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Andy Potts displayed pose and brilliant race tactics, while Wurtele was unmatched on the day at the 12th edition of IRONMAN Coeur d’Alene.
Andy Potts (USA) set the tone quickly in the race, pushing his way to front of the race in the choppy and windy conditions on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Swimming the entire swim off the front, Potts established a solid lead of over five minutes on Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR), Maik Twelsiek (DEU) and defending champion, Ben Hoffman (USA).
Once on the bike Potts heroically held off the chase pack of Zyemtsev, Twelsienk and Hoffman for the first half of the ride. The trio started to make small gains into Potts' lead but nothing substantial was gained until mile 75, when the field bunched up and Twelsiek forged his way into the lead. Zyemtsev was first to fade with from the pace as Potts settled for keeping Twelsiek close, while Hoffman was looking strong and closed the gap to only a minute on the lead pair up front.
Hoffman went down at mile 95, due to an accident with an age group athlete. Stopping to help the athlete and repairing his bike set Hoffman back over 13 minutes. Up front, Twelsiek made his move, gapped Potts, and carried a two-minute lead at the completion of the bike. Zyemtsev was next into T2, 11 minutes off the leaders pace, as Hoffman was facing almost a 14-minute deficit to overcome.
On the run, Potts immediately started chewing into Twelsiek’s advantage and grabbed the lead shortly after the first five miles of the run. Zyemtsev and Hoffman were flying, but not making the gains in the first half of the run that would net the multiple IRONMAN champions the win. As the race reached the second half the run, Potts lead grew to five minutes on Twelsiek, who now had Zyemtsev in his shawdow, while Hoffman was ignoring the bruises and worked his deficit down to less than eight minutes.
At 21 miles, Potts had the field closing in on him hard and fast with Zyemtsev two and a half minutes back and Hoffman at less than five minutes from the front-runner. Then Potts turn on the jets and rolled out four consecutive six minute miles as the pair behind him could only match the pace, at best.
Potts captured the 2014 IRONMAN Coeur d’Alene title in a winning time of 8:25:44. Veteran Zyemtsev had left his move just a little too late, came up short by 2:48, but still grabbed second in a finishing time of 8:28:32. Hoffman had a bitter-sweet and hard earned third place finish with his 8:29:12 clocking, just 3:28 after Potts broke the tape.
The women’s race saw Kelly Williamson (USA) run up the sandy beach of Lake Coeur d’Alene first with Jessica Jones (USA) and Heather Wurtele (CAN) trailing by 42 and 45 seconds. The leading trio had the remainder of the field over six minutes back.
Wurtele put on a display of bike prowess to quickly grab the lead. She immediately built upon her advantage with each passing time check. By mile 35, Wurtele's lead had swelled to 7:30 and 12 minutes on Smith and Williamson as the race reached 75 miles. At mile 80, Wurtele suffered a flat, which caused her to lose four to five minutes, but the Canadian still enjoyed a 7:30 lead once she remounted her bike. Coming off the bike at 112 miles, Wurtele had 7:27 to the good on Smith who was next to follow the leader into T2. Williamson was third off the bike and was over 15 minutes in arrears as the IRONMAN Texas champion racked her bike.
Once on the run, Wurtele was fortunate not to be forced to have to run hard while Williamson ran by a fading Smith and on her way into second place. Wurtele cruised the marathon and on to successfully defend her title with a 9:34:32 finish time; Williamson grabbed second in 9:50:07, and Smith rounded out the podium with a 9:58:42.