Ditlev, Pierré prevail at Cascais 70.3
Magnus Ditlev of Denmark won by 43 seconds over Aaron Royle of Australia and Marjolaine Pierré of France topped Luisa Baptista of Brazil by 2:42 at Ironman 70.3 Cascais in Portugal.
Ditlev, 8th at the recent Ironman 70.3 World Championship and who was eventually declared the winner after a disputed course cutting charge was overruled at Challenge Budva Montenegro, came ready at Cascais.
Ditlev began the day with a 17th-best 22:53 swim that left him 1:22 behind swim leader Jorgen Gundersen of Norway. Ditlev then charged into the lead with a race-best 2:07:18 bike split that gave him a 59 seconds lead over Casper Stornes of Norway, 1:39 over Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain, 1:42 over Aaron Royle of Australia and 1:43 over Clement Mignon of France.
While Ditlev’s 1:12:13 run split was just 7th best, it was enough to hold off Aaron Royle by 43 seconds, Menno Koolhaas of Netherlands by 54 seconds and Clemente Mignon of France by 1:06 for the victory.
Marjolaine Pierré of France began with an even greater deficit, 2:57 to swim leader Lucy Hall of Great Britain. Pierré stopped the bleeding with a 2nd-best 2:25:55 bike split that left her 2:35 behind Hall and 6 seconds arrears to Lotte Miller of Norway.
Once on the run, Pierré passed all her nearest rivals with a women’s second-best 1:18:50 split that brought her to the line in in 4:17:04 with a 2:42 margin on hard-charging Luisa Baptista of Brazil – who closed with a women's fastest 1:17:48 half marathon – and 3:30 on 3rd place finisher Julie Derron of Switzerland (1:19:23 run split.)
Men’s recap
Gundersen’s race-best 21:31 swim gave him a 3 seconds margin on Christophe of France and Aaron Royle of Australia, 4 seconds on Jonny Brownlee, 8 seconds on Mignon of France, 12 seconds on Casper Stornes of Norway, 1:22 on Ditlev and a disappointing 4:03 on Kona contender Bart Aernouts of Belgium. The chase pack included Christophe de Keyser of Belgium, Brownlee, Royle, Antony Costes of France, Clement Mignon of France, Thomas Davis of Great Britain, Stornes and Menno Koolhaas of the Netherlands.
After 30 kilometers, Ditlev bridged up to the front and joined a leading quintet with Mignon, Brownlee, Stornes and Royle. On his way to a race-best 2:07:18 bike split, Ditlev arrived at T2 alone with a minute lead on Ironman Nice winner Stornes, and 1:40 on Brownlee, Royle and Mignon.
On the first 5k of the run, Stornes cut Ditlev’s advantage to 30 seconds, Brownlee to a minute and Royle and Mignon to 90 seconds.
At 15km, Stornes dropped out of contention, while Brownlee and Mignon closed to 50 seconds back. Within a few more km, Brownlee and Mignon lost steam and fell out of podium spots. Then Royle (1:1:15) and Koolhaas (1:09:46) advanced to second and third at the finish – 43 and 54 seconds behind respectively.
Women’s recap
Lucy Hall of Great Britain (23:28) and Lotte Miller of Norway (23:36) led the swim with a 1:24 margin over Luisa Baptista of Brazil and 2:57 over 8th-fastest Marjolaine Pierré.
Hall rocketed out to a big lead in the first 30km, and after a women’s 2nd-best 2:26:39 split, led at T2 by 2:29, over Kimberley Morrison of Great Britain, who made up gobs of ground with a women’s-best 2:25:43 split. Pierré stayed in striking distance with a 2:25:55 split that put her 2:35 back in third place.
In her fourth straight week of middle-distance racing, Hall began the run with a 2:35 lead but slowly ran out of energy and was joined by Pierre at the front at 12 kilometers. At the point, the big mover was Julie Derron of Switzerland, who started the run 5:30 down in 6th place but was 3rd and one minute down.
After 15km, Pierré was on her way to a second-fastest 1:18:50 run split a 4:17:04 finish time and 1 2:42 margin over Luisa Baptista of Brazil and 3:30 on fast-fading third-place finisher Julie Derron. Lotte Miller of Norway took 4th, 8:22 behind the winner and Lucy Hall finished 5th, 10:24 behind Pierré.
Ironman 70.3 Cascais
Cascais, Portugal
October 24, 2021
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Pro Men
1. Magnus Ditlev (DEN) S 22:53 T1 4:08 B 2:07:18 T2 1:19 R 1:12:13 TOT 3:47:50
2. Aaron Royle (AUS) S 21:34 T1 3:52 B 2:10:36 T2 1:20 R 1:11:45 TOT 3:48:34
3. Menno Koolhaas (NED) S 21:47 T1 3:51 B 2:12:09 T2 1:14 R 1:09:46 TOT 3:48:45
4. Clement Mignon (FRA) S 21:39 T1 3:56 B 2:10:28 T2 1:32 R 1:11:24 TOT 3:48:57
5. Manoel Messias Dos Santos Jr. (BRA) S 22:53 T1 3:48 B 2:11:08 T2 1:31 R 1:10:09 TOT 3:49:28
6. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) S 21:35 T1 3:57 B 2:10:27 T2 1:17 R 1:126 TOT 3:49:31
7. Reinaldo Colucci (BRA) S 22:49 T1 4:01 B 2:11:04 T2 1:20 R 1:11:05 TOT 3:50:17
8. Dylan Magnien (FRA) S 22:46 T1 4:02 B 2:10:58 T2 1:25 R 1:12:00 TOT 3:51:09
9. Jorik Van Egdom (NED) S 22:54 T1 3:54 B 2:11:04 T2 1:22 R 1:12:20 TOT 3:51:33
10. Bart Aernouts (BEL) S 25:34 T1 4:04 B 2:08:23 T2 1:22 R 1:12:38 TOT 3:51:38
Pro Women
1. Marjolaine Pierré (FRA) S 26:26 T1 4:29 B 2:25:55 T2 1:25 R 1:18:50 TOT 4:17:04
2. Luisa Baptista (BRA) S 24:53 T1 4:12 B 2:31:36 T2 1:19 R 1:17:48 TOT 4:19:47
3. Julie Derron (SUI) S 25:12 T1 3:59 B 2:30:33 T2 1:29 R 1:19:23 TOT 4:20:34
4. Lotte Miller (NOR) S 23:36 T1 4:37 B 2:30:59 T2 1:36 R 1:24:41 TOT 4:25:26
5. Lucy Hall (GBR) S 23:28 T1 4:07 B 2:26:39 T2 1:31 R 1:31:44 TOT 4:27:48
6. Alexia Bailly (FRA)S 26:48 T1 4:20 B 2:36 T2 1:29 R 1:25:06 TOT 4:31:08
7. Nina Derron (SUI) S 26:27 T1 4:25 B 2:27:31 T2 1:36 R 1:32:56 TOT 4:32:56
8. Raquel Rocha (POR) S 25:15 T1 4:21 B 2:35:14 T2 1:44 R 1:27:01 TOT 4:33:33
9. Lisa Gerss (GER) S 28:17 T1 4:37 B 2:36:25 T2 1:40 R 1:26:10 TOT 4:37:06
10. Eloise Du Luart (FRA) S 28:12 T1 4:29 B 2:33:06 T2 1:52 R 1:30:15 TOT 4:37:52
