German Markus Rolli dominated the bike stage and coasted to victory, while Czech Radka Kahlefeldt outdueled Swiss Caroline Steffen in the closing run stage to keep her crown in the Alveo Ironman Davao 70.3 presented by Petron at the Azuela Cove in Davao on Sunday.
Rolli flaunted his superb riding skills and timed 2:00:50 to build a big lead over veteran Craig Alexander then bucked pain in his sore legs in the closing run part to secure the victory in 3:49:29 over the 1.9-kilometer/90-km/21-km race. He also topped the opening swim leg in 23:22 then timed 1:22.19 in the run.
Alexander, a former five-time world champion from Australia, fell short of his rally and settled for second in 3:52:21 while Tim Reed, also from Down Under, placed third in 3:57:18.
“It feels great. The people here are amazing. They were cheering on every meter of the course. It was a great experience. They just pushed me through pain. I suffered big-time in the run,” said Rolli, who joined the pros only in 2017 and won his first 70.3 in Thailand, where he also based his camp in his buildup for the second Mindanao staging of the event organized and conducted by Sunrise Events Inc.
“I wasn’t actually feeling well but I got a big gap when I started the run, around eight minutes, so I just gave my best and brought it to him [Alexander],” added Rolli.
Kahlefeldt and Steffen, meanwhile, slugged it out in the swim and bike stages but the former outlasted the latter in the run event to retain the crown in 4:16:52.
“I’m very happy that I could come back and win again,” said Kahlefeldt. “It was tough and the whole race was hard since I had to fight it out with Steffen. It’s never easy to beat her.”
Steffen, winner of past races in the country, failed to match Kahlefeldt’s strides midway in the run part and finished in 4:19:28.
The Czech timed 26:55 in the swim against Steffen’s 26:58 with the former posting a 2:21:49 clocking in the bike against the latter’s 2:21:48. But Kahlefeldt built a one-minute lead after the 9.6-km mark in the run then doubled it with a 52:39 clocking in the 13.2-km mark against Steffen’s 54:16.
Aussie Kirralee Seidel came in third in 4:28:37 followed by Dimity Lee Duke (4:32:41) and last year’s fourth player Lisa Tyack, also of Australia, (4:39:19).
Seidel kept the leaders in sight with a 27:07 swim start but fell behind after the bike stage where she clocked 2:26:53 and ended with a 1:31:23 effort in the run.
Mauricio Mendez, who rallied to edge Reed in last year’s inaugurals of the event in Davao, suffered a technical problem with his bike and didn’t finish the race.
A fast 14:22 effort in the first 10kms followed by 28:02 and 41:39 clockings in the next 20 km of the bike stage gave Rolli a huge cushion as Alexander and Reed could only churn out times of 15:05-29:38-44:05 and 15:05-29:38-44:05, respectively, in the first 30 kms.
Ahead by almost eight minutes heading to the run part, Rolli slowed down, enabling the five-time world champion Alexander to close the gap at the finish and snatch runner-up honors with times of 25:19 (swim), 2:07.00 (bike) and 1:17:14 (run).
Reed clocked 24:02 in the swim leg but struggled with a 2:08.28 clocking in the bike part before closing out with a 1:21.58 for third in the 13-man men’s pro side of the event which drew over 2,200 triathletes from 38 countries.
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos