At a race renowned for tough weather, IRONMAN Wales served up glorious sunshine and two new winners in Matt Trautman (RSA) and Amy Forshaw (GBR).
For three years IRONMAN Wales, set in the spectacular Welsh tourist destination of Tenby, has served up challenging weather conditions including everything from high winds to pouring rain, and people still keep coming back. Why? Put simply, it’s because the atmosphere here in this tiny village in the county of Pembrokeshire is second to none. Even as the sun was rising over the choppy water the crowds were jammed along Tenby’s North Beach and the cliffs above it to watch the swim start. All day long the roads are packed solid with thousands of screaming fans, who support the athletes no matter what weather is being thrown at them.
Tenby, the village, is fiercely dependent upon tourism. For four months of the year the population swells from its wintertime number of about 5,000 and welcomes upwards of 100,000 people who arrive to enjoy the spectacular countryside and the beautiful beaches. Which is why the town embraces the IRONMAN event, too—the influx of 2,000 athletes along with their family and friends extends the regular tourist season by a couple of weeks.
So, when you put together a bunch of IRONMAN fans, an enthusiastic community and a gorgeous sunny day, you get an epic day of racing. All day long veterans of all four races here in Tenby kept saying they’d never seen crowds this large on hand to support the racers.
Trautman too tough
For a decade Matt Trautman competed as a professional yachtsman, which appears to have served as perfect preparation for IRONMAN racing. In just two years he’s gone from triathlon newbie to IRONMAN champion thanks to a mano-o-mano face off with multiple IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 race champion Fraser Cartmell from Scotland.
Despite the choppy water conditions, Spain’s Peru Alfaro San Ildefonso led the way out of the water in an impressive 48:29, a full 1:20 ahead of local hero Olly Simon, and about 3:30 up on three of the men’s favorites, Trautman, Daniel Niederreiter (AUT) and Cartmell.
Simon would quickly get dropped from the picture (and would eventually pull out of the race), which left Trautman, Niederreiter and Cartmell in a group that chased San Ildefonso for much of the first 60 km—at that point the threesome were 14 seconds behind the Spaniard. The group became a foursome, with Trautman driving the train for the next 60 km before he finally pulled away on one of the many climbs along this challenging course. Only Cartmell could keep up with the South African, but it took everything he had to keep the gap to just 10 seconds off the bike. San Ildefonso (5:55) and Niederreiter (7:24) were far enough behind at the end of the ride that the race appeared to have become a two-man affair for the win.
And, for 28 km, it looked much more like the famed IronWar than it didn’t. The famous 1989 IRONMAN World Championship race between Mark Allen and Dave Scott took place 25 years ago, and Cartmell and Trautman seemed determined to reenact that epic race here in Tenby.
Trautman, being so new to the sport, probably doesn’t realize that Mark Allen pulled away from Scott with about three miles to go—he ruined the re-make with a move at 25 km that Cartmell simply couldn’t answer. By 29 km the gap was over two minutes. By 35 km it was just under four. Trautman never looked back and cruised to his first IRONMAN title in 9:07:28, setting a new bike course record along the way. Cartmell has won every IRONMAN event in UK, except this one, and the ever-classy Scot was hardly disappointed with his runner-up finish. San Ildefonso rounded out the podium.
Forshaw’s patience pays off
With a small pro field competing here in Tenby it was left to the age group women to lead the way through swim and most of the challenging bike course. Great Britain’s Andrea Mason (30-34) led out of the water in 59:44, with Germany’s Heike Funk (45-49) following in 1:01:19. By the end of the long climb up the "zig zag" (literally switchbacks that get you from the beach to the overlooking road) and the 1 km run to T1, Forshaw, who was 10th out of the water 1:08:13, had moved herself up to fourth as she started the bike.
For much of the ride, though, super-biker Funk would lead the way, with Forshaw finally gaining ground over the last third of the ride to come off the bike just ahead. Once on the run the race quickly became a forgone conclusion. Forshaw gained almost a minute/ km on Funk, who suddenly found herself trying to hang on to the 45-49 title. Julia Bohn would run her way to second, earning herself a nice paycheck. Third went to Amy Ogden (GBR), who took the 35-39 title, while another British athlete, Jill Cliff, ran a 3:52 marathon to move herself to fourth and beat Funk in the 45-49 category. Rounding out the top five was Switzerland’s Sandra Fontana, who won the women’s 25-29 division.
While the weather conditions couldn’t have been much better (the word was the wind was pretty tough on the bike), this race remains one of the toughest on the IRONMAN world circuit thanks to the challenging water conditions and hilly bike and run legs. That hardly dampens the enthusiasm for this unique event. Just one look at the crowds that took over Tenby will convince you of that.
Women’s Top Five
1.Amy Forshaw 10:57:26
2.Julia Bohn 11:20:54
3.Amy Ogden 11:29:30
4.Jill Cliff 11:30:45
5.Sandra Fontana 11:35:14
Men’s Top Five
1.Matt Trautman 9:07:28
2.Fraser Cartmell 9:10:16
3.Peru San Ildefonso 9:18:28
4.Nick Baldwin 9:41:04
5.Harry Springall 9:52:05