Van Lierde, McCauley take wins at Ironman 70.3 Vichy

By Wires August 28, 2017

0 Comments

Frederik Van Lierde of Belgium and American Jocelyn McCauley take the pro elite titles at Ironman 70.3 Vichy.

Men

Manuel Kung of Switzerland was first out of the water in 24:46. Kung was by his lonesome, and was 29 seconds ahead of Jeremy Jurkiewicz of France (25:15) and Ivan Risti of Italy (25:16). Andi Boecherer of Germany was 4th quickest at 25:24 and followed by eventual winner Van Lierde (BEL) at 25:25. Thanyapura’s Antony Costes (FRA) was 6th out into T1 at 25:42.

After a race-best bike split of 2:01:58, Boecherer was able to build a 5 second lead over Van Lierde going T2. Van Leirde has stamped a 2nd fastest 2:02:43 split followed by Costes, who had the 3rd best bike time at 2:05:25.

Boecherer and Van Lierde ran together up until the 10km mark when the latter was able to pass and take a 5 second lead. Going into the last 5km, Van Lerde was able to put a gap of 1 minutes and 30 seconds over the German Boecherer. A 2nd fastest run split of 1:13:25 took Van Lerde to the victory. Van Lierde finished in 3:46:02 with a 3:24 margin over Bocherer, who ran 1:16:51. Antony Costes of France ran 1:16:09 to complete 3rd place podium.

Women

Switzerland’s Celine Schaerer bolted out on the swim, first going into T1 at 25:51. Schaerer has built a 3 minutes 5 seconds lead over Polish Maria Czesnik (28:56). Third and fourth out off the swim were Swiss Imogen Simmonds (29:17) and Jocelyn McCauley (29:21), a 3:31 deficit to the swim leader Schaerer.

McCauley though let her bike strength propel her to the women’s best split of 2:19:56, closing the gap to Schaerer to under 10 seconds going into T2. McCauley made the pass over Schaerer at around the 5km mark and never looked back. The American increased her lead to 30 seconds going into 8km. McCauley gradually upped her pace over her Swiss rival to finish a 3rd best 1:23:45 run, that propelled her to the victory. McCauley finished in 4:18:21, a 2 minute margin over Schaerer and 3:18 over 3rd placer Maria Czesnik of Poland.