Last week Caroline Pohle impressively won the European Championship Ironman 70.3 in Tallin and today there is huge success once again: by force of arms she just won Ironman 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun. In the men’s race, the win went to a supreme Mika Noodt.
Where Pohle won the IM 70.3 European Championships last week by leading from start to finish, it was almost no different today in Austria. During the swim, a leading group immediately formed, including Lauren Brandon, Lena Meissner and Rebecca Clarke in addition to Pohle, but on the bike Pohle almost immediately left everyone behind. On the tough and hilly course, she gave no one a chance to get close and in T2 her lead had already increased to 2:02 minutes on Laura Madsen, 2:14 minutes on Lena Meissner and 2:24 minutes on Els Visser. Two more minutes behind a group that included Ellie Salthouse, Lisa Norden, Lisa Perterer and Grace Thek followed.
While Pohle remained consistently in the lead, it was Grace Thek who began a nice catch-up race during the run. One by one she picked up the ladies in front of her, eventually moving up to second place. So that did happen behind Pohle, who won the race in 4:17:24. Thek was second in 4:18:58 and Madsen was third in 4:19:23.
In the men’s race, Mika Noodt also quickly took the lead, although it took a little longer than in the women’s race. After the swim he was seventh and looking at a 36-second gap, but on the bike he rode almost immediately to a leading group that included Jan Stratmann, Maximilian Sperl, Magnus Männer, Martin Demuth, Florian Angert and Jelle Geens among others, but after about thirty kilometers Noodt left all those men behind to go on a solo adventure. It turned out to be a good decision, because in T2 his lead was already almost five minutes on Geens and almost six minutes on Stratmann and Jannik Schaufler.
During the run, his victory was no longer in danger anywhere. Noodt won in 3:46:04, while Geens was second in 3:51;09. Gregor Payet was third in 3:51:59.
