Leading the race from start to finish: that’s what Ashleigh Gentle did today at Ironman 70.3 Andorra. The Australian athlete was so strong that she ended up winning by a hurge margin.
Right after the swim, Gentle already had a 36-second lead over Emma Pallant-Browne and over a minute and a half over Spain’s Laura Gómez Ramon. Six ladies started in the race, but none of the five other women would see Gentle again during the day.
On the bike, Gentle managed to slowly but surely build her lead – in fact, at every timing point her lead had increased and once back in T2 it had increased to 6:37 minutes on Pallant-Browne. Gómez Ramon was still third at that point, but more than 15 minutes behind the race leader.
Gentle’s lead was no longer in jeopardy during the run and she managed to stay fully in control. Gentle won the race in 4:59:32, 6:34 minutes ahead of Pallant-Browne, who finished second in 5:06:06. Germany’s Daniela Kleiser finished third in 5:15:20.
