Mar

Ironman Malaysia

By robin

Vanhoenacker and Granger triumph

It was another day for the uber-bikers as Belinda Granger and Marino Vanhoenacker built unassailable leads on the bike and toughed it out in the heat over the run course for comfortable victories.

Trailing Hillary Biscay out of the water, Granger set about crushing the opposition with a 4:53 bike split on what must be one of the toughest courses in Ironman racing. This left Edith Niederfriniger with a massive 17 minute deficit to make up on the run which, despite her running credentials, never seemed likely leaving Granger to cruise home by over 10 minutes.

As with the women, the men’s race was blown apart on the bike as Luke McKenzie and Vanhoenacker destroyed the field before McKenzie was forced to pull out with stomach problems, probably brought on my the extreme heat and humidity.

In the end Marino’s bike split was faster than Chris Lieto’s 2006 mark, leaving him with an 8 minute lead over Romain Guillame, who would fade on the run, and a half an hour to the rest of the field. From there it was a matter of consolidating and not over extending himself while the rest of the field imploded with only Hiroyuki Nishiuchi putting up anything like a decent run.

zipp_vanhoenacker Women