Weekend Wrap-Up: Ironman Sweden, Ironman Mont-Tremblant, Ironman Copenhagen, and Ironman 70.3 Dublin

By Wires August 22, 2017

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IRONMAN Sweden Kalmar

At IRONMAN Sweden, Clemente Alonso-McKernan came out of the water in first place. Things changed early on the bike, however, when Australia’s strong rider Cameron Wurf put on an impressive performance and caught up with the Spanish leader early on. Everyone who saw Wurf in transition had an idea about the Australian’s match plan: He stormed through transition looking like someone aiming for nothing else than the win. Thanks to a new bike record, Wurf dominated the field for 2 hours while Mc-Kernan controlled his pace and place. He battled with local hero Karl-Johan Danielsson for runner-up position, but Alonso-McKernan kept cool. Meanwhile, Wurf had to fight hard to keep the distance between him and second-placed Alonso-McKernan who started downsizing the lead of the Australian on the first kilometers of the marathon. The Spaniard is well known for solid running, and he also proved strong in Copenhagen. With 10 kilometers to go, Alonso-McKernan made the decisive pass. Wurf didn’t give up, and took second.

Top 5 Pro Men

1	Alonso-McKernan, Clemente	ESP	8:07:48
2	Wurf, Cameron	AUS	8:08:58
3	Hovgaard, Esben	DEN	8:25:18
4	Danielsson, Karl-Johan	SWE	8:28:32
5	Sapunov, Daniil	UKR	8:34:02

IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant

Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) was in his own time zone this weekend in Quebec at IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant. The Belgian legend went to work early into the bike and managed to carry a 12-minute advantage as he raced into an empty transition. The 41-year-old didn’t let off the gas for the run as he smacked out a race-best run to claim his 16th IRONMAN title of his career by winning margin of over 20 minutes.

In the women’s race, Lauren Brandon (USA) was the first pro (male and female) out of the water and hit the bike course with close to a seven-minute lead on the entire women’s field. On the strength of the fastest bike split on the day, Brandon padded her lead to over 13 minutes as she dismounted her bike and headed into T2. The wheels fell off Brandon’s run early into the run as Rachel Joyce (GBR) and Magali Tisseyre (CAN) started the run together in second and third.

It was evident early into the run that Brandon was hurting as the gaps narrowed quickly. By 26 miles, Joyce took the lead from Brandon and held off late challenges from Kim Schwabenbauer (USA) and Jennie Hansen (USA) to claim her second IRONMAN win of the year, a guaranteed start spot in Kona, and all this with less than a year after the birth of her son, Archie.

Top 5 Pro Men

1	Vanhoenacker, Marino	BEL	8:21:29
2	McDonald, Chris	AUS	8:41:27
3	Monnink, Jordan	CAN	8:51:29
4	Holderbaum, Chad	USA	8:56:59
5	Pohl, Jason	CAN	8:57:28

Top 5 Pro Women

1	Joyce, Rachel	GBR	9:19:08
2	Schwabenbauer, Kim	USA	9:21:22
3	Hansen, Jennie	USA	9:25:58
4	Brandon, Lauren	USA	9:27:27
5	Tisseyre, Magali	CAN	9:30:09

IRONMAN Copenhagen

Michelle Vesterby was the Danish star shining above Denmark’s capital today; two years after she celebrated the win at the KMD IRONMAN Copenhagen, she came back to nail the victory at this pro women only competition. After pro men were racing here the year before, Vesterby stormed through men’s age group field right from the get-go. Seven weeks after ranking third at the IRONMAN Austria, she was off and away in the women’s pro field from the get-go. Her strongest chasers, Corinne Abraham and Sofie Goos, were 7 minutes behind when they reached the first transition. Although conditions weren’t easy, she hammered away and had the fastest split on a cold, rainy day in Denmark. Due to the fact that Abraham is a solid sub-3 marathoner, Vesterby knew how important a big gap would be after the bike. When she started the run, her lead was more than 12 minutes over Abraham and about 20 minutes over Goos. The Danish leader didn’t lose control throughout the whole run and took an impressive win.

Top 5 Pro Women

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1	Michelle Vesterby	DEN	9:00:19
2	Corinne Abraham	GBR	9:08:06
3	Sofie Goos	BEL	9:17:17
4	Camilla Lindholm Borg	SWE	9:22:46
5	Alyssa Godesky	USA	9:33:20

IRONMAN 70.3 Dublin

British athletes reigned in Ireland, where in both the men’s and women’s competition, winners were made on the run. There was no doubt that in the men’s race, it was on France’s Romain Guillaume to attack on the bike. He did as expected and stormed to the front in a fashion that has made him often a race leader. Guillaume knew that a fast bike split would be mandatory to keep Brit David Mcnamee off his feet on the run. The Frenchman let the hammer go down and managed an extraordinary bike ride, putting almost 5 minutes on the chasers. But it was just not enough. With about 5 kilometers to go on the run, Mcnamee flew by and pushed Guillaume into runner-up position.

Two-time defending champion Susie Cheetham was expected to dominate the women’s race heading into the competition. The 31-year-old seemed to be on the way to take her third consecutive win when she passed the timing mats after 75 kilometers of the bike course. Cheetham had the race under control, but the gaps were there. Things changed quickly when Sarah Lewis downsized Cheetham’s lead on the final kilometers of the bike and started the run only about 40 seconds behind. It took her less than 8 kilometers on the run to fix the win.

Top 5 Pro Men