Lopez Victorious in front of Home Crowd, Matthews Masterclass at Vitoria-Gasteiz

It was not until the 29 kilometer mark of the run that Antonio Benito Lopez hit the front of the race for the first time. Robert Kallin came off of the bike with a nearly 6 minute lead over Kristian Hogenhaug. Lopez trailed by 13 minutes in 5th place. That did not seem to affect the Spaniard, who set off on a mission on the run in front of his home crowd. He moved up into 3rd by 10k, still more than 8 minutes back. By the halfway point, however, his gap was down to 3:00. Lopez soon overtook Hogenhaug, who had passed Kallin, and did not look back. He expanded his lead over the last 10k, would win by nearly 5 minutes, and take the course record.

Through an IRONMAN translator, Lopez said that his main goal was to get his Kona slot. He felt good during the race and it became clear that it was going to be his day. Lopez took time at the end of his interview to shoutout Spanish tennis superstar Carlos Alcaraz, who is playing at Wimbledon today, and the Spanish National Team, who is playing England in the European Championship Final tonight. It is certainly a strong day for Spanish athletics.

The United Kingdom’s Stephanie Clutterbuck used her unmatched swim speed to come out of the water more than 4 minutes over all other competitors. That set up a long and lonely day for Clutterbuck, who would not see another racer until after the 100 kilometer point of the bike. Kat Matthews swam in the chase pack and would be among the group of women to catch Clutterbuck on the bike. Matthews worked with Ruth Astle to break away from the others to reach T2 and get onto the run first. From there, Matthews would not be challenged. She increased her lead all the way to the finish line and went on to win by 8 minutes.

On being told that she smashed the course record, Matthews said, “Oh, cool, course record, yeah, didn’t know, wasn’t aware, great.” On her race, she added, “Honestly, I had a bad swim. I felt really disconnected. I felt like I was having fun on the bike…I thought it was just so fair, so honest, such a great course, and then the run it was a bit of a just get through it day.” Matthews sought redemption after being disqualified at IRONMAN Hamburg in early June and certainly got it. She earned full points for the second time at the 140.6 distance, bolstering her position in the Pro Series standings.

Men’s Race Recap

Former ITU star and Slovakian Olympian Richard Varga led out the swim (45:23), putting 1 minute on the rest of the field. A chase pack of more than a dozen athletes formed behind him. Sam Laidlow, David McNamee, Antonio Benito Lopez, James Teagle, Robert Kallin, and Bradley Weiss, were all in that group. Kristian Hogenhaug was another minute back. Robert Wilkowiecki, Cam Wurf, and Arthur Horseau were gapped even further. Kallin quickly went to the front of the bike and began putting significant time into the rest of the field.

Right before the 70k mark, reigning IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow was handed a drafting penalty. He failed to serve the penalty at the next penalty tent and was subsequently disqualified* (*more thoughts on this in our Quick Takes at the end of the article). Kallin led by almost 6 minutes over Hogenhaug at T2. Kallin did well to protect his lead over Hogenhaug early into the run. At the 10k mark, Hogenhaug was only able to chip into his lead by a minute, but others were charging up to both athletes. By the halfway point of the run, Kallin’s lead was down to a minute over Hogenhaug. McNamee and Lopez were sitting just 3 minutes back. Hogenhaug soon passed Kallin but his time in the lead was short lived. Lopez made the catch at 29k, and extended his lead from there.

He broke the tape in 7:36:38 to set a new course record and put together a 2:37:57 marathon on a day where temperatures reached more than 80 degrees fahrenheit (26 celsius). McNamee was a clear 2nd, finishing almost 5 minutes later. The battle for the remaining places was on after that. Hogenhaug was clinging onto 3rd and the last Kona slot late into the race. Weiss and Wurf passed him after 7:30:00 of racing. Wurf was able to separate from Weiss in the closing stages of the race to round out the podium.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Lopez, Antonio Benito 7:36:38 46:30 4:07:53 2:37:57
2 McNamee, David 7:41:20 46:29 4:08:40 2:42:03
3 Wurf, Cam 7:43:16 50:29 4:03:15 2:44:41
4 Weiss, Bradley 7:43:51 46:37 4:07:55 2:45:11
5 Hogenhaug, Kristian 7:44:36 47:36 3:59:49 2:53:23

Women's Race Recap

Stephanie Clutterbuck exited the water (50:40) with a more than 4 minute lead. Kat Matthews (55:07) led a chase pack of 7 women including Els Visser, Simone Mitchell, Elisabett Curridori, Ruth Astle, Daniela Bleymehl, and Katharina Wolff, out next. Gurutze Frades was back in 11th in 58:27. Clutterbuck rode off the front of the race for more than 100 kilometers, before being caught by Visser, Matthews, Bleymehl, and Astle. Visser was impressively coming off of a 3rd place performance at Challenge Roth just last weekend.

