Rodolphe von Berg started his day in the same position that he finished in: first. The American athlete just won Ironman Nice in a finish time of 8:24:26 hours. He managed to stay clear of France’s William Mennesson and France’s Arthur Horseau, who took second and third respectively.
Von Berg was already leading after the swim part, and he did so with a huge gap towards the chase group: two minutes. In that chase group of six athletes were – among others – Mennesson and Horseau. Once all athletes were out on the bike course, it didn’t take long before Mennesson, who rode off on his own, caught up with Von Berg.
After approximately 60K, Mennesson was leading, with Von Berg following at about one minute. The group behind them had fallen apart quite a bit in the hills, and therefor the third athlete chasing – on his own – was Horseau (+5:16). While the rest of the field started to struggle massively in the second half of the bike part, Mennesson and Von Berg were still in first and second place respectively. Von Berg had a 1:08-minute deficit to Mennesson once he started the marathon. The next two athletes, which were Horseau and Italy’s Matteo Fontana, racked their bikes more than 16 minutes later.
It took Von Berg about 10K before he had passed Mennesson on the marathon. Behind them, Horseau moved back into third, but with more than 16 minutes to kill after the bike ride, he wasn’t much of a threat.
Mennesson tried to hang onto Von Berg, but couldn’t stay with him for the full marathon. After the half-marathon, Von Berg started to extend his lead until he eventually claimed the win, 3:16 minutes ahead of Mennesson, who finished in second. Horseau ended up in third (+10:39).
