During the men’s swim, Mattia Ceccarelli’s intentions were at least immediately clear: to create a gap on the rest of the field. And even though that gap didn’t get too big, the Italian still managed to get a small lead over his first pursuers. When he climbed ashore after 23:09 minutes, he had a 16-second lead over Ognjen Stjoanovic, who was followed by Patrick Lange and Nils Frommhold by a few seconds. Another favorite, Magnus Ditlev, was another 50 seconds behind them.
On the bike, Lange and Frommhold quickly rode up to Ceccarelli, but from behind it was mainly Ditlev who caused some panic up front and had already passed everyone after 15 kilometers and had thus made up for his swimming deficit. After 30 kilometers he had even extended his lead and had a 1:12 minute gap on his three chasers already.
This clearly gave Ditlev wings, because in the following kilometers he only managed to ride further away. After sixty kilometers, when two of the three bike laps were completed, the Dane had a three-minute lead on the same three chasers. Behind those three athletes, Ruedi Wild and Strahinja Trakic came through at a gap of 5:16 minutes.
In the final part of the bike leg, Ditlev again keeps increasing his lead and when he came back into the exchange zone after 2:06:00, he had a 4:33 lead over still Ceccarelli, Lange and Frommhold. Entering the run, the Dane thus had a comfortable lead and it was quite clear that these four men would be competing with each other for the medals.
Yet it became clear quite quickly that there was really only one man in the race for the gold, as Ditlev also proved inimitable during the run. Halfway through the half marathon, his lead over Lange, who was running second at that point, had already grown to no less than 7:27 minutes. After ten kilometers it was Lange who yelled out in amazement: ‘How is this possible?’
It is with a very heavy heart that we have to announce the disqualification of Magnus Ditlev after his victory earlier today at CHALLENGE BUDVA-MONTENEGRO. This dsq is due to an unintentional course cutting action, after following the lead bike, which became apparent in the final stages of todays’ race.
All involved regret this decision but the application of the objective rules as set out by our World Triathlon governing body is an important factor in our sport.
In an act of solidarity, pro’s finishing behind Magnus decided to share their earnings of todays’ price money as a token of appreciation of the form Magnus showed today.
Patrick Lange now wins CHALLENGE BUDVA-MONTENEGRO. Ruedi Wild is the runner-up and Nils Frommhold claims the third spot.
MALE PRO:
1 Patrick Lange DEU 3:48:21
2 Ruedi Wild CHE +9:14
3 Nils Frommhold DEU +9:58
4 Mattia Ceccarelli ITA +12:15