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Despite the most challenging conditions in race history, not to mention the most competitive fields they have ever faced in Nice, Bart Aernouts and Tine Deckers took the wins at one of triathlon’s most storied race sites. Celebrating its 10th edition, IRONMAN France-Nice has continued the tradition that began in the early 80s with the prestigious Nice International Triathlon. For Deckers it was win number four, but only just, as she had to push right to the finish line to hold off Caitlin Snow, who was only 41 seconds behind. For Aernouts it was a long-awaited and hard-earned first IRONMAN title – in addition to the challenge from the rest of the men, the Belgian crashed twice on the bike.
Aernouts was hardly the only one who struggled to stay upright riding through the spectacular mountains around Nice. Rainy and cold conditions made the technical bike course even more difficult than usual.
Deckers by a hair
Leanda Cave led the way out of the water in the women’s race in 51:54, finishing amongst the main pack of men’s contenders, which put her well ahead of the rest of the women in the race. American Katy Blakemore was second out of the water, but trailed the 2012 Kona champ by 3:36. Snow had a fantastic swim (for her) coming out of the water in third, 4:23 behind Cave, while Deckers wasn’t even in the picture at the end of the swim thanks to a 60:03 split.
Out on the bike, though, Cave was quickly pulled over by race officials – she had left T1 without a race number, a no-no according to the race rules. She would eventually return to transition to get her number, then finish the bike course and part of the run before calling it a day. Snow ended up in the lead shortly into the ride, but by 56 km Deckers was in front and quickly taking control of the race. By the end of the bike she’d opened up a lead of just under eight minutes on Snow, 9:17 over local hero, France’s Jeanne Collonge, 12:57 on American Lisa Roberts and over 16 minutes on Ireland’s Eimear Mullan.
Through the first half of the marathon Snow was continually gaining time, but not nearly enough to appear to be a threat to take the title. Then, thanks to a combination of Deckers slowing a bit, and Snow finding a new gear, things started to look a bit closer. With10.5 km to go Snow was just over five minutes down. With 5.5 km remaining, the gap was down to 1:45.
Deckers, who had to skip the race last year to give birth to her now 11-month-old son Finn, found another gear and held Snow off by less than a minute. Deckers put together an impressive 2:59 marathon to take the win, while Snow blazed to an incredible 2:52:26, one of the fastest women's runs ever, to come oh-so-close.
It was a fourth title for Deckers, and by far the most satisfying she said after the race, especially since she has spent all but 10 of the last 30 days away from Finn as she prepared for the race here in Nice. Behind Snow, Roberts ran her way to third, while Mullan moved up to fourth by the end of the marathon. Rounding out the top five was age grouper Linda Guinoiseau (W40-44).
Aernouts guts it out
Britain’s Harry Wiltshire was first out of the water in 49:37, with Jeremy Jurkiewicz and Bertrand Billard on his feet. A few minutes later a group containing many of the race favorites exited the water, including Mathias Hecht, Herve Faure, Tyler Butterfield and Aernouts.
Initially it looked like Jurkiewicz would control the day as he opened up a sizable gap on the men chasing behind, but as the rain started to come down in the mountains, the Frenchman was the first of many athletes to go down on the slick roads. While Jurkiewicz remained in the lead for a while after his crash, Aernouts started to make his move on some of the long climbs that make the IRONMAN France course one of the toughest in IRONMAN racing. Aernouts begain to falter, though, at the 115 km point of the bike, and Billard made his move to the front. Aernouts managed to stay relatively close for the next 35 km, but on the final steep, tricky descent of the day it was Aernouts’ turn to go down – he crashed twice coming down the Cote de la Condamine, which put him about a minute behind Billard entering T2.
The Belgian ran 2:37 here last year for a close-fought runner-up finish to IRONMAN world champion Frederik Van Lierde, so it came as no surprise that he would quickly catch Billard and re-take the lead. What was surprising was how quickly super-runner Victor Del Corral started to gain time on the men ahead of him. Over 13 minutes back starting the marathon, the Spaniard moved up to second place by the end of the second of four loops of the run, with Butterfield just seconds behind. Running just over five minutes behind Aernouts at that point, Del Corral’s charge stalled during the third loop of the run as Aernouts surged. Del Corral would gain a bit more time during the last lap, but still ended up a bit over fourt minutes behind at the end of the marathon despite his 2:42 split.
Aernouts was thrilled with his first IRONMAN win. Behind Del Corral, Butterfield rounded out the podium. Jurkiewicz finished fourth, followed by German Christian Brader, who moved through the field on the run.