

Geens would finish second and, to the pleasure of the local crowd, Kaindl would take third.

“Almost perfect, I would say,” Priester said about his race. “I made it in the front pack in the swim, a good transition, and, yeah, I felt pretty in control for the whole race… At the end of the uphill and then the downhill, we managed to break away, me and Jelle. I was ready for a run battle with him…When he left me a little gap, I was thinking, okay, this is—how do you say?—it’s not what you want, so now I try. Then I tried and, yeah, quite happy with the run and looking forward also to the next two important weeks. But right now, I am just happy about my first Pro Series win.”

Women’s Race

Twenty-nine women took to the deep-water start line at Zell Am See 70.3. The bunch split in the early meters, leaving a front group of about ten that included race favourites Laura Philipp and Lisa Perterer. Coming into the back half, it was Rani Škrabanja of the Netherlands who took the lead and forced a split, leaving only Philipp, Perterer, and Lisa Iogna Prat able to follow. Surprisingly, or maybe not since she had a rough start to the year, India Lee was one of the initial front-pack swimmers who couldn’t make the split.

Škrabanja was the first out of the water with a time of 26:28, with Philipp only six seconds behind as the last in the front group. Philipp is usually a minute or so down in the swim, so, arguably one of her better performances in the water, she set herself up for a fantastic day—and it showed in T1.

Philipp was first on her bike, but Perterer gave her no room to get away. The two would take turns leading, distancing themselves from the rest of the field by a few minutes. For unclear reasons, Perterer received a blue card for drafting, which meant she would have to stop and serve it later in the bike. To add more drama, as the two hit the climb at the 20km mark, Perterer dropped her chain and was forced to dismount. But that did nothing to deter her and, passing Philipp on the steepest part of the 13km climb, she would be the first to summit.

The main chase pack, now over four minutes behind, included Leana Bissig, India Lee, Larissa Jasper, and Anastacia Damm Nielsen. Making up over half of her four-minute deficit from the swim, Rebecca Anderbury, one of the quickest on course, would join them and help with the pacing later on.

Perterer rode the technical descent with precision, but she would relinquish her lead at the 63km mark when she pulled into the penalty tent to serve her two-minute drafting penalty. Perterer was calm, taking in nutrition and getting back onto the road without any grief.

Philipp would roll past Perterer in the penalty tent, looking calm and in control, hitting T2 in 2:21:35. She gave a quick head turn as she racked her bike, but there was no need as she had a two-minute gap. With a full-distance race two weeks ago in the legs, there could have been a question mark over her performance—but should we doubt Philipp? Not a chance. Stride by stride, Philipp would only grow her gap to take the win (and second place in the Pro Series) by over five minutes.

Perterer would claim a well-earned second. Lee, the biggest mover on the run, would round out the podium, moving up from sixth off the bike.

“It was a beautiful day and, yeah, my race went very well,” Philipp said in her post-race interview. “I surprised myself with being in the front pack in the swim. That obviously was a pretty good start on the bike, just to know where I am. And, yeah, my plan was to kind of swim good, ride hard, and then see how, yeah, how I’ll do on the run because, I mean, there was a question mark on how I will feel today, two weeks post-IRONMAN. But, you know, the nice thing if you’ve just raced an IRONMAN is that the half feels so much shorter and goes by so much quicker, and I reminded myself of that today several times.”

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