It’s quite a difficult name, but that’s undoubtedly the least of Casimir Moine and India Lee’s worries: today, they won the first edition of Ironman 70.3 Tours Métropole – Loire Valley.
For Lee, it turned out to be a rather lonely day; during the swim, she was still close behind Emilie Morier, but when both women, accompanied by Britain’s Abigail Bedwell, started the bike first, Lee immediately pulled away. The gap she opened up in the first few kilometers on the bike grew to 5:37 minutes in T2, and at that point, the race was essentially decided already. Lee lost a little of her lead during the half marathon, but her victory could be celebrated for the entire 21.1 kilometers.
Lee won the race in 4:01:36, while Morier finished second in 4:06:03. Justine Mathieux came in third in 4:16:12.
The men’s race was a completely different story, as it took considerably longer for the eventual winner – Moine – to break away solo. During the swim, he was already at the front with his compatriot Cenzino Lebot, and with their swim time of 23:35, Daniel Baekkegard, among others, was put more than half a minute behind. On the bike, the two Frenchmen stayed together and saw their lead grow even bigger. In T2, Nick Thijs, Brecht van Vooren, Baekkegard, Valentin Rouvier, Dylan Magnien, Thomas Davis, and James Teagle followed just over 3:30 minutes behind, making the initial battle for bronze nice and exciting.
During the run, Moine quickly pulled away from Lebot, who eventually cracked. Lebot completely fell apart during the run and would eventually drop to eighth place. Moine won the race in 3:36:14, Magnien finished second in 3:38:25, and Baekkegard third in 3:38:38.
