Taylor Knibb Takes the Lead onto the Run in Kona, Charles-Barclay Chasing in Second

Lucy Charles-Barclay will need a strong marathon if she wants to win her second IRONMAN world title. Photo: Eric Wynn

After trailing for the first half of the bike on the Big Island, Taylor Knibb finally caught Lucy Charles-Barclay at the turnaround in Hawi. The two women stayed close to one another for the next 20 miles or so, but a race official served Charles-Barclay a one-minute penalty for unintentional littering after a bottle fell off her bike and onto the road. This slip-up gave Knibb the opening she needed to take control of the lead, and she carried that into T2.

Racing for the Lead

Charles-Barclay entered T1 with a gap of about a minute and a half over Knibb and the other chasing women. She had no issue extending that lead over most of the field, but Knibb wouldn’t go away. Charles-Barclay did manage to build her lead up considerably at a few points, hitting a maximum of 2:21 after 42 miles of riding, but less than 20 miles later at the turnaround in Hawi, the gap was down to a matter of seconds.

Almost immediately after hitting the turn back toward Kona, Knibb pulled off the road to swap out her bottles. Three-time IRONMAN world champion Mirinda Carfrae was in the IRONMAN broadcast booth and she applauded Knibb for her maturity in this moment, pointing out that many athletes in Knibb’s position would choose not to prioritize their nutrition after catching the race leader in order to stay within reach of first place.

Taylor Knibb rode a 4:31:00 bike split. Photo: Eric Wynn

Of course, in a race as long and as gruelling as the IRONMAN World Championship, Carfrae said, giving up a few seconds to stick to your nutrition plan is well worth it in the long run, whereas ignoring it can lead to a late-race implosion.

One of the best cyclists in the world of triathlon, Knibb had no trouble re-establishing contact with Charles-Barclay at the front of the race, and the two women rode together for a long stint as they worked their way back to town. The aforementioned littering penalty was ultimately the difference-maker on the bike, separating Knibb and Charles-Barclay for the final third of the race.

While the penalty was only one minute, Knibb’s advantage grew to be far more than 60 seconds, as Charles-Barclay had lost all momentum and had to work back up to her previous race pace. Knibb’s lead hovered around 90 to 100 seconds for the remainder of the bike ride, giving her a decent buffer as she set out onto the marathon course.

Knibb’s final bike time was 4:31:00. She started the run 1:43 ahead of Charles-Barclay, who rode a 4:33:58 split. The duo was just below course record pace, and it looked like whoever was going to win was going to need to beat Charles-Barclay’s course best time from 2023 to do it.

The Chasers

Kona rookie Solveig Løvseth of Norway was all alone in third place behind Knibb and Charles-Barclay. She started the run in 26th place, 6:23 back of the lead, but she quickly climbed through the rankings. She sat comfortably in the top 20 for the first third of the ride, but by the 40-mile mark, she had climbed into third.

Solveig Løvseth had the second-best ride of the day in Kona. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

While Løvseth made great progress working through the rest of the field, she continued to lose time to Charles-Barclay and Knibb further on up the road. At the Hawi turnaround, she was a little over seven minutes back of the lead.

On the back half of the ride, however, Løvseth really got to work. By the time she reached T2, she had recorded the second-fastest bike split of the day with a 4:31:53 ride and had clawed back to within six minutes of Knibb. She was still a very real threat to steal second place from Charles-Barclay or the overall lead.

Løvseth was the only woman in the field who managed to stay within striking distance of the two at the front of the race. Laura Philipp and Kat Matthews — the top two from last year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice — got off the bike virtually side by side, but they found themselves a staggering 14 minutes behind Knibb.

Slowtwitch is on site and will be posting updates all day long, so be sure to follow along to stay in the know about all the action in Kona.

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