It doesn’t happen too often that a pro woman finishes in the top 10 overall, but this weekend in Rapperswil-Jona, Daniela Ryf ate up the men’s pro field with a stunning performance at IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland. She stormed out a start-to-finish-victory again, taking her fifth win here in a row. The 31-year-old IRONMAN star is maybe in the best shape ever. Ryf embarked on a impressive journey right from the get-go including fantastic splits on the bike and run. The three-time back-to-back IRONMAN world champion hammered out the bike course in 2:13:03 and ran a 1:19:54 to almost finish sub-4 hours. Ryf's 25-year old compatriot Imogen Simmonds had a great race from start to finish in runner-up position, too, but the women’s dominator was eventually 15 minutes gone.
Australia’s Josh Amberger celebrated a great start into his 2018 European tour after his runner-up finish at the IRONMAN African Championship in April. As Ryf did in the women’s race, the 29-year-old pushed the pace very early to open up a gap to his chasers. Amberger was able to drop most of them except Swiss Manuel Kueng. They exited the water as a duo, went through the whole bike course almost together, with Kueng coming off the bike only 30 seconds later than the Aussie leader. Amberger proved his mental strength on the hard run course, keeping not only Kueng away, but also some strong runners like 2014 winner Boris Stein and defending champion Ruedi Wild.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Amberger, Josh AUS 3:49:46
2 Kueng, Manuel CHE 3:50:58
3 Stein, Boris DEU 3:51:31
4 Wild, Rudi CHE 3:57:18
5 Diemunsch, Etienne FRA 3:59:00
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Ryf, Daniela CHE 4:00:54
2 Simmonds, Imoen CHE 4:16:01
3 Moench, Skye USA 4:19:06
4 Hengartner, Corina CHE 4:30:05
5 Tajsich, Sonja DEU 4:36:28