Noting a time of 3:41:05 hours, France’s Pierre le Corre ran across the finish as the winner of Ironman 70.3 Les Sables. He shared the podium with France’s Yvan Jarrige (+5:12) and Belgium’s Sybren Baelde (+5:29), who took second and third respectively. In the women’s race, the victory was claimed by Italy’s Marta Bernardi in 4:12:24. France’s Alexia Bailly finished in second place (+1:07) and France’s Charlene Clavel (+3:25) took third.
Men’s race
Le Corre knew his position straight from the start, because after the 1900-meter swim the Frenchman was first out of the water. In his feet, Belgium’s Christophe de Keyser tagged along. The big chase group of nine men followed at 1:20 minute. Le Corre and De Keyser continued to lead the bike part together, while they kept the gap towards the chase group nearly the same as after the swim. Going into T2, the two enjoyed a 1:24-minute buffer to the group of Jarrige and Baelde.
Once Le Corre was out on the run course, he left De Keyser behind. Halfway through the run, Jarrige had run to second place, and Baelde – running in fourth place – started to form a threat to De Keyser too. Le Corre was off on his own, leading by more than three minutes. In the backhalf of the half-marathon, Le Corre extended that lead to over five minutes, as he claimed the victory. Jarrige had maintained his second place and Baelde had moved up to third.
Women’s race
Being 3:08 minutes down to the fastest swimmer of the day – the Dutch Lotte Wilms – Bernardi had work to do after the first discipline. On the bike, the Italian joined a little group with among others Clavel and Bailly. Towards the end of the bike part, the group of five eventually managed to catch up with Wilms.
During the run, Clavel and Bailly were off to a fast start, while Bernardi slowly but steadily moved forward. Halfway through the run, she had fun to first place, while Bailly and Clavel settled in a second and third place respectively. That didn’t change until the red carpet came into sight. Bernardi claimed the victory, Bailly brought home silver and Clavel earned bronze.
