Belgian Stenn Goetstouwers has just triumphed at Ironman Emilia-Romagna. In Italy, he pulled off the race after a decisive run.
Coming out of the water in eighth place, Goetstouwers was then 2:42 minutes behind a lead group of six men. On the bike, however, more men came riding from behind, including Goetstouwers, and a lead group of 15 athletes formed. Among them was Dutchman Tristan Olij, who broke away from the lead group on his own before halfway through the bike leg, went on an adventure and was also not seen again before T2.
In T2, the Dutchman had a lead of just under a minute over Polish Milosz Sowinski, Belgian Goetstouwers and Italian Mattia Ceccarelli. Yet these men did not initially get their gap on Olij closed: the Dutchman did not crack, kept his pace constant and managed to stay in the lead for fifteen kilometers.
From then on, however, Olij did start to crack and lost time rapidly om his chasers, eventually dropping to sixth place. Halfway through the run Goetstouwers already took the lead and from that moment on he would not relinquish it.
Goetstouwers won Ironman Emilia-Romagna in a time of 7:42:29. Briton David McNamee was second in 7:43:15 and Finn Henrik Goesch was third in 7:45:08.
