Timo Bracht weathered the specter of two speedsters in a heated footrace and held on to win the 2010 Ford Ironman Arizona. Chrissie Wellington put on a dominant performance to win the women’s title in 8:36:13 and finished 8th overall.
The men
Arizona’s version of the 140.6 distance is often a nail biter, contracting rather than expanding as the men’s race draws to a close. In 2008, the top four men crammed into two minutes by the time they reached the tape.
The 2010 edition was almost as close, with Timo Bracht holding off Denmark’s former short course star Rasmus Henning, 8:07:16 to 8:10:58. British IronRookie Tom Lowe, came third in 8:11:44. Defending Ironman Arizona champ Jordan Rapp crossed next in 8:16:45.
The day started with Kevin Everett and Brandon Marsh exiting the swim along with John Dahlz, James Bonney, Henning and Reed. Everett, Henning and Reed gained separation quickly and put two minutes on the chasers. Meanwhile, Bracht, Jordan Rapp and Chris Lieto each commenced their attempts to close down gaps of 4 and 5 minutes out of the water.
Just after halfway into the bike, Rapp—racing his first Ironman after a horrific bike crash in training almost cost him his life—took over the lead. He towed Lieto, Henning and Bracht, almost never relinquishing the front, until mile-90, when Bracht made a move.
Within a mile the German’s pace dislodged Lieto. Meanwhile, Lowe, a duathlon specialist, steadily kept pace with the leaders, albeit while hovering 3 to 4 minutes in arrears.
Rapp and Bracht and Henning entered the final straight into T2 together, with Lieto :45 back. But Henning had to make a stop to serve a 4-minute penalty for drafting—he might have won the race had he not tried to calibrate to calibrate the draft zone a little too closely.
Bracht immediately ran to the lead, putting several seconds a mile in Rapp. The hot pace on the bike appeared to take its toll on Lieto, who lost ground on the leaders from the marathon’s first mile.
While Bracht, Rapp and Henning were each running 6:15 to 6:20 pace, Lowe was racing over the pavement as a pace close to 6-flat. By 12 miles into the marathon the Brit—who happens to be Chrissie Wellington’s boyfriend—had closed to within 3 minutes of Bracht. Henning hovered at just over 3 minutes down. By mile-14 Lowe was only 2:11 down on the leader.
At mile-20 Bracht still held the lead, yet, as is the habit at this race, the leaders were coming together. Lowe was a scant 80 seconds back, with Henning less than 2 minutes out of the lead. Rapp was in fourth, but, still only a very few minutes down.
Lowe’s torrid pace in the early miles required repayment. Henning found good legs during the marathon’s second half and retook the second spot from Lowe.
But Bracht—who has a habit of strong marathon finishes himself—stretched out his lead, while running a 2:48:59. Lowe and Henning ran the fastest two run splits, 2:48:12 and 2:48:35 respectively.
“I wasn’t sure if 6 weeks after Kona I would be again or still in decent shape. It was an experiment, but sometimes in life you have to try out something new and take a risk. My start (in Arizona) was hotly discussed in Germany as I am really viewed as a very calculated and forward planning athlete. In the end, it has worked out quite well,” said Bracht to slowtwitch. “Rapp rode the bike really well and in the end I had to give everything to get the win.”
Rapp’s 4:22:38 bike was only 7 seconds slower than the course record he rode last year, and his 2:58:02 run just 2:17 than his run when he won the race in 8:13:35 and set the overall course record Bracht erased today. It’s good to see Rappstar back.
The women
“This was my Kona!” shouted Chrissie Wellington. This, after demolishing the field at Ironman Arizona in a World Best time (for an Ironman branded full distance event) of 8:36:13. Wellington already holds another World Best at this distance, set at Roth earlier this year in 8:19:13.
Wellington, who finished 7th place overall at Roth during her record run, crossed the line in 8th place here. Her 2:52:55 marathon would have put her only 4:44 behind the fastest men’s run of the day. In fact, Wellington’s swim was only 32sec slower than that of men’s winner Timo Bracht, and her run was only 3:56 behind Bracht’s run (and this, while executing the Blazeman Roll at the finish). It’s a good thing the German bikes well!
