Right in her home country, after several disappointments, Daniela Ryf finally has won another race: she was just the strongest at Ironman 70.3 Switzerland. Ryf won the race in 4:04:33, beating Ashleigh Gentle, among others.
It was the also Swiss Alanis Siffert who recorded the fastest swim time (23:23) but by then Ryf was already following in second: she was then 46 seconds behind the leader and was joined by Gentle and also Nina Derron. On the bike, however, only Ryf and Gentle remained: soon the two caught up with Siffert and managed to get rid of Derron, leaving two leaders in the race.
Yet a few kilometers later – very early in the race, after about 20 kilometers on the bike – it became apparent that Gentle too could not keep up with Ryf’s cycling pace. Ryf’s lead increased rapidly from then on and by T2 it was already over six minutes.
The closing half marathon was actually nothing more than a mandatory run, even though Gentle was closing in on Ryf, especially in the first kilometers. However, Ryf’s lead was more than enough to not get into serious trouble anymore.
Ryf won the race in 4:04:33. Gentle followed in second in 4:06:56 and Germany’s Anne Reischmann was third in 4:17:48.
