Raelert, Van Vlerken in Kraichgau

Andreas Raelert ran down Sebastian Kienle late in the race to win the Challenge Kraichgau. Yvonne Van Vlerken battled Rachel Joyce but at the end had to hold off Julia Wagner to take the women's title at this half distance event.

First man out of the water was Simon Jung in 23:20 but he had Andreas Raelert hot on his heals. Defending champion Normann Stadler and Sebastian Kienle were about 2 minutes down.

Raelert grabbed the wrong bag in transition and lost about 40 seconds and thus the early leaders on the bike were Simon Jung and Horst Reichel. But by the halfway point of the bike Sebastian Kienle, Francois Chabaud, Normann Stadler, Andreas Raelert and Thomas Hellriegel had taken over the lead. Kienle though attacked that group and got a gap and soon after Stadler flatted and without a spare he was out. Only Chabaud was able to stay somewhat close to Kienle and reached the bike-run transition 42 seconds later. Andreas Raelert though now was looking at making up 4:01.

Raelert though was very fast on the run and it didn't take him very long to reel in Chabaud. Kienle though was tougher but by the 18k mark it was over and Raelert stormed towards the win. Kienle finished second almost 2 minutes down and Chabaud hung on to third.

Rachel Joyce led the women out of the water with a small advantage over Belinda Harper.

On the bike though Julia Wagner was soon in the lead and set the pace. A bit further back Yvonne Van Vlerken was flying along and moved to the front in the second half of the bike. With about 10k to go Van Vlerken got a small gap and reached the transition 20 seconds in front of Diana Riesler, 33 ahead of Wagner and 53 in front of Joyce.

Joyce though really ran well and picked off Riesler and shortly after Wagner. Joyce came as close as 35 seconds to Van Vlerken but eventually the Dutch Pro pulled away again Wagner went past Joyce again. Van Vlerken took the win and Wagner finished second.

Challenge Kraichgau
Kraichgau, Germany / June 5, 2011
1.9k swim / 90k bike / 21.1k run

Top men

1. Andreas Raelert (GER) 3:51:05
2. Sebastian Kienle (GER) 3:53:49
3. Francois Chabaud (FRA) 3:54:49
4. Felix Schumann (GER) 4:02:26
5. Thomas Hellriegel (GER) 4:03:28
6. Uwe Widmann (GER) 4:04:12
7. Horst Reichel (GER) 4:06:18
8. Jimmy Johnsen (DEN) 4:07:52
9. Marc Dülsen (GER) 4:08:20
10. Luke Dragstra (CAN) 4:09:59

Top women

1. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 4:26:08
2. Julia Wagner (GER) 4:27:10
3. Rachel Joyce (GBR) 4:27:45
4. Diana Riesler (GER) 4:28:48
5. Yvette Grice (GBR) 4:39:53
6. Natascha Schmitt (GER) 4:40:53
7. Jenny Schulz (GER) 4:42:05
8. Annett Finger (GER) 4:42:59
9. Jana Candrova (CZE) 4:44:28
10. Asa Lundstrom (SWE) 4:45:39