Böcherer, Philipp take Heilbronn
Andi Böcherer and Laura Philipp defended their 2015 titles with dominating bike splits at Challenge Heilbronn. Due to heavy rains that caused strong currents, the swim portion was replaced by a 5k run, thus making the race a duathlon.
Men
Andi Böcherer used a 2nd-best 14:20 split for the opening 5k run, a by-far race-fastest 2:14:42 bike split and a 7th-best 1:17:15 run to finish in 3:48:39, with an 8:08 margin of victory over Maurice Clavel and 8:18 over Horst Reichel to make a 1-2-3 sweep for the German men at Challenge Heilbronn.
Böcherer’s bike split was 7:32 better than the next-best effort by Andreas Dreitz, who faded to 11th with a discouraging 1:25:39 run. Clavel’s 3rd-best 2:25:35 bike split – 10:53 slower than Böcherer – combined with his 3rd-fastest 1:16:15 run was good enough to take 2nd, 10 seconds ahead of fast closing Horst Reichel, who posted the day’s fastest run (1:14:19).
The wins adds luster to Böcherer’s 2016 season, which includes a win at Challenge Fuerteventura in April.
Women
Coming off wins at Ironman 70.3 Mallorca and Ironman 70.3 St. Pölten, Laura Philipp entered Challenge Heilbronn on a hot streak and as defending champion.
A tied-for-3rd-best 16:07 split for the opening 5-kilometer run left Philipp 20 seconds back of run leader Julia Viellehner and 24 seconds ahead of serious rival Julia Ertmer, and more than a minute ahead of top contenders Lena Berlinger and Barbara Scherrer.
After her sizzling fast 2:37:40 bike split – 5:25 better than the next-best effort of Lena Berlinger, 5:28 better than the 3rd-best split of Anne Falk, 6:53 better than Viellehner, and 8:37 better than Ertmer – Philipp could cruise with a women’s 2nd-fastest 1:22:21 run to finish in 4:18:46. This gave her a 4:28 margin of victory over Viellehner (women's-best 1:20:07 run) and 12:23 over 3rd-place finisher Berlinger (1:27:49 run).
Challenge Heilbronn
Heilbronn, Germany
June 19, 2016
R 5k / B 90k / R 21k
Results
Men
1. Andi Böcherer (GER) 3:48:39
2. Maurice Clavel (GER) 3:56:47
3. Horst Reichel (GER) 3:56:57
4. Marc Dülsen (GER) 3:59:33
5. Dominik Sowieja (GER) 3:59:48
Women
1. Laura Philipp (GER) 4:18:46
2. Julia Viellehner (GER) 4:23:14
3. Lena Berlinger (GER) 4:31:09
4. Julia Ertmer (GER) 4:35:41
5. Barbara Scherrer (SUI) 4:37:01
