Imogen Simmonds can add a nice victory to her record: the Swiss athlete just won Ironman 70.3 Aix-en-Provence. During the bike ride Simmonds made the first difference, but also during the run she actually didn’t have to worry about handing over the victory. Simmonds won the race after 4:22:05.
The race started well right away for Simmonds, who came out of the water after 25:34 minutes at the feet of Britain’s Fenella Langridge, making her one of the fastest two ladies. On the bike, Simmonds quickly rode away from Langridge and after thirty kilometers she already had a 1:25 minute lead.
While Langridge was rapidly losing time and positions, Simmonds meanwhile saw Kimberley Morrison in particular advancing to the front, but she did not approach closer than half a minute. When Simmonds hung back her bike in T2, to get ready for the half marathon, she still had a 33-second lead over Morrison.
From that moment on, Simmonds understood; the pace had to increase a bit to secure victory and so she managed to extend her lead to more than two minutes in the first few kilometers. After that, her lead only grew, while behind her the battle for the remaining medals raged on.
Simmonds eventually won the race after 4:22:55. The silver and bronze were eventually sprinted for, as Chloe Lane (AUS) and Lena Berlinger (DUI) ran side by side with a hundred meters to go. Lane sprinted the fastest and won the silver in a finishing time of 4:27:32. Berlinger crossed the line immediately after and took the bronze.
Men’s race
In the men’s race, the win was for Frenchman Arthur Horseau, who stayed ahead of Christophe de Keyser (BEL) and Maurice Clavel (DUI). After the swim, Horseau was still 2:43 minutes behind, coming out of the water in ninth place. On the bike, he quickly started to make up time, but it wasn’t until about 65 kilometers into the race that he actually found himself in the lead. Not solo by the way, because even when Horseau came back in T2, he still had his compatriots Thibault-Lopez and Jacobi in his wheel. During the run, however, that changed; he almost immediately made a gap and so he could eventually run to victory. Horseau won the race in a time of 3:55:06. Behind Horseau, positions changed during the run and De Keyser (+1:12 minute) and Clavel (+3:51) became second and third.
