Chris Leiferman's debut IRONMAN race nets him the win while Mary Beth Ellis takes her second win of the season at the Subaru IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant.
Who is this guy
Aussie Paul Mathews (AUS) was first out of the water and was accompanied by Eric Limkemann (USA) and Romain Guillaume (FRA) just seconds back as the trio scampered into transition together.
In rainy conditions, Guillaume was quick to head to the front of the bike with Paul Mathews (AUS) in tow for much of the first half of the leg. Behind the pair Jordan Rapp (USA), Limkemann and rookie IRONMAN pro Chris Leiferman (USA) were anywhere from four to seven minutes back of the lead pair for the first 90 km.
In the second half of the bike, Guillaume put the hammer down and was rewarded with a five-minute lead on his closest rival. Late in the bike, Rapp reeled in the leader and reduced his deficit to under four minutes at the conclusion of the 180 km bike.
Heading out on the run it was apparent from the start that Guillaume was suffering and could only watch the top five competitors behind the him clawing into his lead at alarming rate. Rapp's early pace earned him the lead at nine km, however the new leader had three other men breathing down his neck less than three minutes back and were all either matching or outdoing his run pace in the early goings. Behind Rapp, Leiferman was flying and reduced his nine-minute deficit quickly after the bike but was in uncharted waters as this was his first–ever IRONMAN.
Shortly before the half-marathon marker, Leiferman grabbed the lead from Rapp and quickly carved out out a small gap. Like a seasoned pro, Leiferman pounded out a consistent pace throughout the second half of the run and claimed the victory on the strength of the race-best run on the day. Rapp would hang in to claim a second place finish while Stephen Kilshaw (CAN) would complete the podium.
Ellis with ease
There was a lot less drama in the women's race with Amanda Stevens (USA), who came out of the water first upon her return to racing this weekend after being sidelined with a foot injury she has been nursing since May. Mary Beth Ellis (USA) was second out of the water two minutes back while Laurel Wassner (USA) exited the water in third and looked at a five minute deficit.
Once the women were on the bike course Ellis proceeded to lay down the fastest split on the day by close to 10 minutes. The 11-time IRONMAN champion would carry over a 12-minute lead on Wassner and over 17 minutes on Amanda Wenndorff at the conclusion of the bike, setting her up nicely for her 12th IRONMAN win if she could hold off any hard charges mounted behind her.
Wassner managed to out-run Ellis over the 42 km by seven minutes but had fronted the leader an insurmountable time gap at the start of the run. Ellis was never under any threat up front and cruised the run and claimed the victory by a winning margin of 6:08 on Wassner.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Leiferman, Chris USA 8:24:59
2 Rapp, Jordan USA 8:29:57
3 Kilshaw, Stephen CAN 8:34:16
4 Matthews, Paul AUS 8:39:51
5 Ambrose, Paul AUS 8:50:17
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Ellis, Mary Beth USA 9:26:37
2 Wassner, Laurel USA 9:32:45
3 Jones, Jessica USA 10:00:43
4 Ferreira, Amber USA 10:05:15
5 Wendorff, Amanda USA 10:06:50