DANIELA RYF WON IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018

Daniela Ryf got stung badly by jellyfish during the swim and considered quitting at T1. She decided to push on and smashed her own course record by 20 minutes. Se finished in 8hours 26min 18sec. Second, was Lucy Charles in 8hours 36min 32sec. Third, was Anne Haug in 8hours 41min 57sec.

I don't know about everyone else in the world attempting to follow the race via the FaceBook Live feed, but even with a fiber optic internet connection, it was immensely frustrating to follow the commentary. Five words of commentary followed by 20 or more seconds of buffering and a jump ahead meant not being able to follow the live commentary at all.

The athletes, however, faced a far greater challenge on the Big Island. A calm sea and overcast conditions with almost no wind meant swim and bike course records would be in jeopardy. 

Swim
Immediately from the gun, it was Lucy Charles that dominated the swim. It took no more than a hundred yards or so to get clear water between her and everybody else.

By the end of the swim, Lucy Charles was first out in a new record time of 48min 13sec. That was almost three minutes clear of Lauren Brandon in second and notably 10min clear of defending champion Daniela Ryf. 

Bike
Daniela Ryf put her head down and pushed an estimated 240 watts on the bike. By the start of the climb to Hawi at 41 miles, she was already in second place. Charles still had a buffer of 8min 02sec on Ryf.

By the time Ryf got back down the hill to the Queen K highway, she had closed the gap down to 4min 49sec. Lucy Charles started slowing slightly and by 87 miles her lead was cut in half, down to 2min 38sec.

Ryf made the pass with less than 10 miles to go on the bike and held her pace to be first off the bike with a new bike course record of 4hours 26min 07sec. Lucy Charles came in 1min 32sec off the pace.

Run
Ryf extended that gap by a further 18sec within the first two miles of the run.

From there it was the Daniela show with her lead extending mile by mile. 

By the time the runners had got back to the Queen K from the energy lab Lucy Charles' second place looked secure with close to 9 minutes advantage to the faster runners in her wake. She gave up just three of those minutes over the closing 8 miles.

Top 10:
1. Daniela Ryf 8:26:16 

2. Lucy Charles 8:36:32 

3. Anne Haug 8:41:57 

4. Sarah True 8:43:42 

5. Mirinda Carfrae 8:50:44 

6. Sarah Crowley 8:52:29 

7. Kaisa Sali 8:54:26 

8. Angela Naeth 8:57:34 

9. Corinne Abraham 8:57:54 

10. Linsey Corbin 8:58:57

PATRICK LANGE WON IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018

Patrick Lange smashed the Ironman World Championship course record in a time of 7hours 52min 39sec. Bart Aernouts was second, also going sub 8 hours. Third went to David McNamee in 8hrs 01min 09sec. All of the top three finishing faster than the previous course record.

I don't know about everyone else in the world attempting to follow the race via the FaceBook Live feed, but even with a fiber optic internet connection, it was immensely frustrating to follow the commentary. Five words of commentary followed by 20 or more seconds of buffering and a jump ahead meant not being able to follow the live commentary at all.

The athletes, however, faced a far greater challenge on the Big Island. A calm sea and overcast conditions with almost no wind meant swim and bike course records would be in jeopardy. 

Swim
At 6:35am the Ironman canon signaled the start of the pro men's race. Immediately Josh Amberger surged to the front. He managed to string the field out but amazingly the entire men's field stayed together on his feet almost all the way to the turnaround.

When the split did come, it was only nine other athletes that managed to stay with Amberger.

Josh Amberger was still at the head of the lead pack out of the water, narrowly missing the swim course record again.

Bike
It didn't take long for super cyclists Cameron Wurf and Andrew Starykowicz to close the gap on Amberger.

At the start of the climb up to Hawi the trio had over three minutes advantage on the remaining athletes.

Cameron Wurf made his move at 87 miles and immediately opened up a gap at the front of the race.

Wurf was first off the bike in a new bike course record of 4hours 09min 36sec. Patrick Lange came off the bike in tenth alongside Tim O'Donnell at 6min 44sec down.

Run
Both Lange and O'Donnell put their heads down and got to work closing the gap. After just a couple of minutes, they linked up with Bart Aernouts.

Patrick Lange used the left turn onto the Queen K to put the hammer down and drop his companions. 

Lange caught and passed Wurf just short of the 10-mile mark.

Coming out of the energy lab Lange had extended his lead 2min 09sec from Bart Aernouts and 5min 49sec from David McNamee. That was the order they held to the finish.

Top 10:
1. Patrick Lange 7:52:30
2. Bart Aernouts +4:02
3. David McNamee +8:30
4. Tim O'Donnell +10:38
5. Braden Currie +12:02
6. Matt Russell +12:06
7. Joe Skipper +13:15
8. Andy Potts +16:55
9. Cameron Wurf +17:53
10. Michael Weiss +18:25

LAURA PHILIPP WINS IRONMAN BARCELONA 2018

Laura Philipp won Ironman Barcelona in 8hours 34min 57sec. Hanna Maksimava was second at 33min 21sec. Yvonne van Vlerken was third at 35min 52sec. 

Cool and blustery conditions greeted the twenty pro women lining up at Ironman Barcelona at 8am on 7 October 2018.

It was a wetsuit legal swim with a water temperature of 20 degrees Celcius.

Swim
Eva Wutti surged out strongly at the start of the swim trying to break up the field ahead of the strong bikers like Laura Philipp and Yvonne van Vlerken.

Her efforts paid off shearing a group of seven off the front. However, it was hard work in the choppy conditions.

