Ups and Downs From the Final 70.3 St. George

The final edition of IRONMAN 70.3 St. George delivered yet another stellar day of racing, as has typically been the case across the decade-plus of events in southwestern Utah. It also saw some major shake-ups in the IRONMAN Pro Series points standings — more on that to come later this week, as we’ve somehow reached the one-third mark of the season already. Here’s our takes on ups and downs following Saturday’s race.

Up: The King and Queen of St. George

Let’s lead off with our race winners, Lionel Sanders and Paula Findlay. Our Forums favorite Canadians sent St. George into the sunset with signature styled victories. They’ve had plenty of success here in St. George over the years. For Sanders, it concludes a racing career that saw him finish either first or second in St. George for every event he ever raced here, bar one (a lowly fourth here in 2023 to Sam Long, Trevor Foley, and Jackson Laundry). Findlay, meanwhile, successfully defended her title from last year, and made it three total victories in St. George.

I think it might be safe to say that they’d be the first two to sign a petition to bring IRONMAN racing back to St. George.

Regardless, both Findlay and Sanders are rolling. Two commanding victories at their first two Pro Series events of the year set them up well in the season standings thus far, and that’s before either one of them toe the line of a full-distance race (and its double point values compared to 70.3 events). It’s a promising kick-off to 2025.

Down: Tire Manufacturer Stock

Is it just me, or have we seen a rash of high-profile tire blowouts or punctures this year? In St. George we saw at a minimum Magnus Ditlev and Justin Riele suffer from flats, with Riele’s puncture caught on camera as Sanders passed him.

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(Bonus points for the comment from mammothwagon: “shot a reverse green shell at him” is an A+ reference.)

Of course, we’ve seen mechanical maladies for multiple athletes, particularly in the men’s field, this year: Cam Wurf and Kristian Blummenfelt also have suffered from flats or other failures on their bikes. As fields have gotten faster, it seems like we are pushing the envelope on rolling resistance at the expense of puncture or durability protection. We’re bound to wind up having this conversation again at world championship events at this rate, and whether it eliminates a pre-race favorite because of it.

Up: Danielle Lewis

Lewis is quietly having her best start of a race season since 2019, where she went fourth at Oceanside and second at St. George. This time around she’s taken her second podium in as many 70.3 events, upgrading from bronze at Oceanside to another silver here. Lewis continues to prove herself as a threat on the bike and the run, steadily moving through the field after a swim that generally leaves herself a sizable gap to make up. She had a full four minutes to make up on Vittoria Lopes and Lotte Wilms coming out of the water, which clearly was nowhere near enough margin.

Any race with a wetsuit legal swim, you should probably look at putting a dollar or two on Lewis to make the podium.

Down: Chelsea Sodaro

Sodaro’s streak of rotten luck continued in St. George, a race location where she’s finished on the podium once before and otherwise either not finished or been out of the cash. This time around, the illness that knocked her out of IRONMAN Texas is still not fully cleared out of her system, and she pulled the ripcord during the bike. (As a fellow parent with a child who has managed to bring every illness under the sun into the house over the past year, I feel Sodaro’s pain.)

A positive for Sodaro to build on: even while still dealing with lingering illness, Sodaro swam with eventual winner Findlay, who has traditionally owned the head-to-head swim times between the two over the years by a comfortable margin.

Up: Jackie Hering

The long-time leader in the IRONMAN Pro Series last year, Hering is off to another strong start in 2025. Much like last year, she’s earned a second and third in her first two 70.3 races, but this time in fields that the PTO has ranked as significantly stronger year-over-year. Perhaps critically for her chances later on in the year, she’s consistently running one of the faster splits in the field, which will be critical in her chances at world championship races. She hasn’t finished in the money at 70.3 Worlds since 2022, and still needs to earn her way into the field in Kona. Five women’s slots are on the line in Hamburg on June 1st, where we’d expect Hering to try to defend her crown from last year.

Up: Colin Szuch

Take a bow, Mr. Szuch. It was a career performance from Szuch, earning his first Pro Series podium and first 70.3 paycheck since Indian Wells last year. Heck, it’s just his second podium ever as a professional after having raced thirteen times last year (and we all thought Kat Matthews was busy). Perhaps more impressive is how he got there, riding his way into that podium spot behind Sanders and Sam Long and then delivering a dependable mid 1:1X half marathon. Very well done.

Neutral: Magnus Ditlev

It would have been easy to toss Ditlev as down and out following a twelfth place finish here, nearly fifteen minutes off the win. That wouldn’t paint a good picture of how the race was unfolding for him, though. Having swam in the front chase, Ditlev charged toward the front to overtake swim leaders Seth Rider and Marc Dubrick. Perhaps no sooner than his nose hit the front did Ditlev suffer his flat tire, and it seemingly took eons for him to receive support for it. Once he got that wheel (a relatively standard shallow rim), he rode well, and then ran a quality half marathon. He’s left to rue what could have been, but he showed enough here to remain a bankable threat every time he toes he the line.

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