Michael Raelert has shown a strong performance at the City Bikes Ironman 70.3 Miami. The 34-year old celebrated a great victory in 3:43:38h which meant an important step on his way back to the top. „I’m really satisfied with my performance today,“ said the Rostockian after the race, „especially, I‘m happy that I have been able to improve on the run.“ Michael Raelert opened up a decisive gap and took the win ahead of Australian Richie Cunningham (3:47:16) and Ukrainian Viktor Zyemtsev (3:48:11).
Michael Raelert was one of the dominating athletes right from the start of the race. US-American David Kahn exited the water in first place after 1.9 kilometers in 25:04 minutes just a few seconds ahead of Michael Raelert (25:33). The Rostockian led a group of eight into T1 including co-favorites like Richie Cunningham (AUS), Matt Reed (USA) or Fabio Carvalho from Brazil. “It was a pretty good start into the race,” said Michael Raelert. When he took the victory at Ironman 70.3 Ruegen a few weeks ago, the swim had to be cancelled due to stormy winds – in Miami Michael Raelert eventually was able to show his swimming strength.
After a fast transition in 89 seconds, Michael Raelert headed out on the fast and flat bike course in second place. “The pace was hard right from the moment we left T1,“ said Michael Raelert. When he came off the bike after 90 kilometers in 2:30:11, he had managed a fast split of 2:03:09 on his CUBE Aerium – with an average of about 44 km/h. David Kahn entered T2 with a lead of two seconds in front of Michael Raelert, Richie Cunningham was six seconds behind and in third place. On the bike, those three had opened up a gap of two minutes on their pursuers.
Once on the run, Michael Raelert hit the gas. After five kilometers he was leading by 45 seconds over Richie Cunningham, through halfway of the course he was 90 ahead of the Australian. With the fastest half marathon split of 1:12:25, Michael Raelert ran to the title for the second time in this season. On the final meters he took his time to celebrate the victory together with the crowd. “I’m thrilled that I have been able to improve a lot on the run since my last race,” said Michael Raelert, “this is an exciting victory.”
On the last mile of the run course Micha had to wait at a railroad crossing approximately three minutes until he could continue finishing the run course. At the finish Micha got the three minutes bonus, that’s the reason why there was a little confusion about the unofficial time of Michael.