Fast is the best word to describe both professional competitions at the IRONMAN Barcelona where Antony Costes and Yvonne van Vlerken ran to the victory in outstanding finishing times. In the men’s race, a group of 12 started the battle from the outset of the swim. Most of the favorites belonged to that lead group except the fast runner Joe Skipper (GBR), and it was on New Zealander Mike Phillips to get out of the water first. When he led the group after less than 48 minutes into transition, this was a signal for the bike ride. No question, it would get fast and furious on the pancake-flat course.
Frenchman Costes paced himself early to the front as he had done at several events in the past few months. He's been in great shape all season long, although he had to suffer a lot at his rookie race at IRONMAN Austria in July. The 27-year old decided to attack on the final 40 kilometers of the bike because he knew about couple of fast runners in the lead group, and he was successful with that tactic. Only Phillips, the surprise of men’s race, could follow his bike pace. Costes nailed a sub 4:10 split and decisively kept calm on the first kilometers of the run while Phillips stormed into the lead again. Although experienced runners like Viktor Zyemtsev, Horst Reichel, Bas Diederen or Miquel Blanchart were expected to come up strongly on the run, Costes became the man of the second half of the run. He became the shining athlete of an historic race and highlighted his career with one of the fastest IRONMAN finishes ever.
Van Vlerken was way behind the lead when she embarked on the bike course, but the 38-year-old Dutch pro knew even before the race that this would happen. And she knew as well that she would have to hurry up early on the bike to keep the gap to Daniela Saemmler and Austria’s Lisa Huetthaler as small as possible before starting into the run. As expected, it was on the German, who won inaugural IRONMAN Hamburg seven weeks before, to dominate the bike in front of Brit Kimberley Morrison and Huetthaler.
The Austrian caught up with the leaders early on the bike and paced herself solid behind Saemmler. This trio opened up a huge gap on most of the professional women except van Vlerken who was 6:20 down when she came off the bike. It was not surprising that the multiple IRONMAN champion downsized leader’s advantage during the marathon, but it was a shock for Saemmler that van Vlerken caught up with her shortly after the half-way mark. The Dutch made the pass and stormed away to her eighth IRONMAN victory including a race record while Huetthaler was happy to take over runner-up position from a struggling German with a few kilometers to go.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Costes, Antony FRE 7:49:19
2 Phillips, Mike NXL 7:52:50
3 Zyemtsev, Viktor UKR 7:58:03
4 Blanchart Tinto, Miquel ESP 8:02:03
5 Diederen, Bas NED 8:04:51
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Van Vlerken, Yvonne NED 8:46:18
2 Huetthaler, Lisa AUT 8:51:21
3 Sämmler, Daniela DEU 8:55:11
4 Konschak, Katja DEU 8:57:12
5 Morrison, Kimberley GBR 9:12:49