Long Redeems Himself in St. George

Sam Long used an attack coming up Snow Canyon to power his way to victory at IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championships, redeeming himself on a course where he expected to contend during 70.3 Worlds last fall but a penalty derailed those chances. Long had moved up to early leader Dylan Gillespie in the opening miles of the bike, then launched his race-winning move at the signature climb of the bike, then still ran a 1:12 half marathon to hold off Trevor Foley and Jackson Laundry.

Pre-race favorite Lionel Sanders looked to also factor into the podium proceedings as the race turned up Snow Canyon, but a dropped chain in this section proved too much of a penalty for him to close. He found himself in a final mile battle with Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez for fourth, and was barely able to hang on.

Gillespie, who led from roughly mile 3 of the bike through to Snow Canyon with Long, wound up finishing 9th.

After the race, Long talked how he modified his race plan on the fly when he saw that he had swam well. “I had a pretty good swim; I’ve really been working on it and saw I was in good position. The racing has changed; you’re used to finding big bike groups and having to wait for the run. I saw where I was and decided ‘it’s time to go.’ The first 20 minutes were just fast and furious. The day played out like dreams. It’s just amazing; it’s been the race, maybe outside of Kona, that I’ve wanted to win forever.”

Foley, in an outstanding performance, talked about how he was forced to approach the day. “That race was just the bike for me. I raced as if there was no run. I biked ridiculously hard. My gearing was so big that it hurt on the uphills but I could hit 55 MPH on the downhills. I got onto the run and knew it was going to be a long 70 minutes. And I had to try to hold off Jackson, Lionel, and Tomas.”

Laundry, exhausted, commented that, “It’s just a war. You’ve got to choose when to burn your matches. Trevor caught me late in the bike and I decided to go with him. I knew that he was a great runner and thought that it’d be a good day if we could battle together. Sam deserves the great win, and Trevor with a breakthrough for second.”

As the Race Unfolded

The race dawned cool, and with water temperatures just below 61 degrees, it would be a wetsuit legal swim for all athletes. It was a huge washing machine of arms and legs to start, with Marc Dubrick immediately going to the front in the opening minute and continued to work on opening a gap. He hit the first turn buoy in 10:19, with approximately a 50 meter lead over the chase pack. He continued to extend the lead on the back half of the swim, and exited the swim in 23:45.

Luis Ortiz led the chase pack, 32 seconds off of Dubrick. Notable names in that group included Brent McMahon, Justin Metzler, and Slowtwitcher Ben Deal. Andre Lopes, Jackson Laundry, Matt Hanson, and Sam Long were together, approximately 1:40 off the lead. Lionel Sanders found himself another 38 seconds back from the Lopes group. Matt Russell and Trevor Foley were notable names much further back, about four minutes from the front.

Dubrick flew through transition, getting onto the bike with a 30 second advantage over Dylan Gillespie, who had managed to out-transition everyone in the field. Within the first couple of miles of the bike, though, Gillespie had rocketed past Dubrick to take the lead. The other big movers were Long and Metzler — gaining nearly a minute on the lead in just five miles. And on the first major climb of the day, Long had ridden all the up to Gillespie — perhaps learning from his penalty at the 70.3 Worlds last fall here, getting away from any potential penalties early in the day.

Approximately a quarter of the way through the bike, Long made his move to try to accelerate away from Gillespie on a downhill. It looked like Gillespie might have run out of gears on the downhill. However, on the flatter and uphill sections, Gillespie was able to close back to a legal distance on Long. Metzler and Laundry had blown apart the main chase pack, finding themselves third and fourth on the road, 40 seconds off the pace. Early leader Dubrick was dropping backwards through the field. Sanders, meanwhile, had started to make a move further up the road, cracking the top 10 for the first time all day and under two minutes from the front, and just 10 seconds from closing up to Hanson and Deal.

