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