German Nicolas Mann and British Nikki Bartlett have just won Ironman 70.3 Marbella. The differences in the men’s race were fairly small, while Bartlett won by a large margin.
Mann won the race in a time of 3:56:24, staying 1:39 minute ahead of Dutchman Niek Heldoorn. Spanish Jordi Montraveta Moya completed the podium by finishing third: he did so 2:52 minutes behind Mann.
After the swim, Mann was in a large group that came out of the water a minute after the fastest swimmer, Josh Lewis (22:44). On the bike, however, Lewis was caught up very quickly and a leading group of six emerged with Carlos Oliver Vives, Antony Costes and Arne Leiss in addition to Mann, Lewis and Heldoorn. Behind them Andreas Dreitz was chasing, but he did not manage to make the jump to the front.
For that matter, the other five men in the lead group didn’t manage to stay with Mann either, as in the second half of the bike the German broke away to eventually start the run with a lead of more than a minute and a half. That lead did not change during the half marathon and so Mann ran to a fine victory.
Women’s race: no one touches Bartlett
Nikki Bartlett had some making up to do immediately after the swim; she came out of the water in 11th place and was then a minute and a half behind a leading group of four: Emilie Morier, Justine Guerard, Raquel Rocha and Megan McDonald. Bartlett quickly rode to second position and at the front it was then only Morier who remained in the lead. Halfway through, the Frenchwoman still held a lead of more than a minute over Bartlett – who in turn had shaken off all the other women – but in the kilometers that followed, that situation was completely reversed as Bartlett not only passed Morier, she also left her right behind. Back in T2, Bartlett’s lead had already increased to 1:45 minutes.
During the run, Bartlett saw her lead grow very fast, eventually winning the race in 4:27:18. While Morier dropped off quickly during the run, it was Kaidi Kivioja who ran to second place in a time of 4:34:02. Daniela Kleiser finished third in 4:35:17.
