German Ruben Zepuntke has just won Ironman 70.3 Aix-en-Provence. In France, he proved inimitable and ran to a beautiful victory.
The swim was still led by Swiss Fabian Meeusen, who came out of the water after 22:25 minutes. Yet at that point there were no serious differences – at least not at the front of the race – because right behind Meeusen, Noah Servais, Esteban Bringer, Brice Hacquart, Simon Viain and Zepuntke also came out of the water.
On the bike, however, these men did not stay together and that was mainly thanks to Zepuntke, who, as often happens, made the difference with a tremendous bike pace. Already in the first few kilometers he saw his lead grow to a minute and in fact that lead would only grow during the ninety kilometers. Entering T2, Zepuntke had a 5:37 lead over Louis Naeyaert, Federico Scarabino and Viain, who started the half marathon in positions two, three and four.
During that run, Zepuntke lost time for sure, and quite quickly too, but his lead proved large enough that he would not give the victory away. In the end Zepuntke won the race in 3:47:23, while Viain finished second in 3:48:38. Naeyaert finished third in 3:50:28.
The women’s race was won by Marion Legrand (4:21:32). Hanne de Vet (4:24:15) and Julie Iemmolo (4:24:52) finished second and third.
