Anyone who still had doubts about Sam Laidlow’s form can push those doubts far away after today: after the Frenchman already won Ironman 70.3 Valencia last month, he was more than supreme today during Ironman Lanzarote. Laidlow led the iconic race from start to finish, won by a wide margin, and simply proved to be ten times too good for all of his competitors.
Any potential doubts about Laidlow’s form could therefore be dismissed, but early in the race, the same quickly applied to the hope for an exciting competition; Laidlow already took the lead during the swim and subsequently turned out to be so strong that nobody could get near him on the bike, and his lead would only grow – and fast, too. Laidlow swam 46:25 minutes. Niek Heldoorn and Dylan Magnien—who both would later drop out—followed in second and third and were a minute behind, while Patrick Lange came out of the water in fourth, conceding 1:07 minutes to Laidlow.
But that was the end of any aspirations those men might have had; Laidlow shifted up a gear and built a lead of nearly four minutes in just the first 25 kilometers of the grueling bike course. Behind him, it was fellow Frenchman Damien le Mesnager who began making a move and – as he had often shown recently during Challenge Family races – proved to be iron-strong on the bike, but even he could not match the almost otherworldly level of Laidlow. Once back in T2, the gap between the two compatriots was already over ten minutes, while a third Frenchman – Leon Chevalier – returned in third place, more than fifteen minutes behind.
The run became a long, tough, but undoubtedly beautiful victory lap for Laidlow. Apparently, he had not yet fired all his shots, as he managed to squeeze out a 2:44:14 on this difficult run course. This brought his finishing time to 8:03:40, meaning he not only won the race but did so in an incredibly comfortable fashion.
During the marathon, Lange made a big impression, because with a time of 2:33:43, he was not only much faster than Laidlow, but he also surged ahead to a second-place finish: he crossed the line with a time of 8:12:29. Spaniard Jordi Montraveta Moya finished third in 8:16:16.
