Before the IRONMAN 70.3 Ruegen started, all eyes were on Patrick Lange. Five weeks out from the IRONMAN World Championship, the question was not if Lange could win in Ruegen. The question was more about how fast and impressive the defending champion would be at the Baltic Sea coast. When Lange’s compatriot Florian Angert exited the water 40 seconds in front of the chase group within Lange and some fast others, there was no discussion if the defending champion would catch up with him later. The huge crowd in Binz awaited Lange to make an attack on the bike, but this didn’t happen. Angert nailed a superb split of 1:59:12 on the bike while Lange reached T2 within the first group five minutes down. Again, people expected the reigning IRONMAN world champion to storm onto the run course, but Angert was just too good. The 26-year old German, who won IRONMAN 70.3 Jönköping earlier this season and ranked fourth at the hard-fought IRONMAN 70.3 Austria, added a brilliant run which was even faster than Lange’s half marathon. Angert claimed an impressive win while Lange had to push a lot to drop his fellow countryman Horst Reichel.
The big name on the women’s start list was Laura Philipp. Different to the men's race, Philipp was off and away early to nail a dominant victory. Brit Claire Hann had the faster swim, but Philipp didn't only downsize the gap early, she put herself into the driver's seat in outstanding fashion. She put the best bike split by far on track and added the fastest run to take a clear win in front of Hann and Laura Zimmermann (GER).
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Angert, Florian DEU 3:47:35
2 Lange, Patrick DEU 3:50:05
3 Reichel, Horst DEU 3:51:56
4 Liebelt, Markus DEU 3:55:17
5 Loeschke, Franz DEU 3:57:28
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Philipp, Laura DEU 4:16:02
2 Hann, Claire DEU 4:32:01
3 Zimmermann, Laura DEU 4:33:21
4 Soltysiak, Joanna POL 4:35:00
5 Bugdol, Ewa POL 4:45:54