Matthews began attacking around the 110k mark. She was able to break away with Astle heading into T2. Bleymehl and Visser were around one minute back. Clutterbuck faded by another couple of minutes. Nobody else was within 14 minutes of the lead. Matthews immediately went to the front of the run and Astle held onto 2nd place early. Visser was able to catch Astle shortly after 10k and the pair would run together for several kilometers, until Visser was able to pull away. Matthews was never seriously challenged on the run and would win in 8:24:23. Visser claimed 2nd. Astle hung on for 3rd, after having to walk several aid stations in the last 10k. It was encouraging to see Astle finish, after injuries prevented her from beginning her 2024 season until now.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Matthews, Kat 8:24:23 55:07 4:30:07 2:54:40
2 Visser, Els 8:32:29 55:08 4:31:04 3:01:41
3 Astle, Ruth 8:38:07 55:11 4:29:54 3:08:24
4 Bleymehl, Daniela 8:41:12 4:30:41 3:10:30
5 Mitchell, Simone 8:41:39 55:09 4:44:21 2:56:35

Quick Takes

(Not so) Quick Take #1: Let’s talk about drafting!
This isn’t a new issue. We’ve seen stars, like Lionel Sanders, get disqualified at the biggest races in our sport. We saw a blue card (5 minute penalty) get handed out at IRONMAN Cairns. Today, we saw IRONMAN Champion Sam Laidlow receive a drafting penalty. Once the penalty is issued, the athlete has no direct recourse. Laidlow failed to stop at the next penalty tent and that meant he was disqualified. He should know the rules so this is 100% on him. He was, however, reportedly not notified until T2 of his disqualification and he continued onto the run, planning to protest it after the race. The issue here is that he did not serve the penalty during the race. He stayed in the pack he was in, received the disqualification, and the panel that heard his protest after the race affirmed his disqualification.

My main concerns are that 1) penalties are not handed out regularly, 2) the length for drafting penalties effectively end your chances at a podium/pay day, 3) you cannot serve penalties in transition – it has to be at the next penalty tent (although I do hear the argument that if you did the thing you’re accused of doing then you shouldn’t get to stay in your group but then I’d go back to point 2 as you have no chance of ever catching back up once you come to a stop), and 4) communication- Laidlow should have been told of the DQ (maybe he knew the rules?) before T2 so that he could have chosen to save his legs for another race. My understanding is that the length of time to serve a blue card penalty is meant to deter people from drafting. If you were to just receive a 30 second or 1 minute penalty then it would encourage people to draft the entire time. The reward would be greater than the risk.

That logic follows until you add in Race Ranger. For now, referees still have to see the drafting violations – Race Ranger cannot penalize an athlete on its own. Riding into a draft zone does not initiate a penalty on its own but theoretically Race Ranger is collecting that data and there must be a way to see that in real time. If there was a way to find some balance here I think that could be best for everyone. Maybe Race Ranger (or just referees on their own) could trigger smaller penalties that could be taken in transition or at a penalty tent of the athlete’s choosing. That way, if someone is pushing draft zones throughout the ride they would pick up penalty after penalty. Maybe have a certain number of those violations trigger a disqualification. If someone enters into a draft zone one time but is known as a clean racer and does not do it again, maybe they don’t deserve a 5 minute-end your day-kind of penalty. What do you think? I am certainly against drafting but it seems like penalties like this are harsh in a sport that does not allow a lot of athletes to piece together a comfortable living. Laidlow has a PTO contract and still has to validate for Kona. Will he get to race on the big island? Is that what IRONMAN wants?

Quick Take #2: Okay, back to the fun stuff. Is Lopez a serious Kona contender? It feels like IRONMAN racing has turned into an event to see who can hang on the best on the run after a monster bike split. Lopez is a part of an almost dying culture in the sport, where you’re an athlete where your run is your strength and you can use it to secure a late race victory. Kona is the great equalizer (bike/run balance) race where the conditions do allow runners to excel. While it wasn’t humid in Spain today, it did get warm on the run and Lopez was comfortably under 2:40. In his last 10 races, between this year and last year, Lopez has had the fastest run split on 7 occasions, even beating out Belgian superstar Martin Van Riel’s run split in one of those races. In his 3 other races, Lopez had the 2nd fast run split twice and the 3rd fastest run split once. Over his career, he has not always chosen races with the strongest competition. This was probably the strongest field he has faced and we caught a glimpse of what he is capable of. I’d pencil him in as a Kona contender.

Quick Take #3: I’m not even going to ask if Kat Matthews is a Kona contender. My question is if she is the Pro Series favorite. Matthews has now taken full points at 2 full distance races. She is going to need to put together a pair of strong 70.3 performances to stay ahead of someone like Jackie Hering. If Hering wins Lake Placid next weekend she would also have full points at 2 full distance races. She also has 2 strong 70.3 performances banked. Matthews has a PTO contract to honor but plans on racing 70.3 Tallinn. She has an auto qualifier for the 70.3 World Championships at the end of December too. It would be exciting for Year 1 of the Pro Series if the women’s champion is crowned based on who has the better result in the last race of the season. It looks like that’s where we could be heading.

Quick Take #4: I just wanted to give some quick appreciation to Els Visser’s race schedule. She was 3rd at Challenge Roth last weekend and was 2nd today. This was her 10th race of the season. She has 3 wins, 8 podium finishes, and the furthest back she’s been is 5th.

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