Not Sam Laidlow, not Cameron Wurf nor any of the other favorites, but none other than Frenchman Arthur Horseau won Ironman Lanzarote. After a great race, Horseau had by far the best run and thus decided the race in his favor.
The swim leg was initially still led by big favorite Sam Laidlow, briefly followed by Dutchman Niek Heldoorn. On the bike they came together, but that did not last long. Laidlow opened the throttle during the first kilometers already and then took off solo for a long time.
In the meantime, Heldoorn dropped away a little, but Cameron Wurf, Andreas Dreitz and also Horseau came from behind and rode further and further to the front. Of those three, it was ultimately only Wurf who managed to close the gap to the front; first he passed Heldoorn after only 27 kilometers to be exact, and after more than a hundred kilometers Laidlow was also caught. From that moment on, Wurf managed to increase his lead on the tough course to finally enter T2 with a lead of about three minutes. Laidlow followed in second, while Heldoorn came back another three minutes later in third. Horseau followed in fourth in T2 and was then nine minutes behind.
During the run, Wurf’s engine began to falter and he soon saw Laidlow closing in and eventually taking over the lead. Yet that did not last long either, as Laidlow would drop out not much later and for unclear reasons. That was also the moment that Horseau decided the race: the Frenchman had already run very strongly to the front and had overtaken Heldoorn and Wurf and thus taken over the lead in the race. During the remaining fifteen kilometers he would not relinquish his lead anymore.
Horseau won the race in a time of 8:22:31. Heldoorn was second in 8:24:48 and Wurf third in 8:30:17.