The day started without Wellington displaying her dominance. Her two countrywomen, Rachel Joyce and Leanda Cave, gave the Brit a go for the first three hours. The trio were in a virtual dead heat 50 miles into the bike ride.
But Wellington, perhaps her 2010 Kona demon exorcised, chose that moment to stomp on the pedals, and Cave and Joyce were left to eat Sonora Desert dust.
By T2, Wellington had 12:20 on Cave, with Heather Wurtele and Linsey Corbin giving chase 17 and 18 minutes behind.
Corbin proved the best of the runners—Wellington excepted—coming home in a very credible 9:05:33. Corbin’s time was an improvement on her 9:13:46 she posted last year as runner up, and had she done this year’s time last year she’d have enjoyed holding Arizona’s course record for the past year. Cave followed in 9:13:50.
Ford Ironman Arizona
Tempe, AZ / November 21, 2010
Top 10 men
1. Timo Bracht (GER) 8:07:16
2. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 8:10:58
3. Tom Lowe (GBR) 8:11:44
4. Jordan Rapp (USA) 8:16:45
5. Jozsef Major (HUN) 8:26:15
6. Matt Reed (USA) 8:33:08
7. Max Longree (GER) 8:33:28
8. Ian Mikelson (USA) 8:41:18
9. Joe McDaniel (USA) 8:43:23
10. Anthony Toth (CAN) 8:46:57
A Superstar Professional Field to Race at Ford Ironman Arizona
Published Monday, November 15, 2010
The seventh edition of Ford Ironman Arizona includes one of the strongest professional fields a domestic Ironman event has seen in years. The men’s race is highlighted by defending champion, Jordan Rapp, Denmark’s Rasmus Henning, Germany’s Maik Twelsiek and Americans Chris Lieto and Matt Reed. An equally stacked women’s field includes Great Britain’s Chrissie Wellington (pictured winning Ironman 70.3 Timberman) and Rachel Joyce, Canadian Heather Wurtele, Hungarian Erika Csomor and American Linsey Corbin.
Rapp, of the U.S., is back to defend his Ford Ironman Arizona title and the course record he set last year. He was involved in a severe bike accident in March and this is one of his first races since the incident. Henning, who spent eight years on the Olympic-distance circuit, finished first at Ironman China and fifth at the Ford Ironman World Championship in 2009, his first year of full-distance racing. After finishing 23rd in Kona last month, Henning is hoping to end the year with a top placement in Tempe. Twelsiek celebrated his first Ironman victory at Ford Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 and won at Ford Ironman Lake Placid in 2009. Lieto has finished in the top 10 at the Ford Ironman World Championship three times, highlighted by a second-place finish in 2009. This year, Lieto took the titles at K-Swiss Ironman 70.3 Kansas, Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake and Ironman 70.3 Vineman. Reed, a skilled short-course triathlete and Olympian, hopes to find success in his first attempt at the full distance.
Wellington, a three-time Ironman World Champion, surprised many when she pulled out of this year’s Ford Ironman World Championship on race morning due to illness. Ford Ironman Arizona marks her first time racing in a domestic qualifier event. Corbin’s resume includes a fifth-place finish at the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship and the win at this year’s Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene, her first full-distance title. In 2008, during her second year as a pro, Wurtele won Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene with a time of 9:38:58. Csomor, the winner of the April 2008 edition of this race, is also a title holder at Ironman 70.3 Austria and Ironman 70.3 California. Last year, Joyce placed third at Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa, second at Ironman Lanzarote Canarias and, most notably, sixth at Ford Ironman World Championship. She returned to Kona this year and again claimed sixth place.
Approximately 2,500 athletes representing 50 states and 30 countries are expected to race in the seventh-annual event. Ford Ironman Arizona offers a total professional prize purse of $50,000 and 65 qualifying slots to the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship, to be held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 8, 2011.