Gillespie and Long kept playing leapfrog on the front through the halfway point on the bike; Gillespie’s best chance at a good result on the day would be by riding as hard as he could. These lead trading efforts had paid dividends to those behind, with now a minute gap to Laundry. Metzler had fallen off the pace and was now a solo fourth, 1:51 behind, with Sanders just another 14 seconds behind. The other big mover at this point: Trevor Foley, who had passed by the likes of Hanson and Deal and riding with Dubrick inside the top 10 and under three minutes from the lead.

As the men began their trip through Snow Canyon, Long and Gillespie were still together on the front, trading pulls. Laundry had continued to cede time to the front, 1:42 off the pace. Sanders had passed and dropped Metzler, 2:15 off away. Foley had also blown through the remaining men’s field and sat fifth on the road, 2:35 back; this was the kind of performance that we expected to see from him in Texas. Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez sat sixth, another 40 seconds behind. Metzler, Hanson, Luciano Taccone, and Dubrick rounded out the top 10, all within five minutes of the front.

In Snow Canyon and Long finally broke away from Gillespie; Long was looking over his right shoulder back down the Canyon trying to figure out how much of a gap he had managed to create. Back down the road, Sanders had dropped his chain and needed to stop, with Foley passing him in the process. Long’s effort in Snow Canyon shattered the field, with Foley, Gillespie, and Laundry riding together on the way back to St. George, 2:40 arrears. Sanders’ chain drop had been costly, as he now found himself in fifth, another minute behind the chase trio.

Long entered transition after a 2:02:33 bike split, and with a sub-minute T2, was out running before the next man had finished the bike. Foley, Gillespie, and Laundry all rolled into transition together, with nearly Long nearly half a mile up the road on the run before they’d even got their running shoes on. Sanders, in fifth, was four minutes back. Rodriguez Hernandez held onto sixth, two minutes behind Sanders. Metzler, Taccone, Hanson, and Dubrick completed the top 10, but all were more than a mile on the road behind Long on the run.

On the climb up towards the golf course, it was Foley who was moving fastest of the first three men, cutting Long’s lead to 2:31 and running 17 seconds per mile faster than the man in front. Laundry was solo third, matching Long, and Gillespie was dropping backwards and soon to be passed by a fast moving Sanders. Rodriguez Hernandez was also running extremely well in sixth, and a threat to chase his way into a podium position.

Running back through town, and Long stayed on the gas pedal, holding Foley at a 2:40 gap and Laundry at 3:10. Sanders had indeed made his way to fourth, but was only able to match the pace of those in front, sitting just over 90 seconds behind Laundry and the final podium position. Rodriguez Hernandez had also moved up to fifth, but like others in front, was not making any additional in-roads. Gillespie, Hanson, Dubrick, Metzler, and Deal comprised the remainder of the top 10.

With five miles left to run and it looked like the podium was set. Long’s lead remained over 2:40. It seemed like a battle for second with 30 seconds separating Foley and Laundry. Sanders had settled into fourth, no longer quite matching the pace of the front runners but still running strong. He had a 1:11 lead on Rodriguez Hernandez, and at current paces would hold onto fourth. Further down the field and Hanson had run up to sixth place, a strong enough position to claim a 70.3 Worlds slot.

Long cruised his way to the finish line, claiming victory in St. George in 3:43:05. Foley, running scared of Laundry, ran 1:12:06 to second place. Laundry finished third. Sanders managed to hold off Rodriguez Hernandez for fourth.

Men’s Top 10

1. Sam Long 3:43:05
2. Trevor Foley 3:45:27
3. Jackson Laundry 3:46:11
4. Lionel Sanders 3:48:20
5. Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez 3:48:23
6. Matt Hanson 3:51:17
7. Marc Dubrick 3:51:27
8. Ben Deal 3:55:18
9. Dylan Gillespie 3:55:41
10. Justin Metzler 3:56:47

All Images: Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images for IRONMAN