Last week she announced that she will defend her Ironman World title in Nice this fall and immediately Lucy Charles-Barclay announced that she would race this weekend at the ‘regular’ Ironman Nice. There, it became mainly a lonely day for the top British athlete, who was well in the lead from start to finish and thus especially built confidence.
It’s true that the field of competitors today did not remotely resemble the field that Lucy Charles-Barclay will have to face in a few months at the Ironman World Championships, but it is all the more gratifying to win by such a huge margin. Already after the swim she had a lead of more than six minutes and during the 180 kilometers on the bike, that lead was doubled already.
Charles-Barclay indicated beforehand that she was particularly questionable about her marathon and did not even know whether – after a long-term injury – she would be able to cover 42 kilometers again at a competitive level. Yet that proved no problem today and during the run, too, her lead grew ever so slightly.
Charles-Barclay won the race in 9:03:22. Barbora Besperát finished second in 9:20:01 and Merle Brunnée third in 9:25:21.
