Strong bikers dominated the sixth edition of IRONMAN 70.3 Luxembourg. Thanks to a smart tactics, Swiss Manuel Kueng eventually celebrated his second win in Remich after 2015. As expected, French Romain Guillaume was at Kueng’s feet from the swim on. Once they embarked onto the bike course leading the field through the beautiful Mosel and wine region of Luxembourg, Guillaume and Kueng battled it out between themselves and the rest of the field. Only Marcus Herbst from Germany was able to stay the leader’s pace, but he had to pay for this effort later on the run. The rest of men’s field including defending champion Kenneth Vandendriessche was already way behind Guillaume and Kueng. Those two went together on and off the bike and again onto the run with small advantages on Guillaume’s side. Until 6 k to go, the Frenchman was leading the race with Kueng consistently 30 to 40 seconds back. On the final kilometers, Kueng then put the hammer down.
On the women’s side, Lisa Huetthaler, after taking the victory four years ago, dominated the challenging bike part once again. Huetthaler came from behind after a weaker swim with a shadow behind her: Brit Susie Cheetham. After biking within a stretch of always about 2 minutes, the experienced Brit tried hard to catch up with the Austrian on the run. Cheetham really gained some time on Huetthaler, but the 2014 champion finally took it again.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Kueng, Manuel CHE 3:51:59
2 Guillaume, Romain FRA 3:54:29
3 Norris, Colin GBR 3:56:23
4 Strijk, Sven Strijk NED 3:56:23
5 Herbst, Marcus DEU 3:57:00
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Huetthaler, Lisa AUT 4:13:52
2 Cheetham, Susie GBR 4:15:59
3 Tondeur, Alexandra BEL 4:20:31
4 Hufe, Mareen DEU 4:24:29
5 Zimmermann, Laura DEU 4:27:18