Unfortunately, the swimmer on Wutti's feet was none other than Laura Philipp of Germany.

However, it was Hanna Maksimava of Belarus that touched the sand first. The early leader, Wutti, was a mere two seconds back. Natalie Seymour of Great Britain emerged two seconds behind Wutti.

Unfortunately, Laura Philipp at 10 seconds and Yvonne van Vlerken at 17 seconds were right up there with them.

Bike
The race through T1 reshuffled the leaders. Philipp mounted first, ahead of Wutti and Van Vlerken. Had those three ladies been any closer together at the mount line their wheels would have been touching.

Straight away Van Vlerken put down the power and opened daylight between her and the pursuers.

Philipp was not to be out-done and pulled up and passed Van Vlerken up the opening climb. The two exchanged the lead through the first 56km. Wutti was ten seconds back and Seymour a further seven seconds behind Wutti. Ewa Komander of Poland was the best of the rest but already conceded over six minutes.

At the half-way turn point, Philipp had opened four seconds on the hard chasing Van Vlerken. Behind the duo, Seymour was in third but already at a massive 4min 33sec down. 

Philipp grabbed the opportunity to distance Van Vlerken and passed 142km with a 2min 50second cushion to put her out of the line of sight of the Dutch pro.

It was clear that the title would be decided between these two as Seymour was 14min 11sec behind Philipp.

As expected, Laura Philipp was first off the bike after 5hours 40min 35sec of racing. Van Vlerken was second into T2 at 6min 54sec. Her compatriot, Pleuni Hooijman, was third at 19min 33sec.

Run
Any thoughts that Laura Philipp had left too much out on the bike course were squashed when she increased her lead to 10min 31sec at 8.3km. That was further extended to 12min 58sec at 15.5km. 

Laura Philipp was looking more and more in control as her advantage further extended to 16min 49sec at the half marathon.

From there the top step of the podium was a foregone conclusion. Philipp took the tape in 8hours 34min 57sec.

Results
1 Laura Philipp (GER) 08:34:57 

2 Hanna Maksimava (BLR) 09:08:18 

3 Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) 09:10:49 

4 Simona Krivankova (CZE) 09:19:06 

5 Pleuni Hooijman (NED) 09:30:36 

6 Merce Tusell (ESP) 09:33:25 

7 Venla Koivula-Huttunen (FIN) 09:43:52
8 Anni Antikainen (FIN) 09:47:199 Dolca Olle Gatell (ESP) 09:52:03
10 Rahel Bellinga (NED) 10:03:13

JESPER SVENSSON WINS IRONMAN BARCELONA 2018

Jesper Svensson of Sweden won Ironman Barcelona in 8hours 5min 56sec. Franz Loschke of Germany was second at 11 seconds. Miquel Blanchart Tinto of Spain was third at 8min 26sec.

Cool and blustery conditions greeted the eighty pro men lining up at Ironman Barcelona at 8am on 7 October 2018.

It was a wetsuit legal swim with a water temperature of 20 degrees Celcius.

Swim
Guillem Rojas took off like a rocket. Before long there were 30 seconds of clear water between him and the chase group.

Rojas maintained his tempo through the remainder of the swim, emerging onto the Barcelona beach sand after only 45min 34sec. 

Following Rojas with a deficit of only 40 seconds was Swedish athlete Jesper Svensson.

Third place down to tenth was separated by a mere 10 seconds but emerged a full two minutes after Svensson.

Bike
Rojas held the gap through T1 to lead out on the bike leg.

Svensson knew that his best chance against the likes of Harry Wiltshire would be to hit out early on the bike. That is exactly what he did, catching and dropping Rojas on the first climb. 

At 56km Svensson had extended his lead to just over four minutes from a pack of nine. Notably absent from that pack was Wiltshire. The pack did, however, include Franz Loschke at 4min 19sec.

At the 90km turn point, Svensson had conceded thirty seconds of his lead to the chase pack.

As an out and back course, Svensson would have seen the split to the chase pack. Consequently, he upped his wattage so that the chase pack was once again at 5min 54sec at 142km.

Jesper Svensson was first off the bike after 5hours 10minutes 36seconds of racing.

The chase pack had been reduced to only four riders who were over six minutes behind the Swede. Of those, Franz Loschke brought up the rear at 6min 29sec.

Run
At 8.3km Loschke had moved into a clear second place and reduced the deficit to 5min 22sec.

Svensson's lead was further cut to just 4min 7sec at the 15.5km mark. Already the Ironman athlete tracker system was indicating that a pass could happen inside the final five kilometers.

Those calculations were further amended when the German blasted through the half marathon mark only 2min 29sec off the pace.

At 28.6km the lead was only 23 seconds and Loschke could now see the Swede just ahead.

After leading the race for 214km, Svensson was finally passed by Loschke. The lead change was far from decisive as the Swede slotted in, pacing himself off the German's tempo.

With a mere 7km left to run Loschke had extended his lead to 1min 11sec over a very determined looking Svensson.

Miquel Blanchart Tinto of Spain was looking like he was on track to the fastest marathon of the day and had moved up to third at 35km. His deficit of 10min 18sec simply too much to challenge for the top two steps of the podium.

Inside the final 2km and Svensson fights pack to take the lead again. The Swede held it through to the finish to lift the tape only 11 seconds ahead of Loschke.

Results
​1 Svensson 08:05:56 

2 Loeschke +00:11 

3 Blanchart Tinto +08:27 

4 Mahr +11:04 

5 Renc +13:06 

6 Herbst +13:15 

7 Scheltinga +14:02 

8 Hanko +16:38 

9 Kramer +16:46
10 Moreno Molins +17:18