IRONMAN Lanzarote is always a race of suffering. Three factors made the pro field go hard at the 26th edition of the race. On the one hand, the sun brought with it extremely tough conditions for all of the 1600 athletes. On the other hand, Bart Aernouts (BEL) in the men’s competition and Lucy Charles (GBR) in women’s pushed the top pros to their limits.
In the women’s race, last year’s third-place Brit Lucy Charles never looked back. The 23-year old nailed the 6th fastest swim time overall in 47:06. She exited the water five seconds quicker than she had done at her IRONMAN Lanzarote debut in 2016 and more than five minutes faster than her compatriot Kate Comber in runner-up position. Once she was on the bike, the 2016 IRONMAN World Championship age group winner sailed away dominantly. In her first year as a professional athlete, she set a new bike course record and took a huge advantage into the marathon. France's Jeanne Collonge and 2014 champion Lucy Gossage were about 20 minutes behind the lead, with Corinne Abraham in fourth was more than 24 minutes down.
Charles managed the heat and the strong runners behind her in the marathon to clock one of the best finish times ever in Lanzarote while Abraham and Gossage rounded out a British podium thanks to the fastest marathons in the field. Abraham stormed through the run course with the best split.
Men’s champion Aernouts almost ran the fastest time, with a marathon only 49 seconds slower than Alessandro Degasperi’s (ITA). But Aernouts had already won the race on the bike. The Belgian co-favorite had a very consistent swim next to defending champion Jesse Thomas (USA) and Degasperi. This trio was more than three minutes behind the fastest swimmers, but those three seemed to know that they would meet each other later on the run. Romain Guillaume was the only one among the best swimmers, who could dominant the race for longer. The French winner of the 2014 edition really pushed his gears in the first half of the hard bike course, and he didn’t slow down when Aernouts made his pass.
Thanks to the best bike splits, Aernouts and Guillaume came off the bike together, Thomas in third was more than 7 minutes down. The American needed a little extra time in T2 because he forgot his sunglasses in the transition tent, and Aernouts dropped his teammate Guillaume early in the run and stormed away to one of the best-ever finish times in Lanzarote. Degasperi was running strong into third place and then directly into a tough battle with Thomas. The defending champ could hold the Italian off for about half of the marathon, but Thomas didn’t have his best day and finally ranked third.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Aernouts, Bart BEL 0:50:34…4:48:22…2:48:28…8:34:13
2 Degasperi, Alessandro ITA 0:50:33…4:59:19…2:47:40…8:43:23
3 Thomas, Jesse USA 0:50:35…4:55:54…2:55:25…8:49:02
4 Alfaro San Ildefonso, Peru ESP 0:47:04…5:02:27…2:55:29…8:52:31
5 Guillaume, Romain FRA 0:48:29…4:50:54…3:11:15…8:57:01
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Charles, Lucy GBR 0:47:06…5:23:29…3:18:35…9:35:40
2 Abraham, Corinne GBR 0:57:14…5:37:17…3:03:53…9:44:29
3 Gossage, Lucy GBR 1:00:40…5:29:45…3:13:04…9:50:22
4 Collonge, Jeanne FRA 0:58:12…5:31:43…3:26:30…10:04:46
5 Castro Nogueira, Saleta ESP 0:55:41…5:47:29…3:21:00…10:11:45