Matt Hanson (USA) came out of Lake Coeur d'Alene in eighth place, and looking at a manageable 1:36 deficit to the leaders heading out on the bike. Hanson made his way to the front of the race early and shared the lead with IRONMAN 70.3 world champions, Tim Reed (AUS) and Andy Potts (USA), as well as Christian Kemp (AUS) and Coeue d'Alene's own Derek Garcia (USA). In the closing half of the bike, Hanson pushed the pace and headed into transition with leads ranging from :44 to 2:01 on his four pursuers. That would be as close as the men's race would be as Hanson ran away from the field of talented runners to hoist the finish line banner by a winning margin of close to three minutes.
In typical fashion, Haley Chura (USA) smoked the swim and started the bike with a three-minute buffer to the next women. Jen Annett (CAN) used the fastest bike split on the day to narrowly edge out Chura at the dismount line at the conclusion of the 56-mile bike. The run started with 30 seconds separating the lead pair, but it was Chura who managed to surge to the front within the first two miles of the run. The gap between the two women yo-yoed between one and two minutes for the remaining 11 miles with Chura hitting the finish line with 1:57 cushion to Annett who finished second.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Hanson, Matt USA 0:26:09…2:10:33…1:11:20…3:51:16
2 Reed, Tim AUS 0:24:55…2:12:28…1:13:19…3:53:58
3 Potts, Andy USA 0:24:33…2:13:32…1:15:39…3:57:03
4 Kemp, Christian AUS 0:24:34…2:13:34…1:16:56…3:58:14
5 Libin, Alex USA 0:26:11…2:19:30…1:13:53…4:02:59
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Chura, Haley USA 0:25:23…2:31:59…1:26:03…4:27:16
2 Annett, Jen CAN 0:31:34…2:25:44…1:28:27…4:29:13
3 Corbin, Linsey USA 0:28:48…2:36:28…1:25:00…4:33:43
4 Moench, Skye USA 0:29:35…2:32:56…1:28:45…4:35:13
5 Smith, Jessica USA 0:28:25…2:36:44…1:30:30….4:39:35