Emotional finishes dominated the tough IRONMAN Wales in Tenby. In the women’s race, Lucy Gossage nailed her third victory after 2013 and 2017 in a competitive field. The 38-year old Brit knew that she would have to bike and run her very best to hold off strong and experienced competitors like Camilla Pedersen from Denmark, Canadian Heather Wurtele and fellow countrywoman Nikki Bartlett. As a weaker swimmer, Gossage came out of Carmarthen Bay with a deficit of almost nine minutes to Pedersen. The Dane, famous for her consistency from start to finish, led the race on the bike for a long time, too. While the leader sailed away in front of Wurtele and Bartlett, it was on Gossage to make her way from behind in a long solo effort. The defending champ was able to catch up with Pedersen and take control, even before the women’s pro field hit T2. Moreover, Gossage had opened up a gap of almost three minutes on Pedersen and four minutes on Bartlett when she got off the bike. Although she had to dig deep on the run after this tough bike ride in sharp winds, Gossage maintained her pace. Bartlett and Pedersen battled hard for the runner-up position until the Dane made the decisive move at the half way mark.
In men’s race, Matt Trautmann was in the mix right from the beginning, but it didn’t get much easier for him on a tough day. The South African was 2:20 minutes behind Philip Graves, who ranked second in Tenby in the past two years when he exited the water. It took Graves a bit longer to leave the transition zone than Trautmann, and this was an important key for the co-favorite to bridge up to the Brit early in the race. Once they had teamed up, Graves and Trautmann made the gap of the day and started to put a lot of time on their chasers. Gustavo Rodriguez in third place was more than ten minutes behind this duo when he started the run. The best marathoner in the field, Spaniard Victor del Corral, was already 17 minutes down. Trautmann again sprinted through the transition zone, and thus was his big move. Graves established a solid marathon to claim silver for the third time in a row in Tenby while the South African nailed the second IRONMAN victory of his career exactly at the place where he had won his first ever IRONMAN four years prior.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Trautmann, Matt ZAF 8:53:21
2 Graves, Philip GBR 9:00:13
3 Rodriguez, Gustavo ESP 9:09:50
4 Del Corral, Victor ESP 9:16:56
5 Van Looy, Diego BEL 9:17:40
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Gossage, Lucy GBR 9:52:37
2 Pedersen, Camilla DEN 10:05:41
3 Bartlett, Nikki GBR 10:14:43
4 Wurtele, Heather CAN 10:18:48
5 Schulz, Jenny DEU 10:32:46