Since it began in 2002, the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt has routinely attracted one of the strongest IRONMAN race fields of the year and this year was no exception as a who’s who of the sport arrived in Germany to vie for the title.
Happy birthday Sebastian
Earlier this year Sebastian Kienle was quite happy to tell the world that 2008 Olympic champion Jan Frodeno was virtually unbeatable over the IRONMAN 70.3 distance. When Frodeno wasn’t invited to the press conference at IRONMAN 70.3 California, Kienle told the press that the winner of the race was back in his hotel room, probably riding a wind trainer to prepare. The next day, as Kienle predicted, Frodeno dominated.
A few months later, though, Kienle was quite happy to tell everyone that Frodeno could very well dominate his debut IRONMAN race, but you could tell that the two-time IRONMAN 70.3 world champion was going to be happy to keep his countryman honest and make him work for a win.
After leading out of the water, Frodeno looked to be in control of his first full-distance effort, but then got waylaid by not one, not two but three flat tires, his first flats of 2014. By the time he was back on his bike and riding with a new wheel courtesy of bike support, he was well back of the leaders, who happen to be amongst the best riders in the sport.
Frederik Van Lierde, last year’s IRONMAN world champion, was out of the water with Frodeno, and quickly moved to the front of the race. Kienle, who had come out of the water four minutes behind, worked his way up to the front of the race before the end of the first lap. After biding his time behind Van Lierde for 5 km, he hammered to the front of the race on the famous “Heartbreak Hill” climb that, as is tradition here in Frankfurt, was jammed with spectators.
From that point on the race was, in essence, over. Kienle was off the bike 5:36 ahead of Van Lierde and over 17 minutes ahead of a group that included Frodeno and Andreas Raelert, the man who has the fastest full-distance finish time in history to his credit.
Once on the run Kienle continued to shut the door on the rest of the competition thanks to the fastest marathon of his career, a 2:49:35. While Van Lierde would eventually run a few seconds faster, he never threatened for the win. Frodeno flew through parts of the run, but was forced to walk at others as he fought a series of cramps. Despite all he challenges of the day, Frodeno’s 2:43 marathon earned him a solid third. Ronnie Schilknecht hung tough for fourth, while Alessandro Degasperi rounded out the top five. Raelert, obviously still suffering from the injury that sidelined him for much of last year, dropped out during the marathon.
Abraham has all the answers
Anyone who saw Corinne Abraham dominate a strong field in Melbourne last year had a pretty good feeling she would be the woman to beat by the end of the bike ride in Frankfurt today. As his her norm, Jodie Swallow led out of the water, followed a few seconds later by her teammate Mary Beth Ellis. (Both are trained by Siri Lindley.)
The two enjoyed a lead of two minutes on New Zealand’s Gina Crawford and over four minutes on defending women’s champ, Camilla Pedersen, who was competing just 10 months after a bike accident forced doctor’s to put her in an induced coma. Abraham was over seven minutes down starting the bike.
Throughout the ride Swallow and Ellis traded leads, while the rest of the women seemed to gradually gain time on them as they worked their way through the bike. The end result was a jam-packed transition area at the end of the ride that saw the first nine women all off the bike within four minutes of each other: Swallow first, followed by Ellis, Abraham, Pedersen, Eva Wutti, Natascha Badmann, Sonja Tajsich, Crawford and Amy Marsh.
Through the first half of the marathon it looked like Swallow might hold off the speedsters behind her, but at 22 km Abraham managed to get by. She never looked back and cruised to her second major title after the big win at the IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Melbourne last year. Kristin Moller ran her way to fourth, while Amy Marsh rounded out the top five. That left super-woman, 47-year-old Natascha Badmann in sixth, with Swallow in seventh and Ellis in eighth.