He has been in the news a lot in recent weeks – perhaps a little unintentionally because of his father Rodolphe von Berg Sr., who accused Sam Laidlow of doping – but now Rudy von Berg has done what he loves best: racing and winning. After an impressive race, he just won Ironman Florida in a stunning finish time of 7:34:41.
It wasn’t easy, because a field of world-class athletes took off in Florida. Already during the swim a nice leading group was formed and when a total of fourteen leading men came out of the water after 3.8 kilometers of swimming, Von Berg was already well placed. On the bike, larger differences logically emerged and a group with initially six men came to ride at the front: Magnus Ditlev, Rudy von Berg, Jesper Svensson, Kacper Stepniak, Matthew Marquardt and Martin Ulloa. This situation remained unchanged for almost the entire 180 kilometers on the bike, except that Ulloa lost a lot of time in the last 30 kilometers and thus had to let the leading group go. For sure the pace on the bike was almost insane high: of the men in the leading group, Ditlev recorded the fastest bike split. He noted a blistering 3:59:03 on the bike.
During the run, a beautiful battle between Ditlev and Von Berg ensued. For more than ten kilometers they ran side by side, while Marquardt followed in third at half a minute. Yet that was the moment Von Berg showed his true class and began to run away from Ditlev. It proved a severe blow to Ditlev, who began to lose more time and positions, while Von Berg was overwhelmingly the strongest and saw his lead increase over everyone else from that moment on.
Von Berg won in a time of 7:34:41. Stepniak finished second in 7:42:03 and Marquardt finished third in 7:44:27.