Pro Men Jordan Rapp
Jozsef Major
Chris Lieto
Maik Twelsiek
Max Longree
Jan Raphael
Rasmus Henning
Timo Bracht
Matty Reed
Sergio ENRIQUE Quezeda Ruiz
Tim Snow
Juan Carlos Ramirez
David Kahn
Mike Caiazzo
Sickl Heinrich
Eric Daniel Bean
Kirk Nelson
Dion Harrison
Patrick Bless
Bruno Clerbout
Marco Schreck
Mike J Schifferle
Leon Griffin
Frank Vytrisal
Daniel Bretscher
Jesse Vondracek
Devon Palmer
Jozef Vrabel
Ian Mikelson
Anthony C Toth
Trevor Wurtele
Matjaz Kovac
Dantley Young
Matthew Russell
Torsten L Abel
Eneko Elosegui
John Dahlz
Lewis Elliot
Jimmy Archer
Stijn Demeulemeester
James Bonney Kevin Everett Karl Bordine
Adam O’Meara
Jerzy Kasemier
Tom Lowe
Marek Nemcik
Brandon Marsh
Paul Amey
Jonathan Caron
Eric Sullivan
Jordan Bryden
Raymond Botelho
Blake Becker
Joe McDaniel
Pro Women:
Chrissie Wellington
Heleen bij de Vaate
Erika Csomor
Meredith Brooke Keeran Kessler
Linsey Nora Corbin
Heather Wurtele
Nina Kraft
Leanda R Cave
Terra Joy Castro
Yasuko Miyazaki
Beatrix Blattmann
Mackenzie Renee Madison
Uli Bromme
Rachel Sarah Joyce
Megan June Gaskill
Lauren Harrison
Annett Kamenz
Rachel Kiers
Jocelyn Wong
Miranda Hardwick Alldritt
Lyne Bessette
Stacey Richardson
Chrissy Parks
Molly Hummell
It’s that time of year when the summer heat can really push you over the edge when it comes to training and just as important – racing. You don’t need a thermometer or to check the weather to know that it’s hot and humid. It’d be quicker to step outside and notice the immediate beads of sweat start to roll down your face along with your sunglasses fogging up. Some of you dread the heat, some of you don’t mind.
But here’s why you should mind. Recently, in a group of elite cyclists completing just a 30-minute time trial in moderate heat of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, their overall power output was lower by 6.5% than when performing a time trial in a thermoneutral environment of 73F. (Tatterson) So yes, even in elite cyclists and moderate heat exposure, your performance decreases.
So what can you do to minimize these performance decrements? Get used to it – literally – and get heat acclimated. Besides improving your ability to perform at a high level in the heat, heat acclimation also starves off serious health risks when you are exposed to the heat. Not being heat acclimated exposes you to several risks including muscle cramps, feeling faint, inability to coordinate muscular movements, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, hyperthermia, shortness of breath and overall general fatigue.
Since the ITU circuit was in my neck of the woods (sort of..), I made the trek down to our nation’s capital to watch the third leg of the ITU World Championship Series (WCS). And it was well worth the trip because I got to watch two amazing races.
The first thing you notice is the atmosphere that surrounds the event. Everything about it breathes elite racing. The start line is not composed of a few elite athletes with a lot of part-time “pros”. It is entirely composed of elite, professional athletes. Athletes with Olympic aspirations, competing for very good (for our sport…) prize-money. Because of the level of the athletes, everyone watching either at the race site or at home through the Internet were treated to two very competitive races, with constant changes in the dynamics of the race, which made them both interesting and very fun to watch.
When I got back home at the end of the day, I checked how Ironman Coeur d’Alene was going. And the contrast with the ITU WCS race was evident. With extremely weak fields, both men’s and women’s race were far from exciting, with second place for the men being 10 minutes behind the winner and third place almost 20 minutes down (!). The women’s race was a little more “exciting”, but just for the battle for second place. All this for the first Ironman race of the year in US soil.
The writing is on the wall: professional Ironman racing is dying. This is not new, it’s been a slow death, brought on by stagnating prize-money purses and the increased number of races, causing a watering down of the competition. But this slow death is somewhat puzzling given the growth of the sport in the last years. With its logic of maximizing the profit out of the events that runs, the WTC is showing an incredibly narrow focus that is hurting the sport as a whole. This effect might not be noticeable right now, but it will be in the future.
Going back to the ITU World Championship Series, it seems to be a risky bet that is paying off. Having the best athletes perform in great stages around the World is a great idea, and one that is advancing triathlon more and more into being a worldwide sport. The race in DC is a perfect example. Just like having the Tour de France ending in the Champs Elysees, the streets of downtown DC were the perfect backdrop to bring triathlon into the mainstream. Big kudos to the ITU and the local organizing committee.
