After having already won Challenge Geraardsbergen earlier this season, the Dutch Diede Diederiks has just delivered another great race; after an exciting battle she won Ironman 70.3 Poznan. Diederiks says she does not yet consider herself a world-class athlete, but now shows for the umpteenth time that she can compete at the highest level.
After the swim, Diederiks still had a lot of work to do, because when she came out of the water after 29:23 minutes, she was not only eighth, but also 2:14 minutes behind. This was not very surprising, as Diederiks is known for her strong bike and run. She showed that once again when after twenty kilometers on the bike Diederiks had already advanced to third place and was only 30 seconds behind the two leaders – Lottie Lucas and Anne Reischmann.
Eventually, Diederiks went on an adventure with Reischmann, but after ninety kilometers the German athlete had created a small gap of 33 seconds on Diederiks. During the run, this gap remained the same for a long time and behind it was no longer exciting, as Lucas was still third but seven minutes behind.
Only after about fifteen kilometers did Diederiks manage to turn her back on Reischmann into a lead. Diederiks also managed to extend her lead a bit, eventually winning the race in 4:10:07. Reischmann eventually finished in second place at 1:26 minute behind. Lucas finished third, 9:01 minute behind.
The men’s race was won by Polish Robert Wilkowiecki: he finished in 3:43:27. Polish Kacper Stepniak (+1:12) and Finish Henrik Goesch (+3:34) finished second and third.
