Nils Frommhold and Laura Philipp crossed the finish line with huge smiles, despite the poor weather at IRONMAN 70.3 St. Poelten. Frommhold was the first of three German men on the pro podium, and Philipp dominated the race with a 10-minute lead.
In the men’s race, things unfolded as expected. Andreas Boecherer, Frommhold and Maurice Clavel were among the fastest guys in the water and started battling out each other early on the bike. The three athletes, who all live in the same area in the South of Germany, broke away from the rest of the field, with only Austria’s Thomas Steger able to ride a similar pace on the wet roads. Frommhold and Boecherer, who had won in St. Poelten in the past two years, dropped Clavel early and reached T2 side by side. "I knew that the first kilometer would be decisive," explained Frommhold later why he more or less sprinted into the half marathon. Once he had opened up a small gap, he was off and away to a 2-minute lead while Clavel made up time on Boecherer especially on the last kilometers of the run to finish a minute behind the 2016 champ in third.
Philipp led women’s race from start to finish. After the swim, her advantage was only about 20 seconds, but she had no issues to pull away from her chasers on the wet bike course. She had a lead of about 5 minutes over Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) and Austria’s Lisa Huetthaler when she came off the bike, and Philipp knew about her running strength. As she did one week before in Mallorca, she ran straight to a great victory thanks to a superb split while van Vlerken took runner-up position ahead of Huetthaler.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Frommhold, Nils DEU 0:25:52…2:11:36…1:14:23…3:56:47
2 Böcherer, Andi DEU 0:25:55…2:11:09…1:16:39…3:59:04
3 Clavel, Maurice DEU 0:25:48…2:17:27…1:11:47…4:00:04
4 Steger, Thomas AUT 0:27:20…2:15:48…1:13:37…4:02:00
5 Angert, Florian DEU 0:25:49…2:17:21…1:15:26…4:03:55
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Philipp, Laura DEU 0:30:26…2:27:39…1:20:00…4:23:31
2 Van Vlerken, Yvonne NLD 0:31:05…2:32:03…1:24:45…4:33:12
3 Hütthaler, Lisa AUT 0:30:44…2:31:51…1:26:01…4:34:21
4 Sämmler, Daniela DEU 0:30:42…2:34:13…1:26:23…4:37:11
5 Steurer, Bianca AUT 0:30:48…2:38:02…1:25:54…4:40